Simplify: Salad Toppers

I really cannot tell you how much my new mom friends’ cooking for us meant to me. They had us covered for two weeks’ worth of meals! It was incredible. It was so nice not to think about what we were going to eat, and it was so nice not to order in every night, and I really, really enjoyed seeing how differently everyone cooks. I really cook so much like my mother cooks, and she cooks so much like her father did (though in smaller quantities—my papou always had at least four things going on his stove at any given time and two or three things in the fridge ready for me to taste), and so you can forget that there are hundreds of other ways to cook out there. One thing I really enjoyed was seeing how differently everyone makes salad. For me, I toss some greens with cucumber or grape tomatoes, throw some olive oil and balsamic vinegar on them, and salt it heavily. The end. The salads we got from my friends had so much more to them—nuts, olives, avocado, dried fruit, other raw veggies like carrots, celery, mushrooms . . . it was a great reminder that salads can be colorful and fun! One way to do that and still not spend a ton of time in the kitchen is to make your salad toppers early in the week. Keep dry ingredients together—like shelled-pistachios and dried cranberries (this was one of my fave combos) or sunflower seeds and walnuts (this was another)—and then sprinkle them on top before you serve it.

What are some of your favorite salad toppers?