I had a roasted beet Greek salad with olive vinaigrette at a favorite LA restaurant, Jon & Vinny’s, and asked myself, “why didn’t I think of this??” The olive vinaigrette was a great twist (instead of having whole olives in the salad) and I am always trying to find ways to enjoy beets since they’re so good for you. If you hate olives, no big deal. Just omit and add a little more salt to the dressing to taste. You may try some capers instead which are also briny and salty. Since restaurant prices and extra fees are making dining out a very expensive activity, I have been posting more and more restaurant dupes on my social media channels.
Sometimes, a little freshening up is in order. I put this chopped grilled vegetable salad on my weekly dinner planner and when I pulled the image for it, I cringed a little. The photo did not do it justice at all. This salad is one of my absolute favorites and one that I posted almost 5 years ago. In all fairness to me, I didn’t even know how to use a camera when I started this blog, and although I am still no photography expert, I think my images have improved since 2011. So I thought I would pull this post from the archives and give it a facelift, especially on the eve of Memorial Day weekend when you might be inclined to make a fantastic, crowd-pleasing salad such as this one.
Although I love planning and cooking the whole Thanksgiving meal, a few years ago I decided I was just plain bored with the same old same old. The problem was that no one else was. My family and regular Thanksgiving guests wanted no deviation from tradition. I hinted at the notion that maybe, perhaps I would replace the standard stuffing with a fabulous grain-based recipe I had been testing. A rebellion!!! Oh, come on people. Like you need more bread? Fine, the stuffing stays. But that didn’t prevent me from trying to show everyone how overly starchy Thanksgiving is. So I asked, “Can we do away with the mashed potatoes or make them more interesting with some roasted garlic or cauliflower puree?” I’m sure you can guess how that went.
Someone asked me the other day what is my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal. I’ll give you three seconds to guess. Okay, time’s up. The vegetables! Too obvious, I know. Actually, it’s really the salad that is the highlight of the meal for me because I can change it up every year and it’s the only way I get to have any fun at all. The beautiful colors of the vegetables do a lot to balance out all that beige, not to mention balance out all the carbs. I also love eating something raw with all that cooked food. But from a logistical perspective, salads can be made without the use of a stove or oven, which is a saving grace on Thanksgiving. And, as if it couldn’t get any better, salads, for the most part, can be prepped in advance.
This butternut squash salad is something I made for Thanksgiving a few years ago and I still make it often for entertaining or for potlucks during the fall. It’s beautiful, healthful, delicious and showcases the season’s great produce. I have a theory that fruits and vegetables that grow during the same season usually complement each other very well.
On that note, there aren’t too many fall salads that wouldn’t be more fabulous with the addition of a handful of pomegranate seeds. In fact, I think every Thanksgiving salad I’ve made in the last 8 years has had pomegranate seeds scattered throughout. My kids and I are obsessed with them. It was a happy day in our house the day I came home from the farmer’s market with the first pomegranates of the season. I’ve even taught my kids how to seed them — Mr. Picky, who is a Virgo, is rather meticulous about getting every last seed out. We open the pomegranates under water and gently push the seeds away from the peel. It’s actually quite therapeutic, but more importantly, it keeps me from making a trip to the dry cleaner. Also, people tell me that the already seeded pomegranates always seem a bit soggy. They’re certainly much more expensive and why would you pay your grocery store a premium when you’ve got kids to do the job?
Butternut Squash Salad with Pomegranates and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
Place the pumpkin seeds in a skillet and toast over low heat until lightly browned. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. Remove from heat and set aside. Try not to eat them all while you’re cooking everything else.
Toss the squash with thyme and olive oil or coconut oil and place on 2 baking sheets. Season with sea salt and pepper. Roast for 35-40 minutes, turning once until tender and caramelized.
For the dressing: in a small bowl combine lemon juice, pomegranate juice, shallot, maple syrup, sea salt and pepper. Whisk in olive oil until emulsified.
Place salad greens on a platter and toss with enough dressing to coat lightly. Separately drizzle the butternut squash with some dressing and add to the greens. Sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds and pumpkin seeds. Taste for salt and pepper.
Notes
Dressing can be made a few days ahead and kept refrigerated.Pumpkin seeds can be toasted the day before.Salad greens can be washed and dried a few days in advance and rolled up in a damp kitchen towel or plastic bag and kept in the refrigerator.Butternut squash can be cut up the day before and kept refrigerated.Pomegranate can be seeded several days in advance and kept refrigerated.
