salads-for-salads (A CHART!)

and THANK YOU and Chicken 101!

Hi all!

Before I jump into today’s salads-for-salads newsletter, just a quick note to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for your overwhelming support for Built for This, the incredibly personal long-form essay I published last week all about how powerlifting has changed my relationship to my body (read more about it below). Special thanks of course to

Roxane Gay

for her support (see here). I’m so happy to have the piece out in the world — you can read it here or listen to it here.

Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting

My next class is this Sunday (February 4th) and will be CHICKEN 101.

Class description: Chicken demystified! Join me for this introductory course where I will show you how to break down a whole chicken and get three great things out of just one chicken: Roasted Lemony Chicken Quarters / Skillet Chicken with Artichokes + Peas / Pressure Cooker Chicken Stock. For that last one, I will talk you through what to do if you don't have a pressure cooker! This class won't just be informative, we'll also have a lot of fun. Tips + tricks shared along the way! »» SIGN UP HERE ««

**As always, if you want to join and $ is a barrier, just let me know + I can add you!**

I got a really sweet note last week from someone looking for more ideas for easy, satisfying mixtures that can be made ahead and then added to lettuce later. They mentioned an Italian chopped salad (see my version of an Italian Chopped Salad right here) and liked that they could make the base of it — chopped olives, cheese, salami, vinaigrette, etc. — put that in a container and then add it to chopped romaine when they were in the mood for a fun salad. This is something I often recommend in my classes any time I teach a salad recipe: everything that doesn’t wilt can be mixed ahead of time, stored in a container in the fridge, and then you can finish your salad later.

This means that you can do all of the labor of figuring out what to make, procuring ingredients, slicing + dicing vegetables that hold their crunch, draining cans of beans, whisking together dressing, etc. when you have time. And then let that work serve you when you don’t have time. If this approach weren’t already appealing, it’s even more enticing when you realize that salad-for-salad mixture can be extended not only with lettuce, but also with cooked pasta or any grain, or used as a sort-of relish for a simple piece of fish or chicken, or even used to top a piece of toast for an open-faced sandwich.

Below you’ll find a chart for 4 ideas for these types of salads — the Italian sub-inspired mixture I mentioned above, plus a mixture inspired by veggie sushi, another inspired by Greek salad (add gigante beans because why not) and lastly a tuna melt-inspired mix.

If you follow the formula I lay out in the chart — something substantial + something kinda briny + CRUNCH + dressing — you can riff on the theme and make whatever you’d like. There are so many possibilities!

Happy “salad days” !

xoxoox Julia