SERVICE UPDATE: Starting on Monday, May 25, for approximately 2-3 weeks, we’ll be making significant updates to spaces in our Eastside Branch. During that time certain services will be unavailable and there may be an increase in noise. For a full list of impacted services, click here.

Salad Season Starts Here

May 21, 2026 - Kelly I.
Review

As we look forward to the summer with picnics, BBQs, and patio dinners on the mind, I have the perfect new cookbook to recommend: Every Salad Ever by Greta Podleski. You may remember her as one of the two Ontario sisters who created the best selling Looneyspoons cookbooks, full of great recipes served up with deliciously punny titles. The same approach to wonderfully appetizing and well vetted recipes is included in Every Salad Ever, but here Greta goes out on her own (for the second time) and offers up scrumptious salads.

Clearly written by an expert in cookbook writing, this book is super user-friendly. Bolded ingredients and easy to follow step-by-step instructions are accompanied by some of the most beautiful food shots I’ve ever seen. Every recipe includes a big, glamorous picture; you will be hard pressed not to want to make one of these salads when you take a look. Every single dish looks soooo delicious! I also love that they include fairly common ingredients, often things that you will just have around the house, which makes it easy to whip up a recipe on a whim. When we are all so busy these days, it’s nice not to have to pre-plan a shopping trip in order to try out a new recipe.

Greens, grains, pastas and bean salads, Podleski tackles them all. “Greek-Style Bulgur Salad,” “Chicken Caprese Pasta Salad,” “White Bean Tabbouleh-ish Salad”…so many choices and they are are all so tasty. Each salad includes a quick dressing to make from scratch, and she also includes some great marinades for the chicken, beef and seafood you may want to grill up this summer as a protein side.

This book is so good that it has even made my two teens excited to eat and make salads and if that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is! So happy salad creating, and if you enjoy this one, you may want to go back and revisit Greta’s first solo book: Yum & Yummer: Ridiculously Tasty Recipes That’ll Blow Your Mind, But Not Your Diet!

Kelly I.
Library Assistant, Main Library

Kelly has the great pleasure of spending her time as a Library Assistant at the Main Library. Her favourite things about working at WPL are getting to experience amazing new books all the time, and then write about some of her favourites for the Check It Out blog. When she is away from the library, Kelly loves spending time with her family, who are big into hiking and taking in the great outdoors. Kelly majored in art history at university and so she also loves to immerse herself in all things arts and culture. Her favourite way to spend a Sunday is at an art gallery and then lounging at a café afterwards with a latte in one hand and a great book in the other.