What to make if you want something quick and healthy for lunch? A chopped salad using everything you can from your spring garden!
Right now I’m lucky to be harvesting celery, radishes, spring onions, garlic, carrots, beets, cucumber and a variety of lettuces which all work well in a chopped salad. If you don’t have enough of these ingredients, your local farmer’s market will definitely have these vegetables for you. I like adding garbanzo beans (organic and canned, to save time), salami, manchego cheese, and a generous helping of avocado as a garnish. I also happened to have some peas which I tried in today’s salad. The entire salad takes only 10-15 minutes to make if all of your ingredients are ready to go.
For my salad dressing, I combined:
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 small garlic clove, pressed
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon Italian herbs
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
I place all of my salad ingredients into a large mixing bowl and add dressing to my taste (not too much, but not too little). I mix all with my hands and then right before I plan to serve our lunch, I add torn lettuce and mix all. Adding lettuce at the last moment, keeps my lettuces fresh and crisp. I garnish the salad with avocado, and am never shy about the amount of avocado I use :).
This salad is delicious and light … a perfect spring/summer lunch!
