Three winter salads, plus a whine about a Gmail setting

Roasted squash salad with bacon and pumpkin seeds

A trio of salads: Kale cobb salad, radicchio salad with blue cheese dressing, roasted squash salad with bacon

All of these salads were brought to you by winter: They combine sturdy ingredients into robust salads while we wait out the season where lettuce won't grow with grace. So instead, think kale, and its obliging partner, bacon. Radicchio and roasted squash. Greens with roasted squash AND bacon.

One of the salads was also brought to you by a combination of irritation and opportunity. Dave flagged a Huffington Post article alerting that there was an automatic opt-in for Gmail users that could allow Google access to your messages and attachments to train AI models. Ish. It shared instructions for the two places to turn off smart features that allow this harvesting, and since that seemed like something I don't want in place, I dutifully turned it off.

And then found out, of course, just what all is joined at the hip in smart features. I could possibly live with out grammar check or autospelling, but everything all in one email inbox? Ugh. Plus, they only let you tailor your inbox notifications if you enable smart features. Double ugh. That leaves you with the option of either opting out of most promotional email (gasp, how will I find out when Harney's and Penzey's have a sale when I need to stock up??) or risk missing an actually vital email amid all the crud. 

So, for now, I've caved and am on a mission to kill down my overall inbox before I try again, opting out as I go. To say that I've never been an inbox-zero person for anything other than the equivalent in Slack is putting it mildly. My promotions box had ballooned to more than 17,000. I've now got that down below 2,500, but I'm loath to just kill out everything without looking through, because hello, recipes! Like the recipe for radicchio salad with blue cheese, below. Sure, I got the magazine in October, but it apparently didn't trigger my interest until I saw it promoted in my Gmail and remembered that I have both radicchio and gorgonzola in my frig that need using.

So I'm wading through the rest of the messages, and really irritated by one trend that can't be over soon enough: Promotional emails designed to trade on shame, guilt, anxiety and other malaise. I'm looking at you, Martha Stewart minions. Amid the potentially useful how-tos like how to make sour cream or reuse old sheets are these stink bombs: 

9 hosting habits that guests secretly despise

12 sneaky reasons your home never feels completely clean

The 6 worst front door colors for curb appeal

7 home decor mistakes you should avoid

6 outdated garden trends

She's not alone in the negative phrasing, by any means. A quick search for "never" in my promotions box unearthed a trove of headlines destined for inbox trash. Colors to never paint your bathroom, etc. A cleaning step you always miss. "Wrong" is another big offender, along with "mistake," as in "You're making scrambled eggs wrong," instead of "how to make terrific scrambled eggs."

Along with umbrage. I have taken delight in killing out these joy zappers. I would paint my bathroom one of the never-do colors, but I've forgotten what they were already, because you should be able to paint your bathroom whatever color makes you happy.

But I did get at least one decent recipe out of the inbox before deleting it. Only 2,500 to go, and then it's off to zapping NextDoor rants.

Roasted squash salad with bacon and pumpkin seeds

Adapted from Cooking Light. I can't find the original recipe to link to but I believe it was in the October 2005 issue. If you’re looking to restore its lightness, go for cooking spray instead of olive oil, 1 slice of bacon instead of 3 and half the amount of dressing.  Serves 6 as a side course or 4 as a main dish.

Ingredients

4 cups cubed and peeled butternut squash (1-inch cubes), half of a medium squash

2 teaspoons olive oil

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar

1½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

3 slices of bacon

1 medium shallot, minced

10 cups mixed salad greens, about 10 ounces

Toasted pumpkin seeds for garnish

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss squash with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes or until tender, stirring once half way through cooking time. 

Combine vinegar, mustard and a sprinkling of salt and pepper in a large bowl. 

Cook bacon until crisp. Remove from pan and chop into pieces when cool enough to handle. In bacon fat, cook shallots until just tender. Add shallots and some of the bacon fat to vinegar mixture in bowl and combine. Add greens to bowl and toss to mix. 

Place mixed greens on plates. Top each plate with bacon and pumpkin seeds. 

Rating: A nice tasty main course for lunch along with a bowl of soup. The bacon fat helps temper the sharp tang of the vinegar and mustard and the squash mellows things out. A fairly fast fix and reasonably pantry friendly, so I might pull this one out again.

Kale cobb salad

Adapted from Rachael Ray Magazine July/August 2015

Note: The original recipe specified turkey, but I no longer see cooked turkey breasts in stores the way I used to, so I opted for chicken. Depending on the size of your bacon, you may find like I did that three slices of bacon would overwhelm the salad. If your bacon is the thin spindly type, opt for three slices, but if it’s Midwestern farmers market-cut bacon, two is plenty. Serves 2 amply as a main dish salad.