Did you know that grapes have a season just like every other fruit? Right now is peak grape season in California and they’re scrumptious. In a few months, the season is over and the grapes in the supermarkets will have been flown in from all sorts of exotic locales that I would love to visit one day. But for now, we are enjoying organic, locally-grown grapes while they last. When the season’s over in a month or two, we’re moving on to pears and persimmons. I always buy organic since grapes are one of the foods on the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list, which means they’re pretty heavily contaminated when grown conventionally.
My mother-in-law has a favorite salad that she eats regularly at a restaurant in Park City, Utah and she asked me to copy it at home. The Grape and Gorgonzola Salad she likes is presented kind of fancy, like a tower with the mixed greens on top, definitely not how I arrange salads at home. Salads are a dish that are usually the easiest to replicate because you know exactly what’s in there and dressings are generally a ratio of 1 part acid to 3-4 parts oil, plus salt and pepper. Last year I served this for Rosh Hashana lunch instead of the salad with sauteed apples that I always do, and we loved it so much it was a repeat this year.
I’m not normally a big cheese eater, but this salad is an example of how I do like to eat cheese. I usually stick to goat or sheep dairy, which is way more digestible than pasteurized cow dairy for most people. I will take raw cow dairy over pasteurized for the same reason. And I like to use a cheese with a bold flavor so that you don’t need very much at all to make a statement. A little goes a long way. Gorgonzola is a type of blue cheese, more mild than most blues. The only Gorgonzola I could find at Whole Foods was pasteurized cow, so I selected a piece of genuine Roquefort, a similar blue cheese made from sheep’s milk, which is also rich in lauric acid, a powerful immune boosting fatty acid. It was a good thing I was in the kitchen this morning when my husband almost threw out the brand new wedge of Roquefort, thinking it was a science experiment gone bad. All those blue veins kind of threw him off a bit. He looked at me in disbelief when I told him the mold in the cheese was put there on purpose and it’s actually good for you. The blue or blue-green mold running through it is called Penicillium roqueforti which is related to the antibiotic Penicillin and helps fight harmful bacteria in the body. Not something I would recommend to someone who is allergic to mold or is pregnant however, but since I am neither (hooray!), the Roquefort stays.
You may look at this salad and think it seems so simple and boring, but I wouldn’t post it if it were. You know what it tastes like? Like all the flavors on a good cheese plate in a salad, which makes me think that you can substitute figs for the grapes and that would be very delicious. Figs are in season right now, too, I might add. The grapes are juicy and sweet and pair perfectly with the salty, strong Roquefort and you know how I feel about a little crunch in my salad — thank you, almonds! But you know where I’m going here — pecans or walnuts for the almonds, any kind of mixed green especially arugula if you’re just cooking for grown ups. I couldn’t resist a beautiful red-leaf lettuce from JR Organics at the farmer’s market, which I mixed with radicchio for extra color. Mr. Picky and his younger cousins had their salads with grapes and almonds and got to try the moldy cheese if they wanted to, which they didn’t. No problem. I am an experienced mother, who by this point has learned that mold is an acquired taste, after all.
Mixed Greens with Grapes, Gorgonzola (or Roquefort) and Almonds
Dressing:really similar to Everyday Salad Dressing #2
1small shallotminced
½teaspoonsea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2teaspoonsraw honey
2Tablespoonsunpasteurized apple cider vinegar
6Tablespoonsunrefinedcold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
8ouncesof mixed greens
1cupred grapeshalved
¼cupor less crumbled gorgonzola or other blue cheese
¼cupsliced almonds
Instructions
In a small bowl, whisk together shallot, salt, pepper to taste, honey and vinegar. Pour olive oil into the bowl in a steady stream, whisking until emulsified.
Mound greens onto a serving platter. Lightly dress the greens with some of the vinaigrette.
In a small bowl, lightly coat the grapes with some of the dressing and scatter on top of the greens (that way the grapes won't get buried.) Top the salad with the crumbled cheese and sliced almonds. Drizzle with any remaining dressing, if needed.
