It’s Time to Spring into Salads! – Chef Veera

It’s Time to Spring into Salads!

A perfect light lunch or side salad to your springtime dinners, this salad is filled with the bounty of the season!

Fresh vegetables, lots of herbs and a delicious pesto vinaigrette makes this simple, bright, healthy, and delicious!

With just a few minutes of effort, you get to indulge in a textured, flavorful salad that has all the nutritional benefits of seasonal produce

A good salad recipe is always flexible so BE BRAVE, and swap out the cheese, vary the veggies, try different nuts, seeds or greens to make this your own

Happy Spring everyone!

Perfect Spring Salad with Pesto Vinaigrette

Ingredients

(* indicates my preferred ingredients – see notes for alternatives)

2 cups Butter Lettuce

1 bunch asparagus, tender sections only

½ cup frozen peas

1 cup sugar snap peas

2 radishes, thinly sliced

½ cup goat cheese crumbles

1 avocado, pitted and diced

Sprinkle of lemon juice and lemon zest from one lemon

½ cup roasted chickpeas (see Chef Note)

¼ cup toasted and chopped pistachio nuts

Sprigs of fresh basil and mint (or chives and tarragon)

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

½ cup O&V Pesto Vinaigrette *

Preparation

Roughly chop the pistachios and place in a small dry saucepan over a medium heat. Stir occasionally until aromatic and slightly toasted. Set aside to cool.

Dice the avocado and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Blanch the asparagus, peas and sugar snap peas for about 1 minute in the boiling water and then plunge into a bowl of iced water for 1 minute. Drain, pat dry, and chop into bite size pieces.

Toss the asparagus, peas and sugar snap peas with 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.

Arrange the butter lettuce on a platter, place the asparagus and pea mixture over and arrange the radishes, avocado, goat cheese crumbles, roasted chickpeas, toasted pistachios. Sprinkle with herbs and lemon zest.

Drizzle with remaining pesto vinaigrette and top with freshly ground pepper. Serve

Serves 4

Active time 15 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes

Chef Note

Roasting chickpeas

Notes

* The Pesto Vinaigrette  adds a springy flavor to this salad. You can make your own pesto and combine with additional Unflavored EVOO or mix equal parts of Basil EVOO, Marc de Champagne vinegar, some minced basil, salt and pepper to create a vinaigrette for this salad.

All highlighted products are available at Oil & Vinegar stores

Categories: Soups & Salads, Gluten Free, Dairy Free option, Spring Salad, Pesto Vinaigrette, Pistachios, Chickpeas, Sides, Spring Lunch, Summer Entertaining