When I first got married, I had two recipes in my arsenal: Morningstar salad and a tuna/black bean/corn/avocado stir fry.
I know, and you’re right, it’s exactly as weird as it sounds. I was such a novice in the kitchen, getting by in college on those two meals (and cafeteria money) — and if I was lucky, my roommates would cook something more interesting and I would get to join! Yet, I must have sensed a change coming. The amount of cooking utensils and kitchen gadgets I put on my wedding registry perfectly suits the aspiring chef I am today — but definitely not my style back then.
Anyway, I digress — back to college. Sophomore year was the first year I lived in an apartment with a kitchen and without a cafeteria meal plan. I started off the year on an intense diet after gaining the freshman fifteen from the all-you-can-eat Kosher Cafe at NYU. A couple of months into my diet and many pounds shed, I realized I wasn’t going about loosing weight in the most healthy way — I needed to find a productive way to incorporate carbs and some other things I had cut out back into my life.
I was living above a Trader Joe’s (which I sadly didn’t appreciate enough at the time) and decided to go see if I could find some inspiration for something simple I could make for myself. I remember waiting in line for an hour (pretty typical, as any frequenter of TJ’s in Manhattan can attest) and leaving with their classic spring mix, a long english cucumber, an avocado, a beautifully red bell pepper, one purple onion and what I was soon going to discover as the best feta cheese ever. I knew I wanted to add protein to my salad, but anything that took even the slightest effort was out of the question, so I went to the Food Emporium across the street and picked up a box of MorningStar Farms Buffalo Wings.
I returned home, chopped up my salad ingredients, and put it in a large bowl with crumbled feta cheese. I microwaved the buffalo wings before adding them in as well. I then realized I had completely overlooked an essential salad ingredient — dressing! I looked in the fridge to see what my roommates had on hand and I remember seeing a store-bought Italian dressing. Since that was not my cup of tea, I decided to be adventurous and look through our oils and vinegar to see what I could come up with myself. I just picked a few things to see what would happen! I reached for the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey, and my life was forever changed. To this day I cannot explain what made me think of that combination, but it just worked. This first success quickly became not just a staple but something I would actually crave. Even now I will occasionally return to my roots when the situation calls for it!
When we made Aliya I was really missed both the convenience and deliciousness of MorningStar, and Shnitzel Tiras (corn shnitzel) just doesn’t do it for me. So when we went back to New York a few months ago, I brought back several Morningstar packages in our luggage. Yes, my husband thought I was insane too.
Now that I have this salad back in my arsenal, I like to change it up each time I make it. Sometimes I’ll add pomegranate seeds for some crunch, or switch out the feta for goat cheese. Just recently, I made a dressing inspired by my original but infused with passion fruit, and it was out of this world. I think I’ll always continue to adapt and play around with my original meal. So, I will post a recipe card for the basic version of this Everything Salad, as well as all the variants I that I’ve enjoyed over the years including my new passionfruit dressing — lucky I remembered to write down the recipe!
Servings
Servings
Use this dressing for the Morningstar salad.
Prep Time
10 minutes
Servings
Prep Time
10 minutes
Servings
