All the food I really love to make and eat is saladish. The base might be leafy greens or nutty farro. The salad may be fluffy or crisp, spicy or sweet, tangy or creamy—some of my favorites are a combination of all these (and more!). Healthy, satisfying, and simple to prepare, salads can be made from anything and everything—and a salad makes a meal. Two salads are even better. Three or more is a party!
I’ve always been a champion eater. My first foray into cooking was at age nine, when my friends and I would attempt to outweird each other with concoctions that I, nonetheless, found delicious. What began as after-school entertainment developed into a fearlessness when it came to experimenting with flavors, and a willingness to step outside the boundaries of what people typically think go together—traits that have served me well in my adulthood. (No doubt the “Horse and Pig” sandwich owes its parentage to my middle-school cravings.)
In my thirties, a passion for produce and cooking seasonally—sparked by the mind-blowing bounty of the nearby Union Square Greenmarket in New York City—compelled me to move my interior design career to the back burner and enroll in culinary school. Diploma in hand, I knocked on the door of the only place I wanted to work: the City Bakery. My favorite neighborhood spot, its stark interior was the backdrop for simple, unembellished pastries that resonated with my designer’s love of minimalism, color, and form. This was a special place, like none I’d ever seen before. I asked for a job and stayed for fifteen years.
It was an amazing opportunity. I was given free rein in the kitchen, expanding the menu of savory dishes and purchasing everything I could from the nearby greenmarket. And the bakery grew along with me; in its tenth year, we moved to a much larger location. The delicious pastries took center stage on the dark stone counters up front while my territory grew to forty linear feet of “salad bar”: counters arrayed with self-service-style platters and bowls that brimmed with an ever-changing selection of lunch items.
Everything could be made ahead and left to sit in the fridge, and it would still be delicious. It was a practical style of cooking and eating that stuck with me and became my MO as I raised my twin daughters. The recipes were adapted over time, and my favorites appear in this book—made all the more accessible by the ever-increasing availability of fresh, seasonal ingredients in farmers’ markets and supermarkets nationwide.
I was living in lower Manhattan during this time, and I regularly explored Chinatown’s overflowing markets, buying a few new-to-me items on each trip. There were so many exciting discoveries—from bushels of bunched greens to heaps of gnarly vegetables, plus mysterious condiments and products with incomprehensible (to me) labels—it made my head spin. I was also in striking distance of the strip of international grocers on Lexington Avenue around 28th Street known as Curry Hill for its wealth of aromatic Indian and Middle Eastern ingredients.
Combining these far-flung flavors in salads of seasonal produce and hearty grains and beans became a signature of my casual, unconventional style. I tossed Chinese black rice with fresh pea greens, and flavored them with a makrut lime dressing (see here). I roasted cubes of sweet potato and folded in chickpeas and Indian snack mix (see here). To my surprise and delight, the salad bar at City Bakery developed a cult following, with a huge crowd eager to share in all the vegetable goodness each day.
In 2013, along with kindred spirit Sara Dima, I opened R&D Foods, a specialty food shop in Brooklyn, New York. It’s a tiny place with lots of ideas and a big sense of community. Every morning I make cake doughnuts, and all day long my team and I turn out brined roast chickens, sandwiches to order, and ever-rotating bowls full of saladish creations, many of which you’ll find in the pages of this book.
I hope you’ll enjoy these dishes, that they’ll encourage you to rethink your pantry and broaden your repertoire. Although the recipes are arranged seasonally, many span several seasons, and some can be made all year long. Don’t be afraid to substitute one green or grain for another, and please don’t stop there! Use these recipes as a point of departure for your own creative journeys. Hang out at your local farmers’ market, poke around an ethnic grocery, grab an unfamiliar ingredient, and make something saladish!
