I know it’s cliche to post a salad recipe as the first recipe of the year. But it’s a total accident! And I’m pretty sure my next recipe will be stromboli….so we’ll have a good balance going to start 2015.
Even so, I’m so excited to share this recipe!
See, I’m usually at a total loss when it comes to celery. I get stuck in a huge rut when it comes to this veggie, so I am PSYCHED that I have a new way to eat it.
It seems any time I have celery in the fridge, I have it one of two ways: sliced and dipped in hummus, or chopped and put into some kind of soup. And that’s usually it. And as much as I love those two things, that gets sooooooooo boring.
So – I’m challenging myself to come up with new ways of using celery (and lots of other ingredients) this year so I don’t get stuck in so many food ruts. This will also mean that we use up everything in the fridge each week! I hate wasting food, so the more recipes I can have on deck for, well, everything, the better!
Even though I love celery on its own, it’s hard for me to picture it being in an actual “dish” with other ingredients. After only really having it covered in hummus or stuffed with peanut butter, it’s just tough to come up with new ideas.
But thankfully, olives save the day.
Do you like olives? I love olives. I love olives so much that I used to sit and eat an entire can of them as a snack growing up. Thankfully, we have a pretty good olive bar at our Kroger, so we have access to much better olives than the ones I grew up eating. And tossing them into just about anything is a good way to make it a dish that I love.
This salad is insanely easy and so refreshing and bright. Which, on nights when it’s dark as you walk in the door and the temperatures are in the teens (or lower), is necessary. Not all winter foods need to be heavy. But, if you’re having roast chicken or a big pot of dumplings, this salad would make the perfect side dish.
And – it gets better as it sits! This is good news for those of us that take dinner leftovers to work for lunch.
No more keeping celery on the hummus-only plan! This salad comes together in minutes and is bright and refreshing - just what you need on a cold winter night OR in the first glorious weeks of spring.