A Quick, Fresh, Chopped Summer Salad

When I come home from the grocery store, I don't immediately chop and prep. I know from experience that chopped carrot and celery for instance, get dry and nasty after a couple days in the 'fridge. Instead, I try to keep ingredients easily accessible, so I can put things together quickly, when my stomach growls, or a craving hits.

This went together in less than 10 minutes and was a wonderful healthy lunch today:

sprouted mung beans

black beans

walnuts

green onions

mini avocado

grape tomatoes

orange mini pepper

celery heart and greens

mini English cucumbers

cubed, sharp Irish cheese

I drizzled this with my favorite healthy, go-to, salad dressing. It's also a great marinade. I've even used it to sauté fresh or thawed frozen fish!

SALAD SEASON IS HERE!!

Remember to Eat ALL The Fresh, Healthy Colors every day!! . . 😁 . . Lin

Asian Chopped Salad

This turned out well, but the dressing started out a bit mild.  I didn't have one that felt like it would be a good option alone, so I worked around the one shown, adding things I felt were needed.  I have Newman's Own Sesame Ginger, but it seemed that would be too strong.  In the end, what this taught me is, with all these cut surfaces, the vegetables are porous.  They absorb the dressing, and, as it marinates, the strong bite is neutralized.  After a couple hours, it seemed the salad needed a little kick, so I added some Newman's Sesame Ginger, which seemed to put everything in a better balance.  

So, if you have a strong Asian dressing that you like, you'd probably be safe using it.  It won't seem as strong as it would on a regular tossed salad.  A friend of mine makes a great kale salad.  She uses Ken's Steak House brand, lite 'Asian Sesame with Ginger and Soy'.   I'll try that one next.

The salad ingredients, and amounts, are pretty straight forward as shown here.  Starting at the upper left, going clockwise, I used: celery, Brussel's sprouts, radishes, 2 mini orange peppers, kale, a 1½" cross-section of a small purple cabbage, and ½ the medium sweet onion.

⅓c tahini dressing

2T toasted sesame oil - (brown, not clear)

1T rice wine vinegar

1T honey

1T toasted garlic

3T Newman's Sesame Ginger dressing

Measure these into a small glass bowl.  Microwave for 30 seconds, then whisk well before pouring over salad.  Toss to coat evenly, then cover and refrigerate 2 hours before serving.  This is good stuff! 😊 Lin