Salad Recipes To Be Excited About -- The Food That Connects Every Version of Me

Week 314. 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.

Brett came Wednesday. We sat on the porch and talked about nothing, and the nothing was perfect, the way nothing between siblings is always perfect — full of history, empty of agenda, the purest form of company.

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 lemon pasta 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.

That lemon pasta I made this week — simple, bright, smelling like spring through every room of the Bench house — reminded me that the best food doesn’t need to be complicated to feel like something. It just needs to be made with intention. These salad recipes carry that same energy: fresh, alive, worth getting genuinely excited about, the kind of thing you put on the table and everyone leans in a little closer.

Salad Recipes To Be Excited About

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

Ingredients

• 5 oz mixed greens or arugula
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels (raw or lightly charred)
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts or sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup fresh basil or mint leaves, torn
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Make the dressing. In a small jar or bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, and Dijon mustard until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
2. Prep the vegetables. Halve the cherry tomatoes, slice the cucumber and red onion, and strip or shave the corn from the cob if using fresh ears. Pat greens dry if they are damp.
3. Assemble the salad. Add the mixed greens to a large serving bowl. Layer the tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and corn over the top.
4. Add the finishing touches. Scatter the crumbled feta, toasted pine nuts, and torn fresh herbs across the salad.
5. Dress and toss. Drizzle the lemon dressing over the salad just before serving. Toss gently to coat everything evenly without bruising the greens.
6. Serve immediately. Divide among plates and serve right away while the greens are crisp and the dressing is fresh.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 210 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 14g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 220mg