I knew the salty, smooth olives, cool crunch of celery, and the creamy, tangy mayo would be the perfect accompaniment to the old reliable: leftover chicken. My chicken was left over from soup-making; but of course you can bake a couple of chicken breasts just to make this salad if you need to. Because, if you like olives and chicken, you NEED to make this recipe.
I used all light mayo, but much less than the recipe suggests (about a 1/4 c.) since I like my chicken salad just barely moistened. I also cut back on the green onion because I could smell how potent the batch I had was… but I still felt this flavor overpowered my dish. I had been tasting the salad as I added ingredients, so I knew I’d already made something deliciously memorable before adding the onions, yet I felt compelled to throw them in since I’d purchased them just for this recipe. I should have trusted my gut.
Even with the boldness of the onion, this is one chicken salad I will make over and over again. I’m already looking forward to eating leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Sorry, you’re getting our leftovers. Pictures of them, anyway!
Roasted Beets with Feta hardly needed a recipe. I boil my beets rather than roasting them: I find this preparation to be neater, and I don’t notice a decrease in flavor at all. In fact, this batch of beets (from my farm share) was particularly flavorful, earthy and sweet. I followed the proportions given for the dressing in this recipe but made significantly more, since I poured it over three times as many beets plus a large bowl of salad. I sliced a brick of feta and served it on the side. This is a salad that can stand up to brisk weather, especially when paired with soup.
I tried a Crock-Pot Butternut Squash Soup from A Year of Slow Cooking (love that blog). I made several adjustments: 2 smallish squash (from my farm share), only 1 onion, only 1 apple, and turmeric instead of coriander because I didn’t have any. I used vegetable stock. Since I had my oven on to bake Brownie Roll-Out Cookies, I decided to roast the squash and onion rather than putting them into the crock raw or microwaved. They were fully cooked before they even joined the other ingredients in the slow cooker. I did use my immersion blender at the end to make it smooth and creamy, and needed to add an additional cup of water to thin it out a bit. This is a keep recipe for us — though none of the kids would try it (including my niece), I think they might be persuaded to in the future. Even J. had it later that night and thought it was very good.
Along with dinner rolls, this soup and salad combo was a well-received dinner (by the adults eating it — my various in-laws and me and J.) and a welcome lighter alternative to some of the meals I’ve been cooking for them lately.
I used two large garden cucumbers, and peeled and cut them early in the day. I allowed them to sit on a bed of paper towels in the fridge for a couple of hours before I put the salad together, I did not find them to be too wet at all, and that was without salting them. I also used skim milk instead of buttermilk, and apple cider vinegar instead of red wine.
My parents and I liked this salad, and it is crisp and cool — perfect for summer. I think adding pepper (I forgot to) and perhaps some chives or minced scallions would really be fantastic. Since my Dad just gave me a big cuke from his garden, and I received 3 more in today’s CSA share, I anticipate many more cucumber-based salads in the near future.
I love cucumbers, and in the summer they are the perfect side dish: crisp and cool, light but flavorful (at least the ones from my CSA are!). I often make a quick Israeli salad in the summer, but didn’t have tomatoes on hand last night.
I sliced up a couple of cukes, minced two big scallions, and drizzled on a bit of apple cider vinegar along with a pinch of salt. If you want to, you can add a teaspoon of sugar or so, but I didn’t. This side dish takes just minutes to make, and keeps very well in the fridge for a couple of days as well.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more about me and CITK, and keep in touch:
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Cheesy Kale Crisps: We rarely eat kale now that our farm share is over, and I want to fix that. I've wanted to try using nutritional yeast, and this recipe looks like a tasty way to do it.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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