6 Tablespoons unrefined, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
8 ounces of mixed greens
1 cup red grapes, halved
¼ cup (or less) crumbled gorgonzola or other blue cheese
¼ cup sliced almonds
In a small bowl, whisk together shallot, salt, pepper to taste, honey and vinegar. Pour olive oil into the bowl in a steady stream, whisking until emulsified.
Mound greens onto a serving platter. Lightly dress the greens with some of the vinaigrette.
In a small bowl, lightly coat the grapes with some of the dressing and scatter on top of the greens (that way the grapes won’t get buried.) Top the salad with the crumbled cheese and sliced almonds. Drizzle with any remaining dressing, if needed.
I just spent a lovely four days in Park City, Utah enjoying the clean air and the peace and quiet (outdoors, of course; indoors I have my three kids and two of their friends, so no peace and quiet in the house from noon ’til midnight.) There are no televisions and I insist that the kids leave the phones in their bedrooms so we can hike and dine without the ping of 6 iPhones. Heaven.
Of course, with travel comes a deviation from eating the way I like to eat. I consumed a little too much guacamole and chips a little too late at night, and then someone tried to torture me by buying a container of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter. I had mentioned it was like a more healthful Nutella, not that it was actually healthful. By the end, I missed my juicer and my garden and all I wanted to eat were salads and vegetables. In fact, I was craving this Green Goddess Salad while I was on the plane home.
No, I didn’t name this dressing after you. The original Green Goddess dressing was created at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel in the 1920’s, for the English actor George Arliss. Arliss was staying at the hotel and dined there every evening before he performed in a play called “The Green Goddess.” There are so many variations on this dressing, the base of which is usually mayonnaise, sour cream and tarragon — the only herb I don’t like. Can we still be friends? So considering I am using none of the above, I don’t know if I can actually call it a Green Goddess dressing. One day last summer, I tried to clean out some little bits of herbs that were lingering and blended them into my own version of the dressing and we all loved it. So feel free to adjust the recipe according to whatever herbs you have on hand, even if it’s tarragon. The kids think it tastes a little like ranch dressing. So I made more the next day and used it as a dip for raw vegetables.
Green Goddess is a creamy dressing that’s a nice break from traditional vinaigrettes, and one that works well with crisp and sturdy lettuces. There are dozens of ways to enjoy this salad, even as a main course, since so many things work well with the dressing. Here I used tomatoes and radishes, which are both perfectly obvious, but you can add hard boiled eggs, shrimp, poached chicken, cucumber, avocado, and/or corn. One day I took a few beefy tomatoes from the garden, sliced them up and drizzled this over. Whatever you do, don’t leave out the anchovy paste — it really adds a little salty something and doesn’t taste at all fishy. Your kids and your picky spouse don’t need to know it’s in there. In fact, they don’t need to know anything other than you made up your own Ranch dressing.
1head romaine lettuceleave washed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
Any of the following:
Thinly sliced radishes
Chopped or sliced cucumber
Chopped tomatoes
Cubed avocado
Raw or cooked corn kernels
Quartered hard-boiled eggs
Dressing:
½cupwhole plain yogurtregular or Greek
1cupflat-leaf parsley leaves
3Tablespoonschopped chives
2Tablespoonsbasil leaves
1Tablespoonchopped dillif you have it
1scallionchopped
1-2Tablespoonsfresh lemon juice
1teaspoonanchovy paste or two anchovy fillets
½ - ¾cupunrefinedcold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil (depending on how thick or thin you like it)
¾teaspoonfine grain sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
Place all dressing ingredients except oil, salt and pepper in a blender or food processor. With the motor running, slowly pour in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Toss lettuce in a serving bowl with enough dressing to coat lightly. Either toss remaining salad components separately with dressing or arrange on top of lettuce and drizzle with dressing.
Notes
The original Green Goddess dressing contains lots of tarragon. Feel free to experiment with other different fresh green herbs such as tarragon, cilantro, chervil or mint.For a dairy-free version, use ½ cup silken tofu in place of the yogurt and increase lemon juice to 3 Tablespoons. I’m sure you could also substitute ½ of ripe avocado, but I haven’t tried that.
By now you have figured out that I promote one meal for the whole family. I think there is a beautiful connectedness that comes from everyone sharing the same meal and sharing the same energy from that food. In addition, I believe that we help our children develop better eating habits when we expose them to a wide variety of foods during their lives and we encourage them to try new things. By giving in to the picky eater in the family and making him chicken tenders or buttered pasta every night because he won’t eat grown-up food, we are basically ensuring that he will grow up with only a taste for “kid cuisine” and the flavors associated with it. Not only that, who in the world has time to make more than one meal every night?
