Creative Salads

Recently, I've been making salads and bringing them to dinner parties. My friends rave about my salads and consistently ask me how I make them. I think that there are 2 important factors in making a good salad: 1) creative ingredients, and 2) good color.

I try to mix things up (pun intended) by choosing from a wide variety of lettuces, vegetables and/or nuts when composing a salad. I don't tend to make your average lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots salad. Rather, I'll char some brussel sprouts, roast some asparagus, or toast some pignoli nuts. I often make my own dressings as well, because high-quality extra-virgin olive oil and herbs beats processed ingredients any day.

In the next few days, I'll post some of my favorite salad recipes. Here's one, just for a taste...

Boston lettuce with charred broccoli, avocado, tomatoes and Caesar dressing

Ingredients:
for the salad:
1 head Boston lettuce
1 package broccoli florets (or one head of broccoli, trimmed into florets)
1 package grape tomatoes
1 ripe avocado
frozen shelled edamame
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
pinch salt
pinch pepper

for the dressing:
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 pressed/minced garlic cloves
1/4 tsp fresh coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup fresh grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions:
Mix the dressing ingredients until well blended. Allow to chill for one hour before serving.

Pour olive oil in saute pan and allow to heat. Add broccoli florets, salt and pepper, and ignore. In a pot, boil water with a pinch of salt. Once water is boiling, add shelled edamame beans and follow package cooking directions. While broccoli and edamame are cooking, rinse and chop Boston lettuce. Rinse grape tomatoes and cut each one in half. Cut avocado into 1-inch squares. Add lettuce, tomatoes and avocado to salad bowl.

Broccoli florets should be cooked on one side now, so flip them in the pan. I like to let the florets char on one side and then cook them a little less on the other side. You get that nice brown coloring on one side, and a bright green on the other. Once cooked, remove broccoli from pan and allow to cool on a plate. Strain edamame beans and run them under cold water to stop cooking. Allow to cool. Once broccoli and edamame are cool, add them to the salad bowl.

Toss with dressing and serve.

- The Grazer