A salad. And a fridge raid.

Lately, I started winging our meals without directions more often. It is good and not. Good because it provides much needed pantry reorganization. Not good because I rarely remember what I did, what I used, and cannot repeat the dish.

This one we wanted to remember. Simple: arugula, beans, eggplant, feta, onions. But that chunky picklish dressing-? salsa-? topping-? made it different and memorable. So here goes…

FOR THE SALAD
— 5 oz baby arugula;
— 1/5 lb beans (a mix of navy and great northern), cooked;
— 10 Japanese eggplants cut into three segments, each then quartered, salt, hot paprika, oil, roasted at 450°F for 15-20 minutes;
— 8 oz feta, crumbled;
— red onion, thinly sliced.

FOR THE DRESSING
— 3 tomatillos, diced;
— 2 jalapeños, diced;
— a bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped;
— 1 cup castelvetrano olives, roughly chopped;
— 2 garlic cloves, minced;
— 1/3 cup lemon and lime juice;
— 1/3 cup olive oil;
— salt;
— sumac.

THE PROCESS
1. On a platter, layer the ingredients in order listed.
2. Mix the dressing ingredients and spread it over the rest.

#food #salad #eggplant #beans #fridgeraid #freeformcooking #cookingathome #homemade #cookingtherapy