I’ve decided it’s A-okay to keep hyper-fixating on The Thoughtless Salad, up to a point. The base can stay— shredded green cabbage and sweet, roasted pieces of honeynut squash— but all the other elements are required to change, you know, to kEeP iT fReSh or whatever.
This morning I went rummaging around in the fridge for inspiration. It struck swiftly! The first thing I found was a jar of green sauce, which is just poblanos, white onion and garlic cooked gently in a generous amount of oil until soft, and then pureed into a creamy, bright green dream. I put two big spoonfuls into maybe 1/4 cup Greek yogurt with a Tablespoon or so Duke’s mayo. I added a pinch of sugar, plenty of salt, chopped dill, a cartoonishly small shallot (grated), lots of black pepper and lemon juice. Poblano ranch dressing!
In the upstiars freezer I also found the endpieces of some of E’s best sourdough boules already chopped into cubes, ready to transform into croutons. This is when my vision of the salad really solidified, because I realized I could throw a bunch of stuff on a sheet pan (green beans, bread cubes, honeynut squash, a small tub of chickpeas) right then and there and simply toss it with cold shredded cabbage and my poblano ranch later. I’ll top it with flaky salt and an unreasonable amount of pumpkin seeds, and serve it alongside little ramekins of leftover mac ‘n’ cheese I hid from E last week.