Linger | Hetty Lui McKinnon

Chinese Australian cook Hetty Lui McKinnon understands something essential: salads have the power to connect communities and create belonging. In this follow-up to her James Beard Award-winning Tenderheart, she proves that salads are the most versatile dish—equally perfect for weeknight dinners, entertaining, and those moments when you want to gather people around your table to linger together.

The book's origins trace back to McKinnon's Arthur Street Kitchen days in Sydney, when she prepared inventive salads in her home kitchen and delivered them by bicycle around her neighbourhood. That simple exchange of food became a way to build kinship and community. Years later, now writing from New York, she invited friends to her home for monthly leisurely lunches throughout an entire year—documenting these intimate gatherings in real time as they unfolded.

What emerged are 12 vibrant, loosely-seasonal menus (complete with playlists curated by her daughter Scout) that showcase 100 colourful, hearty, inventive salad recipes along with simple desserts. These aren't side salads—they're substantial main-meal creations packed with vegetables and globally-inspired flavours drawn from her Chinese Australian background. Think bibimbap-style gnocchi with gochujang vinaigrette, creative grain-based and noodle-based dishes, and flavour combinations that feel both familiar and unexpected.

McKinnon excels at providing simple substitutions and modifications, with vegan and gluten-free options throughout. Alongside the recipes sit 12 personal essays reflecting on life, food, and the transformative power of sharing meals with others. This is cookbook as invitation—encouraging you to bring friends to your table, to prove that satisfying vegetarian dinner parties work for everyone, and to remember that anything can be a salad.