May Day is upon us— that should put a spring in your step. I want to retire the crockpot, stash the Dutch oven, put the lasagna pan out to pasture and start digging into light, healthy, crispy fresh green salads. With crusty French bread and sweet butter and a glass or two of cool Chardonnay. In my bare feet. In shorts.
Now is a good time to get outside – whether in your own garden, or wandering around the farmers’ market. Lots of fruits and vegetables are in season again – and we should be supporting our local farmers!
In Season
We have bought four humble tomato plants, and have planted them in the raised garden bed in our side yard. There are a couple of blossoms already, which is nature’s clever way of encouraging us to believe that we will have a bountiful harvest of tomato sandwiches later this summer.
That is always the best part of gardening, seeing everything in my mind’s eye in the gauzy Technicolor future. Somehow there I am always wearing a float-y white outfit as I drop my bountiful harvest into my antique English garden trug, clipping merrily (and with surgical precision) with the vintage secateurs sourced from an obscure French flea market. Reality won’t elbow that fantasy out of my malleable brain for a couple of months…
But back to the matter at hand – salad: as usual, we are hoping that the basil container farm will be busy and bushy this summer, as well as the annual tomato exercise, which I hope won’t wither on their burgeoning vines. We are also considered trying to make our own fresh mozzarella cheese. Maybe it would be easier to just move to Italy. But that depends on the lottery officials, and I am sad to say that we don’t know anyone at the Texas Lottery Commission. Texas Lottery Scandal https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/23/us/texas-lottery-ryan-mindell-resignation/index.html We are just homegrowns.
Tender Green Salad ideas!
This will be perfect for the Friday nights when Chef Tomasso doesn’t want to fire up the oven for our weekly pizza night:
Pizza Salad
Exactly the same way you would choose your pizza toppings, free to add in your favorite toppings INTO the salad to recreate the classic flavors. Use all the extra toppings you love: olives, tuna, capers, meatballs, Nduja, onions, peppers: whatever your go-to pizza order is.
Single serving — you can do the math for more
1/2 small eggplant, diced
Handful of cherry tomatoes
1/2 red pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Sliced pepperoni – your call
2 slices sourdough bread or day-old French bread, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Handful of torn basil leaves
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
3 ounces shredded chicken breast (if you are concerned about protein)
Garlic herb dressing
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
Pinch oregano
Pinch garlic powder
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Toss the diced eggplant, cherry tomatoes, red pepper and pepperoni with oregano, garlic powder and salt. Spread on a baking tray. Roast for 12–15 minutes, until softened, sticky and slightly caramelized.
Scatter the diced bread cubes and a little grating of parmesan over the top, then return to roast for another 4–5 minutes until the croutons are crisp and golden.
While that’s roasting, stir together the yogurt, garlic powder, oregano, vinegar, salt and pepper for the garlic and herb dressing. Add a splash of water if you want a looser consistency.
Once everything is out of the oven, toss with the basil, shredded mozzarella and cooked chicken so the warmth starts to melt everything together. Serve warm with a generous drizzle of dressing. Take a plate, with your glass of Chardonnay, out onto the back porch, and plant yourself in the plastic Adirondack chair. Enjoy a cool Friday night, eating your veggies, smelling the breeze, and enjoying a tasty al fresco meal. Have fun streaking on May Day!
Here is an air fryer version: Pizza Salad with Garlic Herb Dressing
“A salad is not a meal. It is a style.”
—Fran Lebowitz
Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.
