By Mid-June. The world reopens cautiously and the cooking adapts. Not less cooking (the Fremont kitchen is still the primary food source) but different cooking — the expansive, summer-oriented cooking that pandemic winter prevented. Cold noodles return: naengmyeon, kongguksu, bibim-guksu. Patbingsu returns. The summer Korean dishes that I love most are back, and their return feels like recovery — not from the virus (which is still here, still circulating) but from the confinement, the limitation, the winter-in-summer that lockdown imposed.
James and I began talking concretely about the future this week. Not hypotheticals. Specifics. Marriage: yes, we want to marry. Timeline: soon, maybe this year or next. Children: yes, eventually. Career changes: I mentioned Banchan Labs (the Korean meal kit idea that has been germinating) and James did not blink. He said, "Tell me more." The telling was the beginning of the business, the first articulation of the vision to the person who would become my co-founder, and the articulation was Korean food meets subscription service meets the identity I built and want to share.
The birth mother search is still paused — the Korean agencies operating at reduced capacity. But the world is reopening and the agencies will reopen and the search will resume and the waiting will end, eventually, in a match or a silence, and either way the life continues, the cooking continues, the love continues.
Saturday: Bellevue (in person, second time since lockdown). Karen made her summer corn salad. I brought naengmyeon. Two summer dishes, two cultures, the table back, the family back, the food back. Karen looked at the table — the full Saturday table, populated again — and said, "I missed this." We all missed this. The table. The food. The together. The pandemic took the together away. The summer is giving it back, cautiously, gratefully, one Saturday at a time.
That Saturday in Bellevue — the full table, Karen’s corn salad, the naengmyeon I carried over, everyone finally back in the same room — reminded me that summer food is really just reunion food wearing a different name. When I think about what to bring to a table like that again, something grilled and garden-bright keeps coming to mind: a salad that takes everything the season offers and asks very little in return. This Grilled Vegetable Salad with Basil Dressing is exactly that kind of dish — the one you bring when the people you’ve missed are finally in front of you and the food should feel like the occasion.
Grilled Vegetable Salad with Basil Dressing
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 medium zucchini, sliced lengthwise into 1/4-inch planks
- 1 medium yellow squash, sliced lengthwise into 1/4-inch planks
- 1 red bell pepper, quartered and seeded
- 1 orange bell pepper, quartered and seeded
- 1 small red onion, sliced into 1/2-inch rings
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 small garlic clove
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 ounces crumbled feta cheese (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the grill. Preheat an outdoor grill or grill pan to medium-high heat. Brush the grates lightly with oil.
- Prepare the vegetables. Arrange zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, and red onion on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Toss to coat evenly.
- Grill the vegetables. Working in batches if needed, grill the vegetables 3—4 minutes per side until tender and grill marks appear. Grill cherry tomatoes in a grill basket or on skewers for 2—3 minutes, just until they begin to blister. Transfer everything to a cutting board.
- Make the basil dressing. Combine basil leaves, red wine vinegar, garlic, honey, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon black pepper in a blender or small food processor. Blend until roughly combined. With the motor running, drizzle in 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil until the dressing is smooth and bright green.
- Slice and assemble. Cut the grilled peppers and squash into bite-sized pieces. Arrange all grilled vegetables on a large serving platter. Drizzle generously with basil dressing.
- Finish and serve. Scatter crumbled feta over the top if using. Serve warm or at room temperature — this salad holds beautifully for up to an hour before serving.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 175 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 11g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 310mg