Serves 4 to 6
I was raised in Southern California in the 1970s, so I’ve eaten my share of poppy seed dressing, globbed out straight from the bottle onto piles of iceberg lettuce or into a pitted avocado. For decades, I turned my back on that cloying, viscous dressing. But then, at some point in life, you embrace your history. You realize you are going to die (someday) and that it’s okay to love what you grew up to love. And, if you’re me, you learn to make poppy seed dressing.
I may be prouder of this salad than of any other recipe in this book because I took a childhood memory and turned it into something modern and healthy and so darned tasty I want to tell the world. I call for barley because I think of it as an old-school grain, something we were eating during the salad days of poppy seed dressing, long before quinoa steamrolled into our lives.
1 cup unhulled barley, cooked and cooled to room temperature (see here; about 2 cups cooked barley)
6 ounces (about 2 cups) mixed crunchy sprouts (from sprouted beans such as mung beans, chickpeas, lentils, or peas)
1 bunch Broccolini
½ cup hulled roasted salted sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon poppy seeds, plus more for garnish
Poppy Seed Dressing (recipe follows)
½ cup broccoli sprouts (or clover sprouts or alfalfa sprouts)
2 avocados, halved, pitted, peeled, and cut into ½-inch cubes
Kosher salt
Combine the barley and crunchy sprouts in a big bowl. Cut off and discard the tough ends of the Broccolini. Snap or cut the florets off the stems and cut or break them into small florets to mirror the size of the sprouted beans and grains. Throw them into the bowl with the grains and sprouts. Trim and discard the tough ends from the stems. Thinly slice the remaining stems crosswise and throw them into the bowl. Add the sunflower seeds and poppy seeds. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss with a rubber spatula or your hands, making sure to coat all the veggie bits with the dressing. Pull the broccoli sprouts apart into small clumps and drop them into the salad. Sprinkle the avocado cubes with salt and add them to the salad. Toss gently to disperse the sprouts and avocado throughout the salad without smashing them. Sprinkle with poppy seeds, and serve.
Makes about 1¼ cups
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
¾ cup canola oil (or another neutral-flavored oil)
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons grated Spanish yellow onion (from about ¼ medium onion, grated on a microplane)
2 tablespoons honey
Juice of ½ lemon
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
Combine the egg yolk and mustard in a medium bowl that will be easy to whisk in, such as a slope-sided glass or stainless-steel bowl. Start whisking, then add the oil to the bowl drop by drop, whisking constantly, until an emulsion forms (see Making an Emulsion, here). Still whisking, begin to drizzle in the oil in a slow steady stream; as the emulsion begins to get very thick, add a splash of the vinegar to thin it. Do this a few times as you are adding the oil until you’ve added all the vinegar and all of the oil. Add the onion, honey, lemon juice, poppy seeds, and salt and stir to combine. The dressing will keep, refrigerated in a covered container, for up to 1 week.