DORÉ

Hi everyone! It’s me, Tash!

I’m excited to be here for the next three months sharing some of my favorite kitchen staple recipes with you. As a person who cooks a lot for a living* and then goes home and has to cook for myself, I completely understand how cooking can feel overwhelming and like a giant black hole.

* While I don’t have a traditional cooking job in a restaurant, I am knees deep in food hosting and producing my web series (and Instagram account), Nosh with Tash, hosting a healthy cooking show for Genius Kitchen, called Craving Healthy, and working with a constant stream of private chef clients, and brands to help bring their culinary dreams to life.

Luckily, all of this cooking has given me lots of opportunities to pick and choose some great recipes that are delicious, foolproof and simple to throw together.

The first recipe I’m sharing with you is my favorite go-to salad, a.k.a *the office lunch salad*. If you could use a terrific new salad, then please… read on.

I’ve made a billion salads (literally, I’ve counted them) and no matter how fancy, creative, or out of the box I get, I always come circling back to this one. I honestly don’t think it takes much to make a great salad, and once you’ve really learned your basics, lunchtime gets a lot less sad.

What I love about this salad is that it hits all the important salad elements while still being really healthy and quick to throw together. It’s super zesty and fresh, loaded with texture from the cucumbers, chickpeas, and tomatoes and it’s incredibly easy to alter based on the seasons/ and/or what’s in your fridge. The basics are important, and from there you can really toss in anything you like.

Soooo, what are the basics? You need hearty lettuce, something that can withstand a few hours of being squashed by other vegetables, like romaine or iceberg. You need a zesty dressing (I like mine with red wine vinegar, garlic, and lemon) and you need a lot of dried oregano. Beyond that, you can really use whatever veggies, cheese or protein you’re in the mood for. If you aren’t into chickpeas, or if you want to up the protein, the salad is great with roasted chicken or lemony salmon. If you have radishes, fennel, green beans, leftover roasted potatoes (shameless promotion- we’ll be making those in a later month), capers, or any other various and sundry items hanging out in your fridge, feel free to add them to the party.

Serves 4

Ingredients
Salad:
– 2 heads of romaine or iceberg lettuce, chopped
– ¼ cup olives of your choosing, halved and pitted
– Small tub of fresh ciliegine mozzarella, quartered
– ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
– ¼ red onion, sliced thin and soaked in water (just trust me)
– 2 Persian cucumbers, chopped
– a few cherry tomatoes, quartered
– 1 can of cooked chickpeas (or fresh if you’re cool like that)
– 2 pepperoncinis, sliced into thin rounds

Dressing:
– ½ cup olive oil
– ¼ cup red wine vinegar
– 10-15 leaves of basil, chopped finely
– Juice of ½ of a lemon
– 1 shallot, minced
– 1 teaspoon dried oregano
– 1 clove of garlic, minced
– Salt + pepper to taste

Directions
Dressing:
1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until emulsified
2. Taste, and add salt, pepper or lemon juice if needed
3. Dressing always tastes better after it’s settled for a bit, so if you can make it at least 30 minutes before serving.

Salad:
1. Combine all the chopped vegetables into a large bowl (or into a few small Tupperware containers if you’re meal prepping)
2. Sprinkle salad with salt, pepper, and dried oregano
3. Toss with dressing just before serving

I know it sounds insane, but something that has really helped encourage me to pack my lunch for the day is having Tupperware that I really like. Right now I’m all about my W&P port bowl, OXO glass containers for dressing and my WhiteBark Workwear tote to carry it all in.