Receta Pesach Salads (Part I): Superfood Chopped Salad
Pesach Salads (Part I): Superfood Chopped Salad
This is a perfect salad for Pesach because it is refreshing, flavorful, and so beautiful and pleasant tasting that you don't even know it's positively brimming with healthy ingredients.
Chopped salads, generally, include ingredients which have been chopped to be uniform. Then, the ingredients are either tossed or composed, depending on the style of the salad.
When tossed, the salad dressing is drizzled on the salad prior to serving and allowed to marinate briefly. Tossing a chopped salad allows flavors and textures to mingle in every bite instead of having to fish for flavors.
To make a composed salad, one can chop all the vegetable separately and compose it on a serving dish, with each individual item placed according to the rainbow of colors, with the dressing on the side. This offers a unique and visually impressive dish.
A chopped salad should be chopped to whatever the size the smallest ingredient may be. For example, in this salad, I chop everything "brunoise," or small dice, approximately to the size of a dried cranberry or raisin.
The Superfood chopped salad is named as such for the "superfoods" contained in this recipe. These are foods that many fancy health institutes like the Mayo Clinic recommend be included in everyone's diet, such as almonds, carrots, apples, avocado, sweet potato and cabbage. The bright colors don't just make for a beautiful salad, they indicate high anti-oxident content and are good for you!
- 1/3 cup purple cabbage, chopped
- 1 granny smith apple, chopped
- 3 tbsp fresh basil, julienned into ribbons (chiffonade)
- 1/3 cup pickled beets, chopped
- 1/3 cup carrots, chopped
- 1/3 cup radishes, chopped
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds or pecans
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries, golden raisins or fresh blueberries
- 1/2 cup canned mandarin oranges or orange sections
- 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
- 1/3 cup jicama, chopped
- 1 avocado (chopped)
- 1 sweet potato, chopped, baked and chilled (optional)
- Citrus Vinaigrette (serve with Superfood Chopped Salad)
- 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar (to taste)
- 1 tsp lemon and or orange zest
- 1 shallot, minced (1/4 - 1/2 cup)
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- 2-3 tsp honey (to taste)
- 1 dash cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil
Combine ingredients and whisk.