This is no. 3 in a series of recipes that I’ll be testing and sharing from Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. Deb’s ridiculously popular blog gets millions of page views every month, so if you somehow haven’t yet seen it, you should probably take a peek.

Previously: Peas & shells alfredo and vinegar slaw with cucumbers and dill.

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The last time I checked in with a recipe from the SK Cookbook, I wasn’t too excited about it. This one, though still simple, is much better.

I recently started cooking beans instead of buying them in cans, so I’m all about recipes that put that stove time to use. Plus, I needed to try something from the book’s meat chapter, and my options were limited. (Deb pairs this salad with her turkey meatballs.)

For me, what really makes this salad distinctive is the olives. Chickpeas are mellow little fellows, but mixed with olives, the combination is just right. Celery leaves, lemon juice, paprika, and olive oil don’t hurt, either.

Time to fess up, though: I did change a few small things from the original salad. Deb uses sumac, which is not something I keep in my spice cabinet and so quickly swapped out for paprika. Celery leaves stood in for the parsley, and while I think either would work perfectly well, I prefer celery. I just think it has more flavor. My final tweak was to reduce the salt to a tiny pinch. If I have even one olive slice in my spoon, that’s plenty salt for me.

Speaking of salt, I just realized that the three recipes I’ve shared from the SK Cookbook have all been savory. Time to get out the sugar. Stay tuned!

Recipe at a glance:

• Accessible ingredients? Yep.
• Multiple steps required? No. This is a five-minute deal.
• Left with lots of dirty dishes? No and no.
• Taste worth the effort? Definitely. Minimal effort, but great taste.
• Make again? Yes. Weekday lunch, dinner side dish, Shabbos salad, etc.

One year ago: lasagna roll-ups with tomato bechamel

Let me tell you a couple of things about gvina tsfatit croutons.

One: They do not work when grilled alone in a dry skillet. They’ll just melt into little cheese puddles. Two: They do not work when coated in egg and crushed nuts, then browned in oil. You will just find yourself assaulted by millions of little jumping oil particles. [However,] three: Nuts make a considerably better crust than do sesame seeds.

Guys, I’ve learned a lot today.

Now we can talk about the cheese.

From what I’ve seen, gvina tsfatit is an Israeli original. Those of you who live here have likely tasted it, and those of you who have visited may have seen it, too. It’s the kind of thing that will show up on a cheese platter at a hotel breakfast. Or at a Holy Bagel bris.

So what is it, exactly? Gvina tsfatit is like feta, only not quite as sharp and not quite as salty. Its texture is softer than feta, too, and kind of jiggly. You’ll find it sold in containers in a salt water solution, and you slice it rather than crumble it. It’s great as it is, but I decided to make a crouton out of it, anyway.

And once I made that decision, for some reason there was no going back.

Nuts and cheese often work well together, and this is no exception. The crisp almond crust gives shape to the melty cheese inside, and it also balances the saltiness. The almonds should be crushed into pretty small pieces, because they need to coat the cheese cubes as completely as possible. I could have gone even smaller than what you see in the photo above. In fact, I did, when I refilled that dish.

The croutons brown pretty quickly and are easily flipped with a regular fork. Do watch out for the oil, though. Coating them in flour and then egg and nuts helps with that, but still. Better safe than…burned. I actually wore an oven mitt for this part.

Also…please ignore my stove top.

What does one do with a pile of cheese croutons? So many things.

Imagine how fantastic they would be in a classic tomato soup. Or sweet potato soup. Or — ooh! Gazapcho.

Or you could sprinkle a handful over a bowl of leafy salad, or a bowl of non-leafy salad. Like a lentil salad. That would be good. Or a beet salad. That would be good, too. I’m coming up with these ideas as I type them, and I think that’s a good sign. Cheesy croutons go in everything.

Which includes quinoa with cherry tomatoes, fresh lemon juice, and black pepper. They were perfect in that.

One year ago: brown-butter mint chocolate chip cookies

Guess who got sick on Shavuos for the third year in a row? Ding-ding-ding. Guess who spent the entirety of erev chag in bed, and never made her husband’s birthday cake (or the French onion soup, or the homemade bagels, or about 12 other dishes)? Right again. I don’t know what it is with me and Shavuos, but at least I’m feeling like myself again now. And I guess there’s always next year.

In the meantime, there’s lots to do (a belated cake is better than nothing). And as I cook my way through the week, making dinner and testing recipes for future posts, I’ll also be sifting through your survey responses. The feedback so far has been terrific, and I can’t wait to see the rest of it. (Haven’t taken the survey yet? You can do that here.)

This blog is truly a labor of love, but when something requires this much time, energy, and effort, reader feedback becomes really important. After all, if I was only writing this for myself, I’d have stopped long ago.

I want to know what you think! If you’ll take a few minutes to complete this survey, I’ll do my best to implement your suggestions for change. Thanks in advance! -Tali

P.S. Email subscribers: You’ve probably noticed the weird ad links smack in the middle of my text in the last couple of emails. No, I didn’t cut a deal with an irrelevant advertiser, and yes, I’m trying to make that stuff go away as quickly as possible! Thanks for your patience.