Salads to Linger Over With Hetty Lui McKinnon
The secret to meaningful gatherings? Make these prep-ahead salads and actually spend time with your guests.
“Most of my books come from some sort of personal yearning,” Hetty Lui McKinnon tells me as she settles into the studio. This one she remembers quite distinctly: “I thought, what am I missing? And the answer was almost instant.”
“The opportunity to stop, slow down, and just enjoy other humans is something that we don’t do enough right now,” Hetty reflects. “We can pretend we do it on our screens, or that we have so many friends because, look how many followers we have! And none of those things are real.”
Three weeks after this realization, she invited a group for lunch, and thus began to create her new book, Linger, one gathering at a time. (Find Linger on Bookshop here; shop signed copies at Book Larder and Yu & Me Books)
Most cookbooks are the product of months of working solo, then a week or two of rushed photo shoots in a studio somewhere. But Hetty didn’t want to do it that way. She’d invite a few friends for a real meal, make some salads, and snap the pictures before her guests arrived.
The light in each chapter feels a little different as subsequent get-togethers unfolded month by month. “I really wanted to create this really strong sense of place,” she recalls, “so that when the book came to be, everyone that’s using it and reading it and looking at the photos, they almost feel like they’re a part of it. Like they’re in my home with me.”
Salads are ideal for gatherings, she says, because “a table full of salads basically liberates you from being the host that’s in the kitchen and doesn’t actually get to enjoy the meal with your friends or your family. Because you can pre-prep, you can have elements ready, you can have the whole salad ready and, you know, toss it just before people arrive.”
It should be noted that Hetty’s concept of salad is much broader than a big bowl of leaves: “The salads that I like to cook are so much heartier and richer and more robust than that.”
Take her chaat-inspired Potato Chip Salad—you’ll see the full recipe when you scroll down the page. It begins with thinly sliced zucchini that’s seasoned with rice vinegar, sesame oil, salt, and sugar, and pressed of its liquid after a rest in the fridge.
That’s layered with crispy potato chips and a drizzle of spiced yogurt that’s stirred with a bit of tamarind purée. A flurry of herbs plus thinly sliced jalapeño and onion underlines the dish’s freshness. “It’s just this beautiful textured salad,” Hetty says, “that’s a little bit surprising. If you serve it at a dinner party, it would start a lot of conversations.”
The conversations, of course, are the point. “Once you’ve broken bread with someone, you kind of can’t go back to the way it was before. There’s this real intimacy,” Hetty says. “It’s a beautiful human experience to experience a meal together in a home. And I think that having worked on this project and experiencing those moments, I think they’re moments I’m always going to be reaching for now.”
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Thanks to my friends at Knopf, I have one copy of Linger to give away. I think you’ll love this one.
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Hetty mentioned:
Broccoli Salad with pickle-y dressing (NYT Cooking; gift link)
Coronation Cauliflower and Chickpeas (NYT Cooking; gift link)
Sheet-pan Spiced Chickpea and Lentil Salad (NYT Cooking; gift link)
Spring Laksa Salad (To Vegetables With Love)
Borscht-Inspired Beetroot & Dill with Crème Fraîche and Walnuts Salad (excerpted from Community)
Mapo Tofu Salad (excerpted from Linger on Epicurious)
Vegan Dan Dan Salad (NYT Cooking; gift link)
Roasted Grapes and Feta With Grains and Kale (excerpted from Linger on The Department of Salad)
Homiah Chili Crunch (vegan version)
Fly by Jing Xtra Crunchy Sichuan Chili Crisp
Lee Kum Kee Chiu Chow Chili Crisp Oil
Deb Perelman’s Green Angel Hair With Garlic Butter (Smitten Kitchen)
Molly Yeh’s Chickpea Hot Dish
Hannah Che’s The Vegan Chinese Kitchen (Bookshop here)
Nicole Rucker’s Fat + Flour, especially the banana bread recipes (Bookshop here)
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Maggie mentioned:
Marinated White Beans and Artichokes from
’s Nights and WeekendsRed Somerset Grapes from Farm to People
Wattana Chili Nut Crunch
Alexa Weibel’s Roasted Broccoli and Whipped Tofu With Chile Crisp Crunch (NYT Cooking; gift link)
Hetty’s episode on The Dinner Plan last year
Black Sesame Tofu Cheesecake (excerpted from Linger on Epicurious)
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Potato Chip Salad
Excerpted from Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor © 2025 by Hetty Lui McKinnon, with permission from Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
There is much to love about potato chips, but in the context of a salad, what they bring is salt and crunch. Here, I have used them in a layered salad, interspersed with vinegared zucchini, jalapeño, herbs and a spiced yogurt. The dish is loosely inspired by chaat, a sweet, tangy, and spicy snack that originated in India and is now served throughout South Asia. In chaat, you will find a symphony of textures—a carby base, crisp vegetables, tangy chutneys and crispy toppings—often finished with a dusting of chaat masala spice blend. I have incorporated several of those elements here in a salad that is snacky and surprising. I like to use a crunchy potato chip, such as kettle style, and you can also experiment with flavors such as salt and vinegar. The zucchini and yogurt can be prepped ahead, but it’s important to put this salad together just before eating, so that the potato chips don’t get soggy. I suggest setting out all of the elements of the salad at the table and putting it together just as you’re ready to dine.
Serves 2 to 4
Vegan / Gluten-free
2 medium zucchini (12 ounces/350g), very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon sugar
Sea salt and black pepper
4 ounces (110g) salted potato chips
½ to 1 jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced
1 shallot or ½ small red onion, finely sliced
Handful of fresh mint leaves
Spiced Yogurt
¾ cup (185g) coconut or whole- milk Greek yogurt
½ teaspoon garam masala (or a mix of ground cumin and ground coriander)
2 teaspoons tamarind paste puree
1 garlic clove, grated
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper or red chile powder
In a large bowl, place the zucchini, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and a pinch
of black pepper and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or overnight) to soften the zucchini and allow the flavors to come together. Before serving, taste and season with more salt and black pepper if needed.
Make the spiced yogurt: In a small bowl, place the yogurt, garam masala, tamarind, garlic, salt, sugar and cayenne and stir to combine. Taste and season with more salt if needed.
Drain the zucchini, using your hands to squeeze out any excess pickling liquid.
Assemble the salad just before eating: Place a handful of chips onto a large plate. Top with handfuls of the zucchini, jalapeño, shallot and mint and a drizzle of the spiced yogurt. Top with another big handful of chips and then repeat with layering the zucchini, jalapeño, shallot, mint, and a drizzle of yogurt. Repeat the layering process one more time until you have a tower of zucchini and chips. Serve immediately.
Substitutions
Zucchini: cucumber
Potato chips: tater tots or corn chips
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I discovered you, Maggie, last year and you were the gateway to Hetty. Hetty was the gateway to Alexis deBoschnek and now I scroll endlessly and happily through these amazing authors, chefs and recipe creators. Our meals are delicious and creative. Last night my friend’s son asked me “how are your salads?” 😊 I’m growing a reputation!
Let’s see if I can trick my husband into eating zucchini if I pair it with potato chips! Brilliant and thank you!