Chickpea, Celery, Red Onion Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing
I love creating recipes for my ‘just for' fun’ playground. But I find that sometimes, I have more ideas than I act upon, because I feel daunted by the prospect of having to formalise a method or ingredients list for dishes I make by winging it. Writing recipes for a living, you need to be precise so that people don’t go wrong, and if they do go wrong, you have proof that your directions were crystal clear. Or so I thought, until I discovered the New York Times book of “no-recipe recipes” by Sam Sifton. They encourage improvisation, providing just a loose method and ingredients list, trusting that people will have the know-how to make something nice with it. Liberating!
So here is no-recipe recipe for a salad I like to make whenever I have some leftover blue cheese. I once worked in a cafe with a daily changing salad menu and there was a temp chef who made something along these lines. I could not get over perfectly balanced it was - soft chickpeas, crunchy celery, sharp onions, and a salty creamy dressing. It’s not the most beautiful salad you’ll ever make, but there’s something liberating in that too. Not everything needs a pop of colour to be worthy of documenting.
In a large bowl, mix together some good quality jarred chickpeas, finely sliced celery, and red onion. It should look like each bite will offer you some of each component.
Into a blender, place some blue cheese with a healthy dollop of mayonnaise, sour cream, a glug of buttermilk, a dash of red wine vinegar and some smooth Dijon mustard . Blend until kinda smooth.
Dress the vegetables, and adjust to taste.
