If you’re serving a salad at Easter dinner, don’t forget the carrots! This nod to the Easter bunny makes the Easter salad more fun, and the carrots add crunch, plus antioxidants, beta carotene, fiber, potassium, and heart-healthy vitamin K1.
What else should you go into your Easter salad? If you can, find special ingredients (beyond the romaine, e.g.). Some ideas (choose as many items as you like):
EASTER/SPRING SALAD RECIPE
Ingredients
Asparagus (raw or blanched)
Boston/butterhead lettuce, red leaf lettuce, or mixed spring greens
Carrots, in mixed colors if possible
Grape tomatoes (mixed colors)
Green peas or whole sugar snap peas
Fiddlehead ferns
Mustard greens
Perlini (tiny egg-shape mozzarella balls)
Pecans
Scallions or sweet onion
Strawberries (halved) or other berries
For garnish, you can top each plate of salad with a deviled egg half.
Honey Lemon Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon chopped thyme
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste
Preparation
1. MAKE the vinaigrette. First whisk together the lemon juice and lemon zest, honey, and thyme. Then whisk in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. CUT the vegetables into desired sizes. When ready to serve, re-whisk the dressing if it has separated. Drizzle and toss to coat the salad.
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[1] These carrots have a red skin, but the conventional orange inside. The yellow slices are takuan, a Japanese yellow pickled radish (photo © Gramercy Tavern | NYC).
[2] You can find bunches of carrots in orange, red, and white yellow at Trader Joe’s, among other stores and farmers markets (photo © The Home Grown Collective).
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