Savory Greek Yogurt Salad

Sometimes I wonder when I’m gonna get my actual act together and cook dinner on a weeknight like a real live adult. I start off the week with the best of intentions. There’s always meat in the freezer that could be thawed. There’s typically no shortage of vegetables in the crisper due to my weekly market run. I don’t have single girl syndrome to fall back on, I’m pretty sure my boyfriend of many years wouldn’t complain if my cooking-for-two was together enough to extend past Saturday and Sunday nights.

But then I get home at 7pm and I’m all like, “yea this single fried egg with hot sauce is a perfectly acceptable meal.” This brings me to the savory greek yogurt salad that has become a staple in my weeknight meal rotation. I’m not going to pretend that other grownups would consider this a full fledged main entree, but for me on a Tuesday night, it does the trick. 

It’s tangy and savory and has protein, there’s salty feta and an herby cucumber tomato salad and lately I’ve taken to adding lots of toasty sesame seeds and for the tiniest sweet touch, some golden raisins. I feel like it’s a lot more well rounded than my standard egg for dinner. I will admit it’s a very summery salad --- cool, crisp and full of summer fare. I’ve had this salad in my back pocket for awhile now, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for all the tomatoes to disappear all at once! But since the market had no shortage this past weekend, I have no problem telling to you make this immediately, before it’s too late!

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Savory Greek Yogurt Salad

Ingredients:

½ cup chopped tomatoes

½ cup chopped cucumber

1 teaspoon dill, finely minced

1 teaspoon parsley, finely minced

1 teaspoon mint, finely minced

1 teaspoon shallot, finely minced

juice of ½ lemon

tablespoon or so of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

scant ¼ cup crumbled feta

1 cup greek yogurt

Optional, not pictured:

sprinkling of sesame seeds (or sunflower or pepitas...or all)

golden raisins

Directions:

In a bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, shallot, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Put yogurt into serving bowl, spoon salad over top, dress with a touch more olive oil and fresh ground pepper, feta, and any other optional toppings if desired.

Serves 1

Herby Potato Salad

What I did not inherit from my mother:

her green thumb

What I did:

her very low tolerance for mayonnaise

My mother’s potato salad has taken on varying forms over the years, but rarely did they include mayonnaise in the description. She’s also a woman whose many recipes that she is “known” for aren’t exactly written down. She throws things in and tastes her way through her summer classics like her tabbouleh salad, her bean salad, corn & peppers, and blackberry sauce.

Her potato salad is no different and this July 4th’s variation was simply every herb she had growing in the garden and some lemon juice and oil. The other trick she had up her sleeve was this: I noticed that the potatoes were cooking on the stove for what seemed like an awfully long time. I thought she had forgotten about them but after I reminded her about them, she rather lackadaisically (IMO) got off the couch and ran them under cold water. She then chopped them up carefully and folded them into the other ingredients carefully, tasted her way through it carefully, and then threw it into the fridge to meld overnight for the party the next day. From my point of view, forgetting about the potatoes seemed now very, very on purpose.

By any other standards, she for sure overcooked her potatoes, but for the sake of the recipe, I fully believe she gets away with the lack of mayo because of this. The potatoes' mushy texture creates a creaminess you would not have otherwise. You just have to be careful with mixing it together so you don’t end up with mashed potatoes. 

She’s pretty genius, my mother...which I hope I inherited from her too…

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Herby Potato Salad

Ingredients:

2 pounds yukon gold potatoes

2 garlic scapes, sliced small

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped dill

juice of one lemon

¼ cup olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large pot, cover the potatoes with cold water and over high heat bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, and cook potatoes until very soft when pierced with a fork. Drain the potatoes and rinse under cold running water for a few minutes. Set aside.

Throw all your chopped herbs together in a large bowl. Cut the potatoes into 1 inch chunks and while they’re still a touch warm on the inside, toss them together very gently with the herbs, lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning. Put in fridge to chill for a few hours or overnight. Serve cold.

