Italian Vegetable Salad

Halloween preparations at school. Same adapted approach as last year: low sensory demands, costumes optional, individual accommodations planned. Isabel wore a crown because she wanted to. She pointed at it on her tablet when she came in: "I have a crown." I said: you absolutely have a crown. She wore it for the entire day. She wore it on the walker path around the room and at small group and at lunch and at closing circle. It is the crown of a person who decided she had a crown and wore it accordingly. I aspire to this.

The book is progressing. I am writing two to three hours every evening, after Ryan goes home or on his shift nights. The chapter about Jess is the hardest one — I have started it four times. The recipe I keep associating with it is the butter pasta from the dorm, the one I made three times in a week in 2017, the one I wrote about in the early blog. I am trying to write about the pasta and what it meant without being sentimental in a way that would make Jess roll her eyes. She would not want to be written about sentimentally. She would want to be written about accurately. I am trying to write her accurately.

Made braised white beans with kale this week — a simple Tuesday night version, a can of white beans with garlic and olive oil and a bunch of kale and chicken broth and a squeeze of lemon. Under two dollars. Some weeks the blog recipe and the dinner recipe and the life recipe are all the same thing: simple, honest, from ingredients that were already there. This was that week. The beans and the kale and the kale in the beans and eating it at the table while writing about Jess in a notebook.

Ryan texted at eleven PM from the firehouse: "How's the writing going?" I said hard but good. He said "The hard ones are usually the good ones." He is right. He is usually right about things. I am getting used to this.

There are weeks when the recipe you need is not complicated or clever — it is just honest, made from what you already have, eaten at the table while something harder is being worked through in a notebook nearby. This Italian vegetable salad is that kind of recipe: a little olive oil, whatever vegetables are there, something bright and acidic to pull it together. No performance required. Isabel wore her crown all day just because she decided she had one. I made this salad the same way — simply, because it was already there to be made.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 15 min + 30 min chill | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 medium zucchini, diced small
1 cup jarred roasted red peppers, drained and sliced
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
1/4 cup pepperoncini, sliced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Instructions

Make the dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and pepper until combined.
Combine the vegetables. In a large bowl, add the cannellini beans, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, roasted red peppers, olives, pepperoncini, and red onion. Toss gently to mix.
Dress and toss. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss until everything is evenly coated. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, or vinegar as needed.
Chill. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to come together. The salad keeps well for up to 3 days — it only gets better.
Finish and serve. Scatter fresh parsley over the top just before serving. Serve cold or at room temperature alongside crusty bread or as a simple main.

Nutrition (per serving)

Italian Vegetable Salad — Simple, Honest, From What Was Already There