Start the new year with a No Recipe APPS Salad

BY Betty Williams

Happy New Year! It’s not just a new year, but a new decade, and a new beginning. What does that mean to you? For me, it’s not the passage of time that excites me but a fresh start, a clean slate, especially in the area of cooking.

Each year, I like to pursue something different in my meal planning and the recipes that I choose. Over the past decade of writing this column, I’ve shared my journey of eating new and different grains, alternative protein sources, healthy fats and 30-minute recipes, among many other things.

I think one of my favorite pursuits was last year’s theme of five-ingredients or less recipes. Not only were these recipes simple, but most were fast. And all were delicious. What’s not to love about easy, quick and yummy?

So, you may be wondering about this year, 2020. First of all, can you believe we are here? Didn’t we all think the world might end with Y2K? It didn’t and here we are, 20 years into the new century.

The past two decades were somewhat of a blur for me, as I was birthing, raising and homeschooling three children (thanks to my dear husband for working and paying for it all). It’s been years of learning and growing for our children and for us as parents. And let’s not forget about cooking those 6,295 family dinners.

It’s ironic that I’ve gotten better at meal planning and cooking over the years, but fewer and fewer people live in the house. Kids grow up and move out. Our youngest child graduates from high school this year and my husband and I are that much closer to being empty nesters.

Something that has helped me tremendously over the past few years in finding recipes, learning about ingredients and watching cooking techniques is apps. I’m not talking about appetizers, but mobile apps.

Phone applications, or what we call apps, have surged in popularity this century, particularly in the past 10 years. Even though mobile apps were in use as early as 1997, it wasn’t until the iPhone was released in 2007 that apps were launched with smartphones and became commonplace.

There is an app for everything from the weather to banking to prescription refills. My favorite ones, of course, are recipe and cooking apps. Food Network, Tasty, and Yummly are just a few that I’ve tried.

I’m looking forward to this year of cooking; however, I’m concentrating less on recipes that I’ve found on apps and more on “no recipe” recipes. I dabbled a bit with this concept last year and quickly became hooked.

What is a “no recipe” recipe? It’s a loose idea of ingredients to put together, usually no measuring required, to make something good to eat.

This week’s “no recipe” recipe is one I came up with recently. I’ve made similar salads from recipes I’ve found on cooking apps. Consider this “no recipe” recipe a guideline or suggestion. I happened to have these ingredients on hand and threw these things together.

You can do the same, swapping out arugula or romaine if that’s what in your fridge. Substitute pears, persimmons, or grapefruit if you don’t have apples. Leave out the cheese if you are dairy-free. See how easy this way of cooking can be? Here’s to a new decade of meals!

No Recipe APPS (Apple, pear, pomegranate, spinach) Salad

Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients

• 1 10 oz. bag of baby spinach
• 1 or 2 Pink Lady apples
• Handful of toasted pecan halves
• Handful of pomegranate arils
• Handful of crumbled feta cheese
• Equal parts Dijon mustard and honey (1 or 2 Tbsp of each)
• Equal parts olive oil and apple cider vinegar (around 1/4 cup of each)
• Pinch of poppy seeds

Directions

Place the pre-washed spinach on a platter or in a large salad bowl. Core and thinly slice (or coarsely chop) the apples and scatter over the spinach. Distribute the pecans, pomegranate and feta evenly over the salad. In a small jar with a screw-top lid, place the Dijon mustard, honey, olive oil, apple cider vinegar and poppy seeds. Screw the top on tightly and shake the jar until dressing ingredients are combined. Pour the dressing over the salad and serve immediately.