I Just Want to Eat Bread for Dinner
Writing this newsletter is easier some weeks than others. Inspiration minds no schedule. Often it strikes me on the subway, where I'll hammer out a few paragraphs in my Notes app, or in the shower, where I'll reach for my phone perched on the sink ledge and dictate a flurry of one-liners into the Voice Memos app, my musings about pesto punctuated by a pitter-patter on porcelain.
Other weeks, I scramble to pull something together, leaning on the changing seasons as my guide. On Monday, I sent my editor, Mia, a cascade of indecisive messages. 'Maybe frozen peas?'
Once I sat down to write about a few springtime stars — peas, asparagus — words eluded me. I love them both! But I don't want to eat peas and asparagus right now, even if it is, finally, April. I want to eat bread for dinner. That's a tough sell for a newsletter called 'The Veggie,' but the challenge moved me.
If you, too, just want to eat bread for dinner, either because you're tired, uninspired or, I don't know, training for a marathon, I'm here to say that you can, and you can do so with the virtuousness we often seek at the bottom of a bowl of vegetables. Take Lidey Heuck's chopped salad with chickpeas, feta and avocado. Yes, it is richly green, sporting lettuce, diced cucumber, green olives, scallions, capers and herbs (dill, basil, mint or parsley). But it is also a beacon in my hour of carb-ish need, a vessel for crisp, olive oil-drizzled croutons.
View this recipe.
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