Ingredients
 ¼ cup olive oil
 ¼ cup chopped shallots
 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
 1 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves roughly chopped (Dinosaur kale works well here)
 2-3 slices bacon, cooked and roughly chopped (see note)
 2 ounces cooked turkey or chicken breast, chopped
 2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
 1 avocado, chopped
 2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese (I used Deer Creek’s Blue Jay since I had part of a wedge to use up)

Method
Combine olive oil, shallots, vinegar and mustard in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste.  In a large bowl, combine kale leaves and all but about a tablespoon or so of the dressing. Massage in dressing to mix well and soften kale.

Put dressed kale on two plates. Top each with half the chopped bacon, turkey, eggs, avocado and blue cheese. Drizzle top with remaining dressing. Season top with cracked pepper.

Rating: Dave really liked it, possibly because it's a very sturdy salad. It didn't blow me away, but it is a good sort of salad for using up bits of things.

Radicchio salad with blue cheese dressing

From Bon Appetit, October 2025

Note: If you can’t find blanched hazelnuts, the recipe suggests walnuts, pecans or almonds can also work. If you can only find raw hazelnuts and want to blanch them, heat a quart of water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and add 1 tablespoon of baking soda per cup of hazelnuts. Once the fizz dies down, add raw hazelnuts and boil for 4 minutes. Then drain the hazelnuts and plunge into ice water. At this point, the skins will largely slip right off. But while it’s easy, it’s still time-consuming, because it’s amazing how many individual hazelnuts are in a half cup, so I highly recommend this as a do-ahead step, Is it absolutely necessary to remove the skins? Technically, no, they are edible. But once you try toasting them you’ll find out that the skins are then sort of half on half off and the loose skins aren’t generally the texture you’re looking for in most recipes. There are some recipes that call for skin-on, but I’d advise following whatever the recipe suggests for blanched vs. raw.

The recipe also suggests you can use a mix of the standard reddish-purple radicchio we tend to see in stores locally with the less commonly seen castelfranco radicchio, a very pretty burgundy-dappled green leaf variety, which I might have to try from seed, because gosh, that’s lovely.

Ingredients

4 ounces blue cheese (I used Gorgonzola)
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ cup blanched whole hazelnuts
½ medium butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, lightly chopped
¼ teaspoon salt
1 medium head radicchio, separated into leaves
1 medium head endive, leaves separated and torn if large
1 small shallot, thinly sliced, divided

Method

Combine blue cheese, olive oil, vinegar, syrup, Dijon mustard and ½ teaspoon kosher salt and pepper in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. (it will be thick-ish.) This can be made up to a couple of days ahead; it stays emulsified.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and toast blanched hazelnuts (see note) on a rimmed baking sheet for 8 to 10 minutes until nuts pick up a slight color, shaking once as it bakes.  Set aside to cool.

Leave oven at 400 degrees. Toss squash cubes with 2 tablespoons olive oil, rosemary and ¼ teaspoon salt. Arrange in a single layer on rimmed baking sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the cubes are tender and pick up a bit of color.

Combine radicchio, endive and a pinch of salt and generous grind of pepper in a large bowl. Add squash and about half each of the dressing, the hazelnuts and the shallot slices, tossing to combine well and coat leaves with dressing. Add more dressing if needed. Mound onto plates or a platter, then garnish with remaining hazelnuts and shallots. You can pass the remaining dressing on the side if you like or save for another use.

Rating: I would describe this recipe as better as a sum of its parts than any individual component. The blue cheese dressing is very unlike your standard white stuff out of a bottle. Unlike some dressings that you would marry, drench anything with or engage in other obsessive behavior, on its own it's interesting but not one you would write home about. It makes copious leftovers, and my first thought was what the heck am I going to use that for? But after trying the salad, I would say it works. The main impressions of the salad are crunchiness and really nice residual flavor.  It's a good choice paired with an otherwise mild meal, like roasted pork tenderloin and brown rice. Not the lookiest of salads, and some of the flavors might be a little assertive for less adventuresome eaters, so I don't know that I'd trot this one out for company as is.

Leftover note: I opted for cutting down the fresh ingredients to make a more consumable portion, since I figured the mixed salad wouldn't really keep well. That meant I also had some roasted squash with rosemary leftover to use to make a pizza topping with goat cheese and bacon. As for that dressing, it takes sturdy greens like kale and shaved Brussels sprouts to stand up to it. It doesn't really lend itself to being repurposed as a dip or spread.

Chicken salad with tahini za'atar dressing

Sometimes you have to wrestle with a recipe a bit before you land in a spot that suits you.

This recipe appealed to me on several accounts. For one thing, once the snow recedes, it's chive season in my alley garden until snow falls again, so I'm always happy to find new recipes to use what amounts to a free commodity at my house. Also, I had bought a small jar of za'atar to use in another recipe that, ahem, I have yet to make, so it's a spice purchase guilt that needs to be assuaged. 

