Maybel's Table: The Salad Lab by DarIene Scheijver

Maybel - chef, home cook, and friend of The Juncture - talks cookbooks

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For the last two years I have been working at the salad station at my restaurant job and most days, I really like it.  It’s nice being away from the heat of the stove, I’ve done enough of that over the years. But don’t be fooled, the salad station is still hard work, where multitasking, quick thinking and gentle hands are essential. There are many components that need to be prepped daily to keep the ingredients fresh and good to eat.

So why would I want to review a cookbook about salad? And do you really need a recipe to make salad?  Honestly, when I picked up The Salad Lab: Whisk, Toss, Enjoy!  Recipes for Making Fabulous Salads Every Day by DarIene Scheijver, I saw so many recipes I felt compelled to try.  Like, A LOT.  I had to jump in as soon as possible.

The Salad Lab was started as a way for Darlene to compile her favourite salad recipes for her daughter to take to college.  She ended up making these recipes into videos on TikTok, measuring the ingredients in beakers and test tubes for fun.  Her popularity grew as she took requests from followers, especially when she posted a recipe that a famous celebrity family (their name starts with a K!) were constantly shaking in containers on every episode of their tv show. I’m not a huge fan of trendy TikTok personalities, but I reserved my judgement because the recipes did look interesting.

I decided to start with the Watermelon Feta Salad, because I love this combination. So easy and refreshing, I made it to have with family as we spent the day in the country one hot summer day. The watermelon is cubed and dressed in a lemon dressing, finished with crumbled feta cheese, shallots, fresh mint, and finely diced jalapeños for some heat. For me, it was summer on a plate. Not everyone likes fruit in salad, I usually don’t, (blueberries or strawberries in salads are WEIRD to me) but this salad is my exception. 

My daughter Lily chose the next salad, the Soba Noodle Salad, since we were in the mood for some noodles with lots of crunchy vegetables and edamame. We shopped together at the Asian grocery store near our home and had fun looking for the ingredients, like furikake, a Japanese spice blend made up of seaweed, sesame seeds, dried fish, salt, and sugar. I had never tried it and was excited to try something new. 

The only cooking required for this salad was for the soba noodles and stir frying shiitake mushrooms. The rest was prepping the vegetables: shredded carrots, cabbage, cubed cucumber, sliced sweet bell pepper, and green onions. I put the frozen edamame in a bowl to thaw. The dressing whisked up together quickly with miso paste, fresh lime juice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, grated ginger, and red pepper flakes. Tossed together and finished with a sprinkling of furikake, we ate it as a late lunch and it was fantastic! A fairly substantial salad that could definitely be paired with grilled chicken or tofu to make a satisfying meal. I’m a bit of a salt fanatic so I added a splash of soy sauce to mine. The flavours were great the next day too!

The final salad we tried was the Steak and Chimichurri and this one was definitely the winner out of the three recipes. Juicy rib eye steak, meaty portabello mushrooms, asparagus, and tomatoes with mixed greens and creamy avocado, and a garlicky herby chimichurri, how could it not be good??

The recipe calls for the steak, asparagus, and portabellos to be grilled, but since I don’t have a grill, I seared the steak in a cast iron pan and it worked well. I blanched the asparagus briefly then added it to the cast iron along with the portobellos and they were able to soak up the flavour from the steaks left in the pan. Who needs a grill? I like this method better I think.

The recipe calls for everything to be tossed together, but the chef in me HAD to plate it with the steak on top. It was so good and, because the portabellos were so nice and meaty, this salad could easily be made vegetarian without the steak, and cheaper too.  

Each recipe has drink pairings to try with each salad which can be fun, and there’s a chapter called Salad Lab Elements that includes different croutons, and dressings. I like chapters like this for when I want to create my own salad combination and need some inspiration.

Even though summer is long over, salad days don’t have to be. And do you really need a recipe to make salads? Yes and no. Yes, to knowing a few basic dressings. I think that’s a good skill to have. But after that, you can freestyle a salad based on what you have on hand and what flavours you like. The Salad Lab has some awesome ideas to get your creativity going.

— Maybel