Linger : Salads, Sweets, and Stories to Savor

The James Beard award-winning author of Tenderheart returns to her roots with a year of seasonal salad recipes that emphasize community, family and the importance of finding time and space to linger.

Hetty Lui McKinnon’s culinary career began with salads. Specifically, a charred broccoli salad. She began making salads at home and before she knew it, was delivering hundreds of salads all over Sydney, Australia. Although her salad cart days are behind her, her love of salads remains. It is this love that inspired her to start the Linger Project, which brings people to the table at her Brooklyn apartment every month to eat, talk and enjoy the sense of community that forms around the table of salads. McKinnon’s goal with these gatherings was to instill a sense of unhurriedness in her guests, giving them a space to slow down, enjoy the food and just linger. In Linger, her sixth book, her fans get to do the same with more than 100 new recipes. 

These salads are not just bland piles of leaves — they are beautiful, rich creations. In fact, one of McKinnon’s salad rules is that salads don’t always have to have leaves. Another salad rule? Anything can be a salad.

• Curry Potato and Pea Dumpling Salad
• Caprese Salad with Grilled Pineapple
• Bibimbap-style Gnocchi with Gochujang Vinaigrette
• Rice Paper Spring Roll Salad 
• Sunchoke and Cannellini Beans with Never-ending Tahini Sauce
• Peaches and Cream with Chili Crisp
• Mushroom, Seaweed and White Bean Burger Salad