By The heat has arrived in earnest — ninety-one degrees on Tuesday, which sent Portland into its annual ritual of pretending this has never happened before and that air conditioning is a moral failure rather than a reasonable response to a hot city. Our apartment became a sauna by noon. I filled the bathtub with cool water and Miya sat in it splashing and laughing while I sat on the bathroom floor and wrote in a notebook because the bathroom was the coolest room and when you are a writer and a mother, you write where you can.
I made cold tofu three different ways this week — hiyayakko with ginger and scallions, tofu salad with sesame dressing, and mapo tofu that I let cool and ate at room temperature, which is unconventional but survival-appropriate. When the apartment is ninety degrees, convention yields to temperature. Fumiko would understand. Sacramento hits a hundred every summer and Fumiko's survival strategy is cold tofu and air conditioning set to arctic. I do not have air conditioning. I have cold tofu and determination. One of these is insufficient. I am ordering a window unit this week.
Brian handled the heat by going to the taproom with air conditioning and friends. I handled the heat by staying home with a baby and three kinds of tofu. We have different survival strategies. His involves beer and society. Mine involves soy protein and solitude. The metaphor is so obvious I refuse to write it, but I have already written it, and the writing is the acknowledging.
Miya said her first two-word combination: "more rice." Not "more mama" or "more dada" or "more cat" — "more rice." I called Fumiko immediately. Fumiko said, "This is correct." She said it with the satisfaction of a woman whose genetic legacy includes a great-granddaughter who prioritizes rice. I wrote it down in my journal. First two-word combination: more rice. June 27, 2017. This is the kind of thing you record. This is the kind of thing that matters.
The hiyayakko carried me through most of the week, but by Thursday I needed something with a little more staying power — something I could make once, shove in the back of the refrigerator, and eat cold directly from the bowl while sitting on the bathroom floor next to a splashing baby. This Vegan Italian Pasta Salad is exactly that: aggressively make-ahead, deeply cold-friendly, and the kind of thing Fumiko would approve of for its no-nonsense practicality. It is not survival in the poetic sense. It is survival in the literal, thermometer-reading, window-unit-on-order sense, and that is enough.
Vegan Italian Pasta Salad
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 25 min + 1 hr chilling | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 12 oz rotini or fusilli pasta
- 1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved
- 1/2 cup sliced pepperoncini peppers
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, torn
- 1/2 cup vegan Italian dressing (store-bought or homemade)
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente, about 9–11 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water until fully cooled, and drain again thoroughly.
- Prep the vegetables. While the pasta cooks, halve the cherry tomatoes, quarter the artichoke hearts, slice the olives and pepperoncini, dice the bell pepper, and thinly slice the red onion.
- Combine. In a large bowl, toss the cooled pasta with the artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes, olives, pepperoncini, red onion, and bell pepper until evenly distributed.
- Dress it. Add the Italian dressing, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, and garlic powder. Toss well to coat everything. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
- Fold in fresh herbs. Add the parsley and basil and fold gently so they don’t bruise.
- Chill. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving — longer is better. The flavors deepen significantly overnight. Toss once more before serving and adjust seasoning if needed.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 9g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 46g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 670mg