What To Eat Now: Golden Spring Salad

In honor of spring I created a salad last night that I can’t stop eating.  It’s gold and white, pink and purple and of course green.

The gold comes from these sweet little golden mini tomatoes and also from an apple I’d never before heard of called an Opal Golden apple.  The produce guy offered me a slice in the store.  This apple is sweet like a Honey Crisp but has the texture more of a pear.  When I took a bite I imagined this delicious fruit sharing a plate with crispy savory vegetables like parsley and celery.  I could not resist the Easter egg radishes nearby in the produce case – their various hues of purple and magenta fit perfectly into my spring theme.

Cauliflower chopped up fine looks like feta cheese and gives an illusion of dairy naughtiness that really isn’t there.  I topped this magnificent salad off with pecans because there’s something very healthy about putting nuts with greens.  The celebratory nature of the spring season inspired me to go big with the indulgence of the pecan – the fruit of our state tree here in Texas.

After mixing all of these wonderful ingredients together it was time for the dressing.  I needed something simple, nothing that would detract from the font of flavors in my bowl.  For the dressing: yogurt, fresh Meyer lemon, and Udo’s oil, salt and fresh pepper was all I needed.

Then, at the very end, when all the flavors had been mixed and melded together with the dressing I added handfuls of baby kale.

Side note: if I’d had more fresh herbs – fennel, oregano, basil, tarragon – I would have added them all.  In this salad the flat leaf parsley carried the weight of the herbal flavor and did a fine job.

RECIPE

(add amounts to your liking)

Tiny golden sweet tomatoes – cut in half

Celery stalks – sliced

Opal golden apple – chopped

Easter egg radishes – sliced thin

Cauliflower – chopped fine

Flat leaf parsley – chopped fine

Pecans – broken into bits

Udo’s oil – trickle a few Tablespoons around above mixture

Yogurt – drizzle a little more than the oil

Lemon – squeeze juice of one lemon over the top

Salt and pepper

Mix above ingredients well

Baby Kale – add a couple handfuls of baby kale and blend.

ENJOY!