Ham and Papaya Salad

Ham and Papaya Salad

I was going to call this post “Super Simple Supper Salad”, but changed my mind. Since this is about keeping things simple, it seemed right to keep the title simple, too.  I had a busier than normal week. Found myself looking for something fast to make for dinner between classes the other day. It was one of those “rummage through the fridge and hope  something works” moments. With basically three ingredients- and a light dressing – I ended up with a really nice meal. I think it  worked so well because I had a nice mix of flavors that worked well together. I started with the last of the ham from Easter, just a cup (or less) of cubes.  I also had almost half a fresh papaya. Salty and sweet go well together so that made sense. I cubed up the papaya and added it to the bowl with the ham. It needed one more element, at least. Texture was what was lacking. Ham- soft. Papaya- soft. I needed some crunch. I had an English cucumber so I decided to cube up some of that. I didn’t think the salad needed a dressing, but cucumbers are a little bland- so before I added the cucumbers to the dish I took a little cider vinegar, added just a pinch of sugar, salt, pepper and dill. I poured the dressing over the cucumbers cubes and then added them to the ham/papaya mix.

I really liked it. More than I thought I would.

I won’t pretend this was some ground breaking new recipe. You aren’t going to find it on the menu of any fancy restaurants. But simple doesn’t have to mean boring and fast doesn’t have to mean junk. It was really good and was just the sort of meal I needed at that moment.

So rummage around and try new combinations. You’ll have some hits and some misses. Sometimes, you might even get lucky and end up with a really nice, new recipe.  You won’t know until you try.