What didn't appeal to me about the original recipe was it was designed for a lettuce cup form. I object to it on the grounds of both structural integrity — pretty soon after you start eating them, you're basically looking a deconstructed salad that requires utensils — and it calls for romaine lettuce. I get why they specified that: With its firm ribs it's as good a candidate as any for trying to stand up to being pressed into service as a bread replacement. But while I can eat the leafy parts of romaine without ill effects, the ribs contain the same substance that makes iceberg lettuce crunchy, and me and a small subset of the population nauseous. 

So first I figured I'd just toss it all together like a salad.

Tahini chicken salad

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens, March 2023. If you want to make the original recipe, buy romaine leaves to serve as lettuce cups. Not finding it on their website to link to, however.

Ingredients

¼ cup tahini
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons za’atar spice mixture
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ cup salt
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1 cup finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Lettuce or other green leaves for lining bowl
1 cup thinly sliced cucumber
1 cup chopped cherry or grape tomatoes

Method

In a small bowl, combine tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, mustard, za’atar, cumin and salt. If tahini is thick, add a bit of water to get desired consistency.

In a medium bowl, mix chicken, celery, chives and enough of the dressing to reach desired consistency. I found it took much of it, but not all of it.

If serving as a salad, place lettuce leaves at the base of a bowl (or plates if you’re plating it instead of passing it). Top with chicken mixture. Top with cucumber and grape tomatoes. Pass extra dressing on the side.

If you’re serving as a wrap or sandwich, spread a thin layer of extra dressing on the wrap or bread. Top with cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce and roll up or top with the second slice of bread.

Rating: That dressing is very tasty and it make a very nice chicken salad dressing base. The cumin and za'atar add a really nice flavor to the tahini dressing. But even with water added it's too sludgy to really play well with the lettuce greens and just turns them to mush.

Take 2: So I tried it again as written above, this time mixing the chicken, celery and chives and placing that on a bed of lettuce with the cucumbers and tomatoes on top. It worked better, and I still really liked that dressing mixed with the chicken. (That dressing could totally work as a veggie dip.)

Take 3: But what I realized is this really wants to be a wrap, just not in lettuce form. or else a sandwich. Otherwise there's just too much disconnect otherwise between the lettuce component and the salad itself. Sure enough, in wrap form, this was a dandy chicken salad sandwich.

Smoked fish salad with dill dressing and potato chips

 

The recipe was billed as an excuse to eat potato chips. I can't argue with that. Here they stand in for croutons in a salad. I had to make this one because the dill came up and tried to take over the yard.

I substituted candied salmon for the smoked trout because the trout price made me go eep! The salmon did too, but it was $4 less eep-inducing so I opted for that.

Smoked trout salad with dill dressing and potato chips

Adapted from the Washington Post as published in the Star Tribune Taste section. Serves 2.

Ingredients
5 ounces cucumber, thinly sliced (the original recipe calls for Persian)
¼ cup white wine vinegar
Dash of sea salt
Pinch of sugar
3 cups mixed salad greens
6 ounces smoked trout or other smoked fish
1 small bunch of fresh dill, divided
2 tablespoons grainy brown mustard
1 teaspoon honey
2½ tablespoons olive oil
Potato chips for garnish (I used Lay’s dill-flavored chips)

Method
Combine sliced cucumbers, vinegar, salt and sugar in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake vigorously for at least 30 seconds.

Line two plates with salad greens. Flake salmon over top of the greens on the plates. Drain cucumbers, reserving liquid. Strew the cucumbers over top of the salmon on the plates.

Pour liquid back in the jar. Chop half of the dill and add that to the jar along with mustard and honey. Mix well and drizzle in olive oil, stirring as you go. If it resists emulsifying, put the lid back on and shake it.

Pour dressing over salads. Top with potato chips, breaking up the larger ones, and top with remaining dill fronds.

Rating: Nice spring or summer salad. We used some gem-like red lettuce from the farmers market and some volunteer green lettuce from the garden along with a bunch of that volunteer dill. Perfectly fine as is, and the potato chips aren't a bad touch. If I make it again I might try letting the dill infuse the white wine vinegar a tad long. 

Note: The recipe calls for shaking the cucumbers vigorously with vinegar, sugar and salt on the theory it bruises the cucumber and causes it to release liquid. Not sure if that happened or not; I used mini snacking cucumbers instead of the Persian cucumber called for because there wasn’t one in the store. Plus, when you’re using a partial cucumber you know you’re going to wind up tossing it in the compost because an opened cucumber turns from a solid to liquid even more dramatically than a cat.

Honey Dijon dressing and chicken, feta, tomato pasta salad

 

Aside from whomping up a vinaigrette as needed, the honey mustard dressing used in this salad is kind of our house dressing. Both it and the salad have been stand-bys for decades.

