We live in a world where terrible salads are ubiquitous. You’ll encounter them in airports and at coffee stops, in drugstores and supermarkets: sad plastic troughs stuffed with iceberg lettuce, rubbery cherry tomatoes, downtrodden chicken strips dryer than the Sahara, and an aggravating cup of syrupy vinaigrette. Poorly rendered Caesars with flaky “Parmesan” litter the menus of pizza parlors across the land. Your corner store promises that the Greek salad is edible; disregard that all of its ingredients are strangely matte and that the feta looks like it was curb-stomped.
You deserve better. We all deserve better.
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It isn’t hard to rise above these Salads of Misery. You don’t need much—just a couple of minutes and a squeeze of confidence. Follow the lead of Julia Ziegler-Haynes—patron saint of easy, delicious entertaining on our series —and you won’t just rise to mediocrity, you’ll shoot into the stratosphere like a psychedelic comet.
Here’s what you’ll need: a gorgeous head of purple cabbage, easily acquired at any grocery store that even slightly exceeds the product standards of a convenience mart. Celery, hazelnuts, some decent blue cheese, and fresh dill. And a few this-and-thats for the dressing: yogurt, lemon, garlic. You probably have most of this stuff on hand.
Then, all you’ve got to do is mix the dressing, chop up the ingredients, and toss your salad. Behold your creation. There now, that wasn’t so bad, was it? And with the crunch of cabbage and hazelnuts, the tang of blue cheese and yogurt, and the zest of fresh dill and lemon juice, this dish strikes the perfect balance between light and rich.
Your salad days can be your best days, too.