Gym Session Pool Edamame Salad Grocery -- The Thread That Connects Every Version of Me

Week 323. Spring 2022. I am 39 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like fresh herbs and possibility and this is my life. This is the life I built.

The clinic was busy this week — spring puppies and summer emergencies and the constant, comforting cycle of animals who need care and humans who love them enough to bring them in.

Mason is 11 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.

Lily is 9 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made garden salad with vinaigrette this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

This is the salad I keep coming back to — the one that fits into a Tuesday without asking anything of me, the one that tastes like the garden smells in April, the one that Mason will eat without negotiating and Lily will eat if I put the dressing on the side. It isn’t dramatic. It doesn’t need to be. After a week of spring puppies and the ordinary, sustaining rhythm of work I love, I just wanted something clean and bright and made with my own hands — something that tasted exactly like this particular spring, in this particular life I built.

Garden Salad with Vinaigrette

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 15 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 6 cups mixed salad greens (romaine, spinach, or spring mix)
• 1 cup shelled edamame, thawed if frozen
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1/4 red onion, very thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup shredded carrots
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil, torn
• For the vinaigrette:
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Make the vinaigrette. In a small jar or bowl, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, minced garlic, honey, salt, and pepper until fully emulsified. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Set aside.
2. Prep the vegetables. Rinse and dry the salad greens thoroughly. Halve the cherry tomatoes, slice the cucumber, and slice the red onion as thinly as possible.
3. Assemble the salad. Add the greens to a large bowl. Top with edamame, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and shredded carrots. Scatter the fresh parsley and basil over the top.
4. Dress and serve. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad just before serving and toss gently to coat. Serve immediately, with extra dressing on the side if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 165 | Protein: 7g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 11g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 180mg