Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor by Hetty Lui McKinnon

I’m playing catch up with some of the “best of” cookbooks from 2025. Hetty Lui McKinnon has done it again with Linger.

About the book:

ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF 2025: The Washington Post, The Strategist, Bon Appétit, The Boston Globe, Slate, Serious Eats, and Saveur

“Hetty McKinnon doesn’t write great vegetarian recipes, she just writes great recipes.”

—Nigella Lawson

In her follow-up to the James Beard award-winning cookbook Tenderheart, Hetty Lui McKinnon returns with Linger, a cookbook for those looking to up their salad game. These colorful main-meal salads are inventive and hearty, packed with vegetables and globally-inspired flavors. Linger proves that salads are the most versatile dish, perfect for weeknight dinners, not-sad-desk-lunches, and as a show-stopping celebration meal.

From her salad-delivery days in Sydney to her current career as a food writer and bestselling cookbook author in New York, Hetty has long known the power of salads to connect and create community. In Linger, Hetty presents her salads, sweets and stories in twelve vibrant, loosely-seasonal menus — each of which have their own playlist — that are the perfect blueprint for gathering and entertaining. (From Penguin Random House)

About the author:

Hetty Lui McKinnon is a Chinese Australian cook and food writer. A James Beard Foundation finalist, she is the author of four other cookbooks, including the much-loved To Asia, With Love (2021), the award-winning Family: New Vegetarian Comfort Food to Nourish Every Day (2019), Neighbourhood: Hearty Salads and Plant-Based Recipes from Home and Abroad (2017), and Community: Salad Recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen (2014). Hetty is also the editor and publisher of multicultural food journal Peddler and the host of the magazine’s podcast The House Specials. She is a regular recipe contributor to The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Epicurious.com, and ABC Everyday; and her recipes have appeared in Food52, the Guardian, The Washington Post and more. Born and raised in Sydney, she now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

What I thought…

I reviewed McKinnon’s previous book, Tenderheart, in 2023.  She has another one on the “best of” lists. 

Linger is primarily about salads. Salads helped the author find herself and her calling and helped her find her people (especially after she immigrated to NYC). Linger came about post-pandemic as she “beckoned” her friends back to her salad gatherings—a “deeply moving, emotionally healing and delicious adventure” (8).

I read cookbooks from cover to cover but I know that some will skip straight to the recipes. Don’t. Read every essay that is included in Linger. McKinnon’s voice is pragmatic, sensible, yet poetic. The photos are amazing and were shot in her NYC apartment. The most beautifully photographed dish has to go to the Eggplant Trifle topped with pomegranate seeds (187). All the photos are beautiful though.

All kinds of salads are in Linger, entree salads as well as side dishes. McKinnon does include ideas for menus if you want to create a “vegetable-rich feast” (15). Each chapter is classified by the seasonal menus on page 25. She goes beyond salads though so guests will definitely stay around. Desserty-things include a Spiced Pumpkin Mochi Cake (46), Black Sesame Tofu “Basque” Cheesecake (73), Vegan Meringue (97), Deconstructed Pavlova Board (98), Hong Kong Milk Tea Tres Leches (124), Rhubarb and Rosewater Almond Cake (152), Cherry Tapioca Pudding (172), A Rice Pudding Inspired by Güllaç (196), Plum and Cardamom Galette (216), Almond Jello Float (237), Black Sesame Rice Pudding with Caramelized Asian Pears (257), Matcha and Ginger Custard Tart (276), Sparkly Orange Ginger Butter Cookies (299), Little Christmas Cakes (300). I will not pick which one is the most inventive.

Condiments are included as part of the salad composing process: Turmeric Daikon Pickles (Danmuji) (55), Salted Eggs (Haam Daan) (59), Master Cashew Cream (81), and Salsa Matcha (107),

A few appetizer-type dishes also are found like Gruyere, Jalapeno and Scallion Mochi Balls (69); Potato and Scallion Flatbread (90); Tofu Bread Rolls (123); Candied Any-Nuts (133); and Pickled Mushrooms with Quinoa (148),

There’s even some beverages like Rhubarb and Cardamom Spritz (151) and Iced Tea Fizz (195).

