It’s Live From Fast and Abstinance Friday!

I know, a salad seems like a bit of a side-step on a *recipe*. Especially a chopped salad (Method: Chop things, pour on some dressing, done). But this has been a week. Gentleman Associate and I are now both working from home (for which I am very, very grateful), but it’s definitely taken some adjustment to schedules and rhythms of the day. I work in Educational Technology, so we’re super-busy helping educators keep the momentum on their courses and supporting their students. And just the… wear… that 24 hour news cycles takes on you. Chopchopchop feels like a good way to make sure I’m not just eating non-stop grilled cheese. To be perfectly clear, no shade on non-stop grilled cheese – It also totally meets the abstinence requirements of Lenten Fridays. I keep that one, deviled eggs, and breakfast fried rice handy for low-energy (or turbo-fast lunch) options.

So, to today’s offering: If a Greek Tomato and a Middle Eastern Cucumber adopted an Israeli salad, this is what you’d get. When I’m feeling sluggish, or longing for summer, or just need a break from a particularly festive time of year’s overindulgences, I crave this salad. It’s vegetarian; vegan if you don’t use cheese. I feel like there are a few basic ingredients and you could add whatever else you prefer (or want to just get out of your fridge). All you, Boo.

To the method!

If you have big tomatoes, chop them. If you have small tomatoes, halve or quarter them. If you have English or Persian (my favourite!) cucumbers, chop them. If you have regular field cucumbers, also peel at least part of the skin of the cucumber. Slice or chop some onion, however thin/small you prefer. If you have particularly aggressive onions, soaking them in water for 5 minutes will take out some of their hutzpah.

Put all these veggies in a bowl and squeeze some lemon juice over them.

Take half a bunch of parsley and chop off 3/4 of the stems (you can save the stems to use later to make soup stock or broth). Finely chop the rest of the stems and leaves. I recommend you start with half a bunch because when you start chopping, you end up with a mountain of it. Mix the chopped parsley into the veggies in the bowl. I also like fresh dill in this mix, and if I make it in the summer, I also add fresh mint.  But if you’re buying ingredients, don’t get a whole bunch of mint do this. Mind you, if you put mint in a glass of water, it will root, and then you have fresh mint for tea and lemonade and (perhaps most importantly) Potatoes and Beans for ages.

Eyeball your salad. If you want to add more parsley/herbs now, do. If you want to add some crumbled feta cheese and olives, do that, too.

Add EVOO and more lemon juice or vinegar, salt, and pepper, and serve.

Good health, friends!