Mr. Picky is my 7-year-old and he is a challenge at mealtime even though I have done everything right. I am a great eater and I have set a good example for him (the most important thing.) I have exposed him to every vegetable and whole grain countless times. He has helped me prepare dozens of meals. We have gone shopping together at the supermarket and farmer’s markets. We have planted seeds and grown our own food. And he is still a total pain in the ass neck and still quite picky, although he is slowly coming around. But I am not stressed out about it because Daughter #1 was the exact same way, even worse! Until one day something clicked and now she eats everything I eat from beet greens and bok choy to millet and muesli.
What does this have to do with chicken paillard and arugula salad when 99% of kids hate arugula? Of course they hate it. It is peppery and bitter and their tastebuds haven’t developed to the point that it tastes good to them. I didn’t like arugula when I was 7, but I am a maniac for it now. I even grow tons of it in my garden. So should I cater to the lowest common denominator in my family and prepare arugula-less meals? Heck no! I want arugula salads every now and then with a lemon vinaigrette and thinly pounded chicken breast. It’s one of my favorite quick-fix meals. But this is where I think flexibility should play a role. I will cut the chicken into strips and lay them on top of the arugula so that it is more appealing to my son and I allow him to eat just the chicken. He can look around the vegetable crisper and see if there’s something else that he would like, such as a raw carrot. In this way, I am not making him a whole different meal for him and the rest of us get to eat what we want.
No one likes everything, not even me. I very much dislike papaya, tarragon and poached or runny eggs. If you dislike arugula, feel free to substitute spinach or a crisp romaine. If you dislike chicken, you can add steak or chickpeas and shaved parmesan cheese. This is a great recipe to make for a crowd or for just one. The photo below shows a big platter I made when my cousin Joanna and her husband Anthony stopped by for dinner. I literally came home after they arrived at my house and whipped this together in front of them. The other finished photo at the top is my lunch yesterday when I was working at home testing recipes. As luck would have it, Mr. Picky came home for lunch and asked if I would share my chicken with him. My pleasure, as long as I get all the arugula for myself! One day he’ll be asking for that, too.
Grilled Chicken Paillard with Arugula and Lemon Vinaigrette
Place the chicken breasts one at a time in between to pieces of parchment paper or plastic wrap and pound to a ¼-inch thickness. You can use a meat mallet or a rolling pin. The idea is to get the chicken to an even thickness all around. Remove from the paper and place in a glass baking dish and squeeze the juice of 1 lemon on top. Drizzle with an equal amount of olive oil. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt and black pepper to taste. Allow to sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes.
Heat the grill to medium. In the meantime, prepare the salad dressing. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the inside of a medium bowl with the cut side of the garlic. Add the garlic to the bowl. To the bowl, add 3 Tablespoons lemon juice, Dijon mustard, ½ teaspoon sea salt, and black pepper to taste. Whisk to combine. Pour ½ cup olive oil into the bowl, whisking constantly to emulsify. Taste for seasoning and tartness. Add more oil if necessary.
Remove chicken from marinade and grill a few minutes on both sides until golden brown. Place on a cutting board. Arrange the arugula on a platter and drizzle with enough of the dressing to coat lightly. Cut the chicken into strips and arrange on top of the arugula. Scatter tomatoes on top and drizzle a little more dressing. Or arrange the chicken on a platter and top with dressed arugula leaves and tomato.
Notes
I also love this salad with chickpeas, olives, shaved parmesan cheese, or thinly sliced fennel.Do ahead: you can make the dressing several days in advance and wash and dry your greens in advance, too. Just wrap them in a damp kitchen towel and store in the refrigerator.
Happy summer! I really can’t believe it’s here, but I am just thrilled to bits. Even though I still teach during the summer, I find that my schedule with the kids is a little easier and frees me up to spend a bit more time cooking. The ironic thing is that during the summer, we don’t need to “cook” as much. The weather is warmer and our bodies can tolerate more raw or lightly cooked foods. But this has to be my favorite season for just the sheer bounty of vegetables and fruits available. You can find me literally bouncing around the farmer’s markets in the summer overbuying berries and stone fruits, corn, eggplant, greens and tomatoes. This past Saturday I bought a bushel of mint that was so gorgeous and fragrant, I couldn’t resist. But I should have since already I GROW mint on my patio.