Most recipes include substitution ideas like using squash and sweet potatoes interchangeably; date syrup in lieu of maple syrup; whatever green veggie you have on hand (broccoli or Brussels sprouts, or chard, or kale). I totally appreciated these tips. I don’t have Fu Yu (fermented tofu) but I do usually have gochujang in the fridge.

Because of these substitution ideas, I found these recipes to be totally approachable. There are a few things you might have to order or buy from a local Asian market, but most are doable. I would not necessarily classify her recipes as “fusion” (which I think has become a derogatory comment in the food world recently, but more inventive. She sums it up this way:

I have come to realize that, for me, cooking in itself is an act of cultural translation. It provides me with the vocabulary to process and reconcile the different parts of my identity. This translation infuses my food with soul and context and give me the framework to metabolize the turbulence of thinking and cooking across several cultures at once. (77)

This is a vegetarian book with lots of vegan and gluten free options, too.

Great tips:

• Vinaigrettes are better on pasta salads than mayo ones. (Pasta is already heavy.) (20)
• Adding a bit of spice to dressings creates depth. “Even if it’s something as simple as a lemon vinaigrette, adding a bit of ground cumin can really make things much more interesting” (20).
• If your dressing is too thick, don’t add more olive oil to thin it out (and make it more bitter). Just add water (21).
• Her mother’s hack about reconstituting and freezing dried shitakes is frugal and genius (177).
• The greatest tip has to be to layer your salads in a serving bowl placing the dressing on the bottom, topped with the “hardiest” ingredients and layering up. End with the most delicate. Don’t toss until ready to serve (16).

Recipes that stood out to me:

• Hot-and-Sour Potato Salad (45). Shredded potatoes are stir fried and then tossed with chiles, Sichuan pepper, soy sauce, garlic and rice vinegar. It’s finished with thin cucumber slivers and cilantro.
• Bibimbap-Style Gnocchi with Gochujang Vinaigrette (115). McKinnon was inspired to create this dish from the premade bibimbap boxes from H Mart.
• Falafel-in-Spirit Salad (165). “How can I harness the flavor of falafels, without making an actual falafel?”(165). I think she does it!
• Roasted Baby Carrots with cannellini Beans and Carrot-Top Chimichurri (168). To cut the “green grassiness” of the tops with the “sweet woodiness of the roots,” she adds vinegar-soaked raisins, olives and capers to the mix.
• Potato Chip Salad (171). Inspired by junk food and chaat. What more is there to say.
• Salt and Vinegar Potato Salad (181). This is a salad of vinegary potatoes on top of spinach so not your typical potato salad. McKinnon was inspired by the malt vinegar chips she remembers from her time living in London.
• Buffalo Corn Salad with Celery and Chickpeas (192). There is no Buffalo chicken here but not sure one would miss it.
• French Onion Salad (234). She caramelizes the onions in the oven and mixes their goodness with quinoa, greens and a Mustard and Thyme Vinaigrette
• Roasted Grapes and Feta with Grains and Kale (254). This dish was inspired from one that roasted grapes with feta, then serving it on bread.
• Sparkly Orange Ginger Butter Cookies (299). This is a holiday favorite and is gluten free but I am going to make them with regular flour.

These were all so tempting, but my first one I tried was the Buffalo Corn Salad. It’s pretty easy to whip up. You fry up the chickpeas, remove from the pan, add the corn and season it with some hot sauce and spices and then make the salad. The ranch dressing is amazing as well.

Mine was more of a composed salad.

The corn recipe would be perfect as a side by itself. The chickpeas are a yummy snack. And, that dressing is an amazing dip. I will make this again.

We liked an additional drizzle of Buffalo Sauce (which didn’t make the photo shoot).

Don’t forget about the playlists curated by McKinnon’s daughter, Scout. One son is named Huck too!

This is such a great book. Check it out. Linger more with your veggies to linger more around your table.

I’m linking up with Foodies Read.