Colorful Chopped Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing -- The Last of Dad's Lettuce

Walking bean rows. That's what I dreamed about Tuesday night — walking bean rows in the July heat, pulling weeds by hand, the most tedious and miserable job in farming, the one that builds character or breaks you. I was twelve in the dream, wearing cutoff jean shorts and a tank top, sunburned and sweating, and the rows stretched to the horizon the way they always did, endless green lines converging at a point so far away it might as well have been another country. I woke up with dirt under my fingernails, which is impossible, but grief does strange things to your body.

The thing about walking beans is that nobody does it anymore. Herbicides replaced hand labor decades ago, and the corporate operations that farm now would never send a twelve-year-old into a field with a hoe. But there was something about that work — something about the repetition, the sweat, the dirt, the way your body learned the spacing of the rows and your hands learned the difference between a soybean plant and a weed without your brain having to help. That knowledge lives in my hands still, twenty-four years later, and it has nowhere to go.

I made a garden salad for dinner with the last of Dad's lettuce, and supplemented it with grocery store additions — cherry tomatoes, cucumber, shredded carrots, croutons from a bag. Kevin grilled steaks. I made baked potatoes in the microwave because it was too hot for the oven. Baked potatoes in the microwave are fine. They're not as good as oven-baked, but they're fine, and sometimes fine is all you need on a ninety-degree Tuesday when you've been dreaming about bean rows.

Emma announced she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. Last week it was a horse trainer. The week before, a dolphin researcher. She is eight and her career aspirations change with the weather, but the throughline is animals — all of them, every kind, she loves them all with a fierceness that I recognize because I felt the same way about the land at her age. She'll find her thing. I'm not worried about Emma finding things. I'm worried about the rest of us keeping up when she does.

Jack planted sunflowers in the backyard. Sunflowers. Like the ones Marlene grows in Grinnell. I didn't tell him to plant them. I didn't even mention them. He just came home from the garden center with Kevin and had a packet of mammoth sunflower seeds and a plan. The Webers are in his blood. Nothing I do or don't do will change that. The land finds a way.

I didn’t set out to make anything special that Tuesday — I just used what was there, the last of Dad’s lettuce, the cherry tomatoes and cucumber from the store, whatever was in reach. But looking back, I think I needed something that looked like the garden even if I couldn’t be in one anymore. This colorful chopped salad, dressed with a bright carrot ginger dressing, is the version I’d make again on purpose — the kind of salad that turns grocery store additions into something that feels intentional and alive, the way a garden does when everything is growing right.

Colorful Chopped Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• For the Salad:
• 4 cups romaine or green leaf lettuce, chopped
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 medium cucumber, diced
• 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
• 1 large carrot, peeled and shredded or julienned
• 1/2 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• For the Carrot Ginger Dressing:
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
• 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
• 2–3 tablespoons water, to thin as needed
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Make the dressing. Combine the chopped carrots, ginger, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, olive oil, soy sauce, and honey in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, adding water one tablespoon at a time until the dressing reaches a pourable consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Prep the vegetables. Wash and dry the lettuce thoroughly, then chop into bite-sized pieces. Halve the cherry tomatoes, dice the cucumber, shred the carrot and cabbage, and chop the parsley.
3. Assemble the salad. In a large serving bowl, combine the lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, cabbage, shredded carrot, and chickpeas. Toss gently to distribute evenly.
4. Add toppings. Scatter the sunflower seeds and fresh parsley over the top of the salad.
5. Dress and serve. Drizzle the carrot ginger dressing over the salad just before serving, using as much or as little as you like. Toss lightly and serve immediately alongside grilled steak and baked potatoes for a complete summer dinner.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 210 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 22g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 310mg