I also love summer since we entertain much more frequently and it’s a wonderful chance to catch up with friends. I enjoyed a little quiet time this morning planning some weekend meals with guests in mind. I have several new recipes I’ll be trying out, like chicken and vegetable kabobs with chimichurri sauce, black bean burgers with a smoky red pepper spread, and cantaloupe and cucumber salad. I’m hoping they get the thumbs-up and I’ll post them before the end of the season. Also, the kids and I have been having fun dipping big chunks of peeled ripe bananas into melted dark chocolate and freezing them. But in as much as I get excited about experimenting, I also love my favorite stand-bys.
One of my regular dishes in the summer is this white bean, celery and mint salad. By now you know I have a thing for creamy and crunchy together and I clearly have no self-control when a healthy bunch of mint seduces me. On a beach day, I like to put the fixings out for a make-your-own sandwich bar. Whether we choose to eat a quick bite at home or pack the sandwiches to go, this bean salad is always the perfect side to chicken salad, grilled vegetables or a humble turkey on wheat. It is a great salad to bring on a picnic since the beans and celery don’t suffer after sitting in dressing for hours. But the recipe is so easy that you might find yourself at home for lunch one day and decide that you can pull a beautiful healthful salad together with that can of white beans in your pantry and a simple vinaigrette.
Beans are a great source of inexpensive, low-fat protein and contain a ton of soluble fiber — so great for helping balance the LDL and HDL levels. I am pretty good about planning meals in advance, so I will usually soak dried beans and make them from scratch, but opening up a can of Eden Organic beans is just fine, although a tad more expensive. Sometimes I add canned tuna to this salad and you really need nothing more, although my girls love to take crusty bread and scoop up the salad and eat it that way. Now would be a good time to mention that I dread BPA, which is a plastic and resin ingredient found in the linings of most cans, as well as water bottles and is associated with several health problems including breast cancer and infertility. Thankfully, Eden Organics and Vital Choice Seafood do not use BPA in their can liners.
Please stop in again for more fresh, healthful and seasonal recipes to share with family and friends. I’m looking forward to a great summer!
White Bean Salad with Celery and Mint (and Sometimes Tuna)
¼cupraw apple cider vinegarpreferably unpasteurized
½teaspoonraw honey
1clovegarliccrushed
1teaspoonsea salt
½teaspoonfreshly ground pepper
1 ½cupschopped celery
1shallotcut into thin half-moon slices ar ½ red onion, small dice
1 ½cupsloosely packed mint leaveschopped
1 7-ouncescan albacore tuna packed in oil or wateroptional, flaked
Instructions
Rinse the beans and pick over for small stones or debris. Soak the beans in cold water overnight with a 2-inch piece of kombu.
Discard the soaking liquid, and place the beans and the other ingredients for cooking them in a 6-quart pot. Add enough cold water to fill the pot half full. Bring to a boil. Simmer 1 to 1 ½ hours, until the beans are tender. Turn off the heat, add the tablespoon of kosher salt and allow to cool in the cooking liquid. Drain and discard the cooking liquid, onion, celery and kombu.
Whisk the dressing ingredients in a small bowl until emulsified.
To make the salad, transfer the cooked beans to a serving bowl. Add the celery, sliced shallot, fresh mint and (optional tuna.) Pour the dressing over the beans and toss to blend. Serve at room temperature.
Notes
*Or you can use 6 cups drained and rinsed canned beans, approximately 3 or 4 cans.** Kombu is a seaweed which helps tenderize the beans and make them more digestible. If you also cook the beans with the kombu, it adds alkalinity. I buy Eden kombu at Whole Foods or from amazon.com
white bean salad with celery and mint (and sometimes tuna)
serves 8
1 pound dried Great Northern or cannellini beans*
1 medium onion, quartered
1 stalk celery, quartered
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 2-inch piece kombu (if you have it)**
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
Dressing:
¾ cup unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup raw apple cider vinegar, preferably unpasteurized
½ teaspoon raw honey
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 ½ cups chopped celery
1 shallot, cut into thin half-moon slices ar ½ red onion, small dice
1 ½ cups loosely packed mint leaves, chopped
1 7-ounces can albacore tuna packed in oil or water (optional), flaked
Rinse the beans and pick over for small stones or debris. Soak the beans in cold water overnight with a 2-inch piece of kombu.
