This salad is spectacular. It combines eight colorful vegetables with garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds for protein and added nutrition. The extra-delicious creamy avocado dressing also happens to be one of my family’s favorite vegetable dips. Because my husband and son like their salads heavily dressed, I always double the dressing recipe, which gives them plenty for the salad and extra for vegetable dipping. The salted sunflower seeds take only about 10 minutes to make, but you can skip this step by using plain seeds or packaged roasted and salted sunflower seeds. This recipe makes an extra-large salad, but you can always refrigerate some of the vegetables and greens for the next day. Just don’t dress the salad or add the seed toppings until right before serving. —MYRA
Serves 4 as an entree or 8 as an appetizer
CREAMY AVOCADO DRESSING
1 large ripe avocado
2 green onions, white bulb plus 2 in/5 cm of the green, sliced
1 large garlic clove, pressed
1/3 cup/75 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup/60 ml fresh lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
SALAD
2 romaine hearts, cut into bite-size pieces
4 cups/120 g packed baby spinach
2 cups/140 g thinly sliced red cabbage
2 cups/200 g coarsely grated carrots
1 small jicama, peeled and coarsely grated
2 cups/300 g pear or cherry tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, medium dice
1 yellow bell pepper, medium dice
11/2 cups/420 g cooked garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed if canned)
1/2 cup/70 g Salted Sunflower Seeds (recipe follows)
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp/80 g hemp seeds
To make the dressing: Put the avocado, green onions, and garlic in a blender or food processor. Process to a rough puree. Add the oil, lemon juice, salt, cayenne, and 3 tbsp cold water. Process until the dressing is smooth and creamy.
To make the salad: In a large salad bowl, combine the romaine, spinach, cabbage, carrots, jicama, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, and garbanzo beans. Toss with the dressing. If serving the salad family-style, leave it in the large bowl and top with the hemp and sunflower seeds. Otherwise, divide the salad among individual plates, and top each serving with seeds. Serve immediately.
1 SERVING: CALORIES: 620 | FAT: 41G | CARBS: 53G | PROTEIN: 18G | SODIUM: 810MG | DIETARY FIBER: 76% | POTASSIUM: 43% | VITAMIN A: 290% | VITAMIN C: 290% | VITAMIN E: 20% | THIAMIN: 20% | RIBOFLAVIN: 20% | NIACIN: 20% | VITAMIN B6: 35% | FOLATE: 90% | CALCIUM: 20% | IRON: 40% | COPPER: 30% | PHOSPHORUS: 25% | MAGNESIUM: 25% | ZINC: 15%
