Inspiration makes the world go round, and that includes in the kitchen. Each summer I find myself a new salad that I obsess over and make again and again on autopilot. Like most of my creative endeavors, the cooking journey begins with a visual. In designing this dish, I was without a doubt inspired by a salad I saw in the July issue of Bon Appétit. I glanced at the page, catalogued it in one of the many teeny drawers of my mind, and called it up from memory as I spewed out my own version. That’s the way it goes – we see, we swoon, we reinterpret, filtering through our own lens, and we pay homage to the original.
So when Laney Crowell from The Moment asked me to shoot a video together creating a simple summer salad, this fast favorite was the dish that came to mind. I had concocted it just a few days prior. Cucumbers, local peaches, pickled onion, feta, and jalapeno come together in this recipe, creating a bright salad that simply offers it all. This dish brings the crunch, brine, sweet, and heat – the four tenets I hold so dear in my cooking. It also packs an unexpected punch of earthy Egyptian flavor thanks to my à la minute spice of choice these days, dukkah. This is an easy one, swooners, so you, too, can make it on autopilot on any given summer day!