Discard the soaking liquid, and place the beans and the other ingredients for cooking them in a 6-quart pot. Add enough cold water to fill the pot half full. Bring to a boil. Simmer 1 to 1 ½ hours, until the beans are tender. Turn off the heat, add the tablespoon of kosher salt and allow to cool in the cooking liquid. Drain and discard the cooking liquid, onion, celery and kombu.
Whisk the dressing ingredients in a small bowl until emulsified.
To make the salad, transfer the cooked beans to a serving bowl. Add the celery, sliced shallot, fresh mint and (optional tuna.) Pour the dressing over the beans and toss to blend. Serve at room temperature.
*Or you can use 6 cups drained and rinsed canned beans, approximately 3 or 4 cans.
** Kombu is a seaweed which helps tenderize the beans and make them more digestible. If you also cook the beans with the kombu, it adds alkalinity. I buy Eden kombu at Whole Foods or from amazon.com
Mexico is close to Southern California, right? They share a border for goodness sake. Dare I say Mexico is almost local? Well, this is convincing I do with myself during April and May. Why? Because it’s mango season in Mexico and I am MAD for mangos. Yes, we grow mangos in Southern California, but the season is waaaaaay too short for me and the kids. So I’m basically a hypocrite for a few months to satisfy my addiction to a luscious, fleshy, sweet fruit while the other 10 months of the year I turn my nose at melons in the winter or produce from South America. I’m downright indignant when I see Chilean plums in February. Can’t you people wait a few measly months until they’re in season here??
Listen, I’m no Barbara Kingsolver and in as much as I admire her quest to go truly local for a year, except for coffee, I buy plenty of goods that are outside of the 100 mile-radius from where I live. Those foods include flours, grains and fish from Alaska. But there are many reasons I believe in buying local produce. In general:
local is fresher, which very often means better taste and higher nutritional value.
I like supporting local farms and local businesses.
local usually equates to eating seasonally which is a more healthful and more balanced way to stay in harmony with nature. We are given exactly what we need to eat at just the right time of the year. For example, melons and cucumbers are cooling foods and are very appropriate to eat during the summer months. In contrast, pumpkin and butternut squash have a warming thermal nature and help us out in the winter.
buying local can have a lighter environmental impact versus importing produce.
But at the moment, I am buying 10 mangos every week for snacks, mixing them with yogurt, blending them in smoothies and using them in this scrumptious salad. You know how I feel about a good dressing and this one is a favorite. I actually like it just as much as a dip for crudite. There is a bit of cilantro in the dressing, but I have had many cilantro-haters come over to the other side after trying this dressing. Choose a crisp lettuce such as a romaine or butter lettuce and feel free to come up with your own creation. Other possibilities include tomatoes, cucumbers, cooked pinto beans, grilled shrimp or chicken, toasted pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds).
While I’m coming clean about the mangos, did I mention the jicama is from Mexico, too?
¾cupcilantro leaves and tender stemslightly packed
½cupunrefinedcold pressed extra-virgin olive oil
1head romaine lettucethinly sliced, about 8 cups
2ripe avocadospeeled, pitted, cut into ½-inch cubes
½medium jicamajulienned or cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1mangopeeled, pitted and cut into ½-inch cubes
Crispy tortilla stripsoptional see below
Instructions
In a blender combine lime and lemon juices, honey, salt, pepper and cumin. Add the cilantro and blend. With the motor running, pour in the olive oil in a slow, steady stream and blend until emulsified.
Arrange the lettuce on a large platter and drizzle enough dressing to coat lightly. Place avocado in a bowl and gently toss with enough dressing to coat lightly. Arrange avocado on top of lettuce. Repeat with the jicama and mango. Sprinkle with crispy tortilla strips.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush the oil over both sides of the tortillas. Stack the tortillas on top of each other and cut the stack in half. Then cut the halves crosswise into 1/8-inch thick strips.
Spread the tortillas on a heavy, rimmed baking sheet (lined with parchment if desired) and arrange them evenly. Sprinkle with salt and bake, tossing occasionally for 20 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.
