Salad Greens with Creamy Roasted Garlic Dressing

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Continuing on with posting recipes for salads, here's a recipe for another simple green salad with a roasted garlic dressing. With oranges going out of season, it can easily be substituted with other fruits (grapefruit, pear, or more apples). Garlic in the dressing might seem odd, but once garlic is roasted, it loses its bitter raw flavor, and becomes mild & sweet. Ever since I discovered how amazing roasted garlic is through the tomato soup I made in winters, I have been experimenting with it ever since. 

Salad Greens with Creamy Roasted Garlic Dressing

Salad Ingredients:

3-4 cups of Shredded/Cut Mild Greens (Mesclun Lettuce/Mixed Salad Greens)
1/4 cup of Rocket/Arugula
1 Apple - cut into slices (optional)
4 Oranges - cut into segments
¼ cup – ½ cup walnuts, toasted 

Dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Roasted Garlic - 2 cloves (Bake garlic in a toaster oven/oven)Lemon Zest - a pinch
salt & pepper
sumac (optional)

1. Blend the ingredients for the salad dressing in a blender for 30 seconds till it is creamy. Alternatively you can add all the ingredients and whisk for about a minute. Taste & adjust seasonings if required. 

2. Take a big salad bowl and add salad greens & rocket/arugula. You can increase/decrease the quantity of the specific type of salad green based on personal preference. Add fruits to bowl.
3.Toss the salad greens together with 2 tbsp of the dressing. Adjust and add more dressing if required.
4. Crush walnuts and then add them on top of the salad.
If you want to save the salad for the next day, then add the salad dressing & nuts individually into your plate otherwise the salad will start wilting once the dressing is added.

Playing Around:

1. Fruits: Substitute the apple for pear 

2. Citrus: Substitute the oranges for Mosambi or Grapefruit

3. Vegetables: Olives, capsicum, carrots or broccoli can be added/substituted

4. Protein: Add grilled paneer, grilled chicken or feta cheese to make it more filling

5. Nuts: Almonds or Pine-Nuts and even Peanuts can be substituted for walnuts 

Read up on my other Salad 101 blog posts below:

Salad 101 - Cleaning & Storing Greens

Salad 101 -Tossing Greens & Adding the Salad Dressing

Salad 101 - Types of Salad Greens

Salad 101 - The Basic Salad Dressing

Resources (Salad Spinners & where to get salad greens in Karachi):

Salad Spinners are available at JB Saeed & Hyperstar (linked below) in Karachi and should also be available at other places.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=134621356576725&set=a.134621099910084.14013.129326953772832&type=3&theater

Where to get Salad Greens in Karachi:

Sungold Organic – Home delivery of Organic Vegetables

Email at Sungoldorganic@gmail.com

Sungold number, 0342-2382731, 0345-2008247:
Growing your Own – Seeds available from Crops in Pots & available from Mom’s Garden

Gardening Help – SWOT’s Guide to House and Gardens & My Kitchen Garden Project

Shops – Assortment of vegetables can be found from Agha’s, Farids, Hyperstar, Empress Market, Defence Sunday Bazaar, & a ‘Sabzi Wala’ near French Bakery at Khadda Market

Reference Books:

How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition
The New Best Recipe by Cooks Illustrated Magazine

Guacamole

I was just checking out my blog stats and I am done to about 20-40 pageviews a day from a considerably high number earlier. Just goes to show what happens if I don't update this blog on a regular basis (Ouch). 

But I am resolving to spend a bit more time on posting recipes since I have been receiving some amazing feedback on how much my recipes are being enjoyed by people! So just motivated to share more. Will probably start writing small introductions (I will try :p), and focus more on the recipe writing. 

Before I begin with the recipe, it is a sincere appeal to all readers who have tried avocados in their life & not liked them to give this recipe a try! Yes - avocados are bland & a little bit tasteless if you try them for the first time. But use them to make Guacamole and I can guarantee that at least the majority of you will be addicted converts! 

Guacamole Dip 

(Serve with Corn Chips/Tortilla Chips)

Ingredients:

1 ripe avocado

1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste) 

1/2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice

1-2 Jalapeno peppers, finely chopped 

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1/2 ripe tomato, seeds & pulp removed, finely chopped 

1 tbsp coriander leaves, finely chopped) - reserve some for garnish

Tortilla Chips or Corn Chips for Serving 

Method:

1. Cut the avocado in half & remove the flesh. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh and put it in a small bowl. 

See this article on How to Cut and Peel an Avocado.

2. Using a fork, roughly mash the avocado. It should still be a little bit chunky so don't overdo it. Add lemon juice and salt. Add chopped onion, jalapeno peppers, coriander leaves, and tomatoes. Mix it all up.

3. Taste & adjust seasonings if necessary. If you like it hotter then add one more jalapeno pepper.

4. Cover with plastic wrap since avocados turn black very quickly. 

Note: When buying avocados, try to get when they are still firm and then put them in a brown paper bag to ripen. There are different ways to tell if an avocado is ripe depending from variety to variety, but the best method is through gently pressing the fruit.

• If the avocado is ripe, it will yield to a minimal amount of pressure.
• If the avocado feels soft/mushy, then it is overripe.
• If the avocado feels firm, it is still under ripe. 

Avocados in Karachi can be found at Agha's, Farids and Hyperstar. They are quite expensive, but the cheapest I have found so far are at Aghas (Rs. 185 for one)