I am going to just admit right up front that the title of this recipe is pretentious. I should also admit that I am not entirely positive that I used the word "verdant" correctly. All I know is that the salad I made tonight was comprised almost entirely of green produce so verdant just seemed right to me. If it doesn't to you, I am okay with it. I will just keep calling it verdant in my head!
After many, many, many days of indulgent meals and snacks over the holidays, all I was craving tonight was a fresh, crisp salad with minimally processed ingredients. I have always loved the design of cobb salads and often play around with the ingredients that I neatly line up in rows so that's the direction I went with tonight. I also used the salad as a means of teaching my ten-year-old daughter how to chop fruits and vegetables and how to line them up nicely on the platter. It is never too early to teach about the aesthetics of food preparation!
I always start with a nice crisp green lettuce so tonight I layered a platter with chopped romaine lettuce. Our Costco has artisanal romaine hearts in a pack of five for only $3 so I usually grab a pack every week. One heart makes a perfect sized salad for our family.
For our toppings we used a Granny Smith apple, an English cucumber, an avocado, pistachio nuts (shelled by my four-year-old!), feta cheese, and shredded chicken. For the chicken, rotisserie works great but we have found that our local BBQ restaurant, Archer's, has great smoked and pulled chicken. If you have a good BBQ restaurant close to you, I suggest purchasing your chicken from them. If you live in the Knoxville area and haven't tried Archer's, go now! They have fantastic meats!
You could certainly use any bottled vinaigrette dressing to save time, but those of you who follow my blog know how much I love a good homemade salad dressing! In fact, we are down to one lone bottle of ranch dressing for Emory, my four-year-old, in the fridge since I have found that I always end up making fresh ones despite the number of open dressing we have. For this salad, I opted to use a variation from a salad I love on http://allrecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/9237/winter-fruit-salad-with-lemon-poppyseed-dressing/). I used olive oil as opposed to the vegetable oil the recipe calls for and switched out half the lemon juice for lime. I also used dried "shaky" onions (as my friend Angela calls dehydrated minced onion) to save time. I almost always blend my salad dressings with my immersion blender or food processor. I really think the flavors just meld together better so I do advise doing this.
My daughter, Kitely, suggested we garnish with raspberries but I happened to have some pomegranate arils left from a recent batch of my Winter Guacamole so I scattered a few around the top.
If you are also feeling the need for something verdant, this salad might be just what you need!
Verdant Cobb Salad (click for printable version)
1 head of romaine lettuce, chopped
1 Granny Smith apple, diced
1 cucumber, diced (I like the peel left on for this salad)
1 avocado, diced
feta cheese
pistachio nuts, shelled
Lemon Lime Poppyseed Dressing:
1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 Tablespoon dried, minced onion
1 teaspoon whole-grain or Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
Layer romaine lettuce on a large platter. Make a strip of apple on top of lettuce. Continue with strips of cucumber, avocado, chicken, feta, and pistachio nuts. Garnish with pomegranate arils if desired.
For dressing, combine all ingredients and either blend together or shake vigorously. Allow to sit for at least half an hour for onion to soften and flavors to combine.
