Spring has officially sprung (from my desk right now I can see yellow daffodils, pink magnolia blossoms, green grass, red cardinals, and blue sky) and this inspired me to create as colorful a salad for the season as possible.
Enter the Rainbow Salad (also known, more prosaically, as the fridge clear-out salad), composed of shredded red cabbage, Campari tomatoes, raw zucchini, steamed corn, roasted carrots, chopped mint, crushed pistachios, a drizzle of yuzu oil and a splash of Balsamic on a bed of Provençal Beet "Hummus", better featured in the image below.
This salad falls under the category of "use what you got" though - substitute any vegetables for the ones listed. Don't have yuzu oil? Use any other flavored oil you have. Not a fan of mint? Use your favorite herb. This works as a dinner salad not because of its specific components, but because it is filling, and interesting enough in its own right to be a meal; a veritable symphony of colors, temperatures and textures where each bite is different. Another plus is that you will definitely ramp up your veggie consumption for the day no matter what vegetables you choose to use, in a most delicious manner!
1 ear of corn
2 carrots, peeled
3 Campari tomatoes, quartered
1/3 zucchini
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 Tbsp chopped mint
1 Tbsp crushed pistachios
1/2 cup Beet Hummus
Drizzle of citrus oil
Splash of Balsamic vinegar
Preheat the oven to 400.
Peel and half your carrots and lightly rub them with oil and a little salt. Roast them in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until tender.
While the carrots are cooking, prepare the rest of your elements, starting by making the Beet Hummus.
Steam the corn, either by microwaving it for 5 minutes before dehusking and desilking it, or cleaning it and steaming it over boiling water for 10. Either way, let it cool for 5 minutes before cutting the kernels from the cob. I like a mix of individual kernels and attached nuggets of kernel.
Prep the other vegetables. Chop the mint and crush the pistachios.
Dollop the hummus into a salad bowl and add all of the vegetables to the bowl, finishing with the hot carrots which should, by now, be ready. Drizzle some yuzu oil over the top of the salad along with a splash of Balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with the mint and pistachios.
