Eight staple ingredients. One bowl. Ten minutes. Lunch is served.
Well, technically, this salad is better after it sits for about an hour, but you get the picture. Chickpea, Grape Tomato & Feta Salad is our feature for the final week of salad month.
Tag: <span>salad</span>
For week three of salad month, I’m talking one of my favorite traditional—with lettuce—salads: Columbia Restaurant’s 1905 Salad.
Years ago, St. Petersburg had a Columbia on the third floor of our inverted Pier building: our city’s landmark. The 360-degree view of downtown and Tampa Bay made for the most picturesque place to lunch in the ‘Burg; enjoying traditional Cuban food while watching the dolphins and boats pass by was icing on the cake. And, although I tried many of the menu items at one point or another, my lunch there was always the same: the ‘half and half combo’ with the 1905 salad, gazpacho and some of the best iced tea around. The warm, individual loaf of Cuban bread that came out shortly after your drink arrived was the highlight of the meal–no sharing required.
Alright, so I have waxed poetic long enough. Sadly, the old Pier building was demolished and a new replacement is being built as we speak. I have not heard any talk of Columbia claiming a space at our new pier…sigh. For the record, I realize that there are five other Columbias in the state that I can visit, including the original location in Ybor City; but, not having one so close has been killing me.
As a former vegetarian, I ate a lot of salads. A lot. Not only was it the easiest way to meet my veggie quota for the day, but it was often the default meatless entree when dining out. After some time, eating big bowls of greens became monotonous—even switching up the toppings and dressings didn’t help after a point. I wanted another version of salad that would still give me the veggies I needed, but rated higher on the excitement/flavor scale. I also wanted a variation that didn’t take an eternity to throw together, could feed me for multiple days, and was perfect for on-the-go.
School is back in session, which means I’m back to work–and back to school means packing lunches for both myself and my son. I work in a school clinic and it is a busy one: I often don’t get 30 minutes away to eat a regular lunch, so something I can easily eat at my desk in between seeing kids was an additional requirement.
For the next four weeks, I will share my favorite to-go salads: these salads meet all of my criteria—most of them are balanced enough to be an entire meal. Welcome to week one: Broccoli Cashew Salad.
Leftovers and I are not friends. I’ve given them multiple chances, but we just don’t click. Sure, the food is fun the first time around, but by the next day, they just become a nuisance. Besides hanging around–and stinking up–my fridge, leftovers take up precious space for other things like produce and all of the craft beer that we never seem to have enough room for. Despite my best attempts at being friendly, I typically end up showing them the door–of the trashcan. Every once in a while, I will come across a leftover that is extra special and feel the need to keep it around for one extra meal. I need to be more accommodating to my fridge-dwelling acquaintances; I want us to be friends. The only way that’s going to happen is if I disguise them as something else. Something new. Something different.