Stupidly Simple Salad

You know the old trope, “write what you know”.  And most of the time, the things closest to you are too close to notice.  There are those things that you do and see every day, and you’re too familiar with them to even notice what they are anymore, let alone that they might be special or interesting outside of your narrow view of them.

So it is with this salad.

It’s so stupidly simple, I’m almost embarrassed to tell you about it.  But I eat it nearly every day with dinner, I adore it, and I thought I should probably mention it sometime.

It’s three ingredients: arugula, olive oil, salt.  And, as is the case with such simple food, the quality of each of those is important.  But don’t let that hold you back.

I’ve made this salad with some seriously on-the-way-out arugula, all fainting and half-yellow, and the cheapo olive oil I cook with.  It was fine.  Was it better with the aquaponically-grown hyper-local arugula, and the Very Special and Very Pricey olive oil in the tiny bottle?  Of course.  But y’all, it’s just salad.  Let’s not overthink things.

We’re all using Kosher salt, yes?  Lovely.  Do you happen to have some sort of fancy-pants special salt, from some exotic provenance?  Maybe something flavored?  Even better.  I’d avoid table salt, though; it tastes a little… dirty, somehow.

There is no vinegar in this salad.  You can add some if you feel awkward eating an acid-less salad, but I prefer it without.  Stupid.  Simple.  It’s my favorite.