curried cashew chicken salad

In COVID quarantine I’ve gone back to my midwest roots and rekindled my love for egg salad, chicken salad, and next on the list is jello salad (ok just kidding regarding the jello salad). I’ve tried variations on this chicken salad before, sometimes with raisins or dried currants (no thanks, but you go right ahead), or something crunchy like apple or celery (yes please). Here I’ve kept the recipe simple so you can easily substitute ingredients as you prefer or have available, since most of us aren’t stopping by the grocery store as often as we did pre-COVID. If you’ve been experiencing “death by doing dirty dishes” this quarantine, you can be assured that this recipe requires just one mixing bowl and assembles quickly. If you want to get fancy, add some cheese to your sandwich, turn on your toaster oven, and transform this into hot and melty sandwich. Or, keep things simple and eat it cold, because if you are parenting in quarantine like I am, a luxurious extra 5 minutes might be best spent taking a shower instead of cleaning melted cheese off your toaster oven.

CURRIED CASHEW CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH
makes approximately 4 ½ cups filling, about 4 sandwich’s worth

Ingredients:
1 lb. chicken, cooked and cubed (vegetarian option to use tofu)
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 cups seedless red grapes, halved
1 cup toasted cashews, unsalted (I leave the cashews whole, but you can chop them a few times if you prefer smaller pieces)
2 teaspoons curry powder (like hot madras or muchi curry powder)
1.5 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon onion powder or granules
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or granules
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt (less if you are using salted cashews or if the chicken was salted)
freshly ground pepper to taste
for serving: greens, sandwich bread (I like using fresh levain/sourdough), or tortillas

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a medium-large mixing bowl.

To serve: Toast 2 slices of bread and add the chicken salad filling and greens. Alternatively, add the chicken salad to a tortilla and eat in burrito form OR serve in a bowl with greens and eat as a salad!