By Mid-summer and the writing is progressing — three chapters drafted, the third about the Grand Concourse itself, the building, the neighborhood, the vanished Jewish Bronx of the 1960s. The chapter required research — not the academic kind but the emotional kind: I called Miriam in Tel Aviv and we talked for two hours about the apartment, about the smells and the sounds, about the neighbor who played clarinet on Saturday nights, about the bakery on the corner that sold challah that was not as good as Sylvia's (nothing was as good as Sylvia's) but that filled the stairwell with a yeast smell that meant Friday. The memories are shared but different — Miriam is three years younger and her Bronx is a slightly different Bronx, seen from a slightly different height and a slightly different angle, and the slightly-different is the richness, the thing that makes the chapter three-dimensional instead of flat.
I made a cold beet soup — the summer borscht, Sylvia's recipe, chilled and served with sour cream and dill. The borscht is the Bronx in a bowl: immigrant food, survival food, the food of women who had beets and onions and the determination to make something beautiful from them. The borscht is purple-red, the color of the stained glass in the synagogue on the Grand Concourse, the color of the garnet ring Sylvia wore on her right hand, the color of a memory that is sixty years old and still vivid, still present, still edible.
Not every meal during these writing weeks has been borscht — some evenings I want something lighter, something that doesn’t ask as much of me as Sylvia’s recipes do. This salad has become that thing: the dish I make when the chapter is done and I just want to sit with it quietly. It is the kind of recipe that belongs to no single person and yet feels like it belongs to everyone who has ever set a table for the people they love, and after two hours on the phone with Miriam, that felt exactly right.
Our Family’s Favorite Salad
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 15 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 6 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 1/3 cup pitted Kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon honey
- 1 small garlic clove, finely minced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Make the dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, and minced garlic until well combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Prepare the vegetables. Wash and dry the romaine lettuce thoroughly, then chop into bite-sized pieces. Halve the cherry tomatoes, slice the cucumber and red onion, and shred the carrots if not pre-shredded.
- Assemble the salad. In a large salad bowl, combine the romaine, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, carrots, and olives. Toss gently to distribute everything evenly.
- Dress and finish. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Scatter the crumbled feta over the top. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, or vinegar as needed.
- Serve immediately. This salad is best eaten right after dressing. If making ahead, keep the dressing separate and combine just before serving.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 165 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 9g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 340mg