 

Bistro chicken with feta

Adapted from a recipe promoting Athenos crumbled feta. After this much passage of time, I can't remember whether it was in a magazine ad or on a package. It specified their basil-tomato version, but it works fine with any good feta.

Ingredients
1 pound penne or rotini pasta, cooked until al dente and drained
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered if large or halved if small
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
½ cup honey Dijon mustard (or to taste)
⅓ cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves, torn (a bit of lemon basil is especially nice in this recipe)
¼ cup chopped red onion
¼ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (oil-packed and drained)
2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, grilled and cut into bite-size chunks

Method
Mix all ingredients. Serve warm or chilled. (If you’re going to serve it chilled, err on the side of more dressing to keep it moist.)

Rating: It's like cheating, really, to combine those ingredients. It comes together quickly and keeps well. It's been on many a picnic with us. You could skip the chicken if you wanted to make it vegetarian and it would still hold up flavor-wise.

 

 

Honey-mustard dressing

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens “Great Cooking for Two.” Any kind of Dijon-ish mustard will do. Makes about ¾ cup.

Ingredients
⅓ cup light olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons Dijon or coarse grain mustard
1 garlic clove, minced

Method
Whisk ingredients together. Can be made ahead, but it’s best to allow it to come closer to room temperature before using.

Rating: There's a reason this sweet-tangy concoction is our house dressing. It's like the little black dress of dressings. It works as a basting sauce for grilled chicken or veggies, and if a pasta recipe needs just a little brightening, a smidge will give it subtle help.

 

Mango couscous chicken salad with sesame ginger dressing

 The Asian chop salad kits are among my top short-cut food vices, and the bottled Asian dressing is pricey enough even on a Lunds' BOGO, so this dressing definitely caught my eye. The salad itself was born out of what was in the house. It keeps fine enough so it works as a make ahead I can grab on the way out the door.

Mango couscous chicken salad with sesame ginger dressing

Ingredients
⅔ cup couscous
1 cup water
¼ teaspoon Tajin or salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onions
⅔ cup chopped cucumbers
1½ cup kale leaves cut into narrow ribbons (discard any ribs and stems)
1 cup radicchio cut into narrow ribbons
1 cup mango cut into ½-inch pieces
1 cooked chicken breast half, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons raw cashews, lightly toasted, plus more for garnish
Sesame ginger dressing to taste (see recipe below, or you could use a bottled Asian dressing)

Method
Bring water to a boil in small sauce pan along with Tajin. Remove from heat, stir in couscous, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and transfer to a bowl to cool.

To cooled couscous, add red onions and cucumbers. Toss to distribute. Add in kale, radicchio, mango, chicken, cilantro and cashews. Stir in enough of the sesame ginger dressing to moisten, tasting as you go to reach desired consistency. You’ll likely have half the dressing left over for another use, but the couscous does absorb a fair amount.

 

Sesame ginger dressing
Dressing adapted from “Live Life Deliciously” by Tara Teaspoon, aka Tara Bench

Ingredients
¼ cup seasoned rice wine vinegar
¼ cup fresh lime juice
½ tablespoon tamari
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
⅔ cup canola oil

Method
Combine vinegar, lime juice, tamari, honey, ginger, sesame oil and seeds. Slowly stir in the canola oil, whisking constantly. Cover and refrigerate if not using within an hour. It will separate the minute your back is turned, so you’ll need to stir it before use.

Rating: The salad is a nice blend of softness and crunch, sweetness and tang. I stayed on the conservative side of adding the dressing, so it was more of a complementary flavor note than the star, but it can certainly work as an admirable stand-in for that stuff that comes in the salad kits. Bonus points for no annoying and wasteful plastic packaging. 

I keep a few metal forks in the office for civilized eating (well, as civilized as eating at one's desk can be), and I really like these ceramic bowls with microwave safe lids for toting lunches.

Chickpea salad with tuna, feta and red peppers

 

This recipe is a good choice now that we're back in soup and a salad mode. You can make it well ahead, so it's quick to get on the table between meetings. OK, really between my meetings and Dave's workouts.

Chickpea salad with tuna
From Better Homes & Gardens August 2020

Ingredients
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained
4 green onions cut into 1-inch pieces
½ cup chopped roasted red peppers
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 (12-ounce can) oil-packed tuna, drained
½ cup crumbled feta

Method
Combine lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add chickpeas, green onions, roasted peppers and parsley. Let mixture stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Add tuna and feta and serve, or chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve. The recipe says it serves 6, which seems reasonably accurate.

Rating: If you like cumin, you'll probably like this salad, since it stands out among the other flavors. Very substantial salad, with bright flavors. Points for the Italian flag color effect.