Like most picnic salads, potato salad is better the next day. And according to my cousin Evelyn, tossing it while warm allows for the flavors to really integrate into the potato chunks and because Evelyn’s potato salad is hella awesome, I have to believe her.

Serve 6 to 8

First of Summer Salad with Herby Manchego Dressing

The radicchio I picked up three weeks ago, and by some miracle it looked just as perfect three weeks old as it did when first I gaped over it at the farmer’s market. The manchego I got two weeks ago, when I was visiting my mother and had lofty visions of using it with strawberries in some way. The herbs were leftover, as bunches of herbs usually are, from a different salad to debut someday soon. The first of the season corn and tomatoes found their way into my bag for less mysterious reasons --- I just could not leave the farmers’ market without them, obviously.

This was a made-on-a-whim salad, a caprice salad, if you will (I just learned that word and had to use it). All its components were gathered at separate times. Nothing about this salad was planned. It actually came about because some plans fell through. And in a moment of fierce Saturday night laze we decided to order a pizza.

As a person who grew up with a salad on the side for dinner every night, I naturally wanted to balance the pizza with a big bowl of veggies. I peeked into the fridge and suddenly all these random purchases fortuitously came together in a brief wave of brilliance.

It came about much in the way a Kitchen Sink Salad comes together. You look in the fridge and go “what of these things need to get used up now, fast.” Kitchen sink salads are pretty miraculous because in a sense they shouldn’t work at all. You cross your fingers and hope it works.

But this salad, this is no Kitchen Sink Salad. It’s too composed and perfectly compatible. I firmly believe that this salad was meant to be. That I had bought all these ingredients knowing that one day weeks later I would look in the fridge and be their matchmaker.

The sweet juicy tomatoes and fresh raw corn are the perfect foil to the bitter nip of radicchio. The manchego dressing delivers a rich needed punch to a salad so virtuous. The herbs keep things seeming summer light. And as always, sunflower seeds for crunch. I feel like this would make a delightful panzanella if you’re into that kinda thing.  

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First of Summer Salad with Herby Manchego Dressing

Ingredients:

Dressing:

1 garlic scape, sliced small

1 tablespoon finely chopped dill

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

½ shallot, finely minced

¼ cup shredded manchego cheese

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

¼ cup red wine vinegar

½ cup olive oil

Salad:

½ head romaine, cut in ½ inch pieces

¼ head radicchio, shredded thinly

1 cup sliced baby tomatoes

1 raw ear of corn, kernels shorn from cob

½ cup roasted sunflower seeds

Directions:

Place all dressing ingredients in a small mason jar or bowl. If using jar, put top on jar and shake vigorously to incorporate ingredients. If using bowl, whisk thoroughly until all ingredients combine. Set aside.

To assemble salad place all ingredients in a large bowl. Pour amount of dressing to your liking over top and then toss very gently to coat.

Note: You will most likely have dressing left over. It will keep in fridge in an airtight container for at least a week.

Serves 4 to 6 as a side or starter.

Very Green Salad

Back in the dead of winter, definitely in the middle of a snowstorm, I was desperate for a few things --- inspiration, hope, and maybe some fresh greens wouldn’t hurt. After being a really diligent seasonal eater, I had reached a point where ragged and frostbitten vegetables had gotten the best of me. I remember it very specifically (Feb 21st) because I had clocked quite possibly the worst week in work history ever and even had to work on the weekend because of it. I left my office that Saturday afternoon feeling defeated and weary and a little annoyed that because of both the snowstorm and it being late in the day, I had most likely missed my weekly farmer’s market run.  (Hence the need for inspiration and hope.)

Feeling resentful I headed downtown anyways to see if maybe, just maybe, I could still catch a few stands. There was one stand that particularly stood out amongst the few remaining. It was because through its clear plastic sheath the shock of green was blatant against the white blanket of snow that had coated the square. It was too springy and green and welcoming to not step in and admire for just a moment. I lost my steely seasonal resolve in about 30 seconds.

