Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad with Greek Yogurt Poppy Seed Dressing

Week 488, and the tomatoes ripening, the corn arriving, the garden in full production, the heat in the kitchen. I am 68 years old and the days have a rhythm now — the morning writing, the afternoon visits to Cedarhurst, the evening cooking, the weekly blog post — and the rhythm is the structure, and the structure is the sanity, and the sanity is required because the rest of it, the losing and the loving and the carrying, requires a sane woman at the helm, and I am sane, mostly, except when I cry in the car in the Cedarhurst parking lot, which is not insanity but its opposite: the specific, targeted release of emotion in a contained space, which is the most rational thing I do all week.

Approaching 500 weeks; nine years of blogging; serial memoir reflection. These are the facts of the week, the data points, the things I would put in a report if I were writing a report, which I am not — I am writing a life, and the life includes the facts but is not limited to them, because the life also includes the way the kitchen smells at six in the morning when the coffee is brewing and the challah is rising and the house is quiet and the quiet is both the grief and the peace, simultaneously, and the simultaneous is the condition, the permanent condition of a woman who is 68 and alone and not alone, who is a grandmother and a wife and a writer and a cook and a caregiver and all of these things at once, always at once, braided together like the challah.

I made chicken soup this week — because it was what the week needed, because the week always needs something and the something is always food, and the food is always the answer, and the answer is always the kitchen, and the kitchen is always mine, and the mine-ness of the kitchen is the one thing that has not changed in sixty-seven years of living, from Sylvia's kitchen on the Grand Concourse to this kitchen in Oceanside where I stand every morning and every evening and many of the hours in between, making the food that is the chain, that is the love, that is the thing I do when I don't know what else to do, which is always, and especially now.

I brought food to Marvin at the usual time. The visit was what visits are now — quiet, steady, the feeding by hand when necessary, the reading aloud always, the holding of the hand that may or may not know it is being held but that is warm and alive and present, which is the definition of love in this particular year: warm and alive and present. He ate what I brought. He received what I gave. The receiving is the relationship. The receiving is the vow. In sickness and in health, in recognition and in forgetting, in the recliner and in the kitchen, the receiving is the marriage, and the marriage continues, one container at a time, one visit at a time, one day at a time, at two o'clock, every day, because the chain does not break.

The chicken soup was for Marvin — the warmth of it, the familiarity, the love in a container — but the garden was for me, and the garden this week was insisting, loudly, in the way only a midsummer garden can: the strawberries still coming, the spinach bolting toward its end, the avocados on the counter going soft and perfect. So alongside the soup I made this salad, cool and bright and unhurried, with a Greek yogurt poppy seed dressing that takes almost no time and tastes like something you’d take more trouble over, which is the kind of cooking I need right now: honest, quick, good.

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

Ingredients

5 oz fresh baby spinach
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 large ripe avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced
1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
2 oz crumbled feta cheese (optional)
For the Greek Yogurt Poppy Seed Dressing:
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1–2 tablespoons water, to thin as needed

Instructions

Make the dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the Greek yogurt, apple cider vinegar, honey, and olive oil until smooth. Stir in the poppy seeds, salt, and pepper. Add water one tablespoon at a time until the dressing reaches a pourable consistency. Taste and adjust sweetness or acidity as desired.
Toast the almonds. Place sliced almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir frequently for 3–4 minutes until golden and fragrant. Remove from heat and let cool.
Prep the avocado. Slice the avocado just before assembling to prevent browning. If working ahead, toss the slices with a small squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
Assemble the salad. Spread the baby spinach across a large serving bowl or platter. Arrange the strawberries, avocado slices, and red onion over the greens. Scatter the toasted almonds and feta (if using) across the top.
Dress and serve. Drizzle the poppy seed dressing generously over the salad just before serving. Toss lightly at the table, or serve the dressing on the side so everyone can add their own. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad with Greek Yogurt Poppy Seed Dressing — From the Garden, for the Days That Need Something Fresh