I remember thinking --- I’m sure these little leaves are grown inside and are not truly seasonal but they are everything to me right now. The little flower that was tucked into the top of each box was the bright spot in the eye of the storm and it made the whole day, week, world okay. It doesn’t take too much to make me happy, obviously. But seriously, at that moment it was just the ticket. 

I went home and made the greenest thing I could possibly manage because I needed it to not be cold and snowing and winter and the worst week ever. And somehow this salad helped me to pretend that, yes, maybe it was actually okay, and don’t worry spring is just around the corner, the days are getting lighter, and soon the flowers will bloom and it will all be fine.

This salad has been on repeat in my lunchbox/random dinner/midnight snack rotation for weeks now. But its true season has only just appeared. The baby lettuces, crispy romaines, and soft spinach leaves are being tucked into pillowy beds in every market stand these days. It’s perfect for a late spring salad, but obviously served me well through the dreary winter weather we only just left.

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Very Green Salad

Ingredients:

1 head romaine, cut into 1-inch pieces (or 8 ounces baby greens)

½ bunch lacinato kale, shredded

½ cup sunflower seeds

½ cup raw or roasted pepitas

1 cup golden raisins

1 avocado, sliced or cut up into 1-inch chunks

¼ cup shredded parmesan

juice of one lemon

good drizzle of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl until well combined.

Add the greens and toppings to a large bowl and pour dressing over. Toss gently to coat in dressing.

Serves 4 to 6

Spinach Salad with Grapes & Olives

So this one time I made this chicken and then had a ridiculous amount of grapes and olives left over. After the chicken was long gone, I still had to come up with some sort of lunch for work, you know, all adult-like. I stole some baby spinach from the boyfriend and a salad was born. Paired it with some hard boiled eggs for the protein factor and voila! Lunch! I wish it was always that easy.

We’ve got punchy, salty, fermenty olives, sweet black grapes, spicy pepperoncinis, more salty but creamy feta, crunchy toasted sunflower seeds, and a hefty squeeze of puckery lemon.

You couldn’t have more flavors and textures going on at once, and it is damn pleasing.

Being both a supertaster and a recovering sectional eater, I never would have thought that a salad such as this would ever grace my plate.

Supertaster? Huh? Yea, it totally exists and helped to explain much of my life prior to learning about it. Over the years, I’ve been able to train my palate to be more accepting of overpowering flavors --- anything fermented, vinegar, red onion, any and all things anise flavored, bitter, sour, sweet, salty --- everything is just more intense. I’m better with textures than I used to be, but I didn’t eat avocado for the better part of two decades because I couldn’t get over the weird butteriness of it. And until I was about 21, nothing . could . touch . I was a big fan of things “on the side.”

While I am still able to find that ONE piece of stray arugula that snuck it’s way into my salad bar romaine, LOATHE, I’ve gotten better! I could drink my homemade vinegar based dressings, I pickled red onions this summer, and I’ve come a long way in the mixing and matching of meals. You can look for no further proof than this salad.

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Spinach Salad with Grapes & Olives

Ingredients:

8 ounces spinach

1 cup mixed pitted olives, halved

1 cup red or black seedless grapes, halved

¼ cup crumbled feta

¼ cup sunflower seeds

2 to 3 pepperoncini peppers, sliced

juice of half a lemon

good drizzle of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Assemble spinach, olives, grapes, feta, sunflower seeds, and pepperoncinis in a large serving bowl.

Squeeze the half of the lemon over the top of the salad (or like, be responsible, and do this in separate bowl to avoid rogue seeds), give a good drizzle of olive oil over top, and then do salt and pepper to taste. Go light on the salt at first due to the feta and olives, don’t want it to get too salty.

Toss all ingredients until well combined.

Serves 6 as a starter or side