Holy Greens, Batman!

This week’s share box included several kinds of yummy greens, including spinach, kale and my personal favorite, butter lettuce.

I have a confession to make. Although I’ve been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for six years, I really don’t like raw salads. I know, crazy!?! It’s especially unnerving when restaurant servers insist on recommending salads first for vegetarians. I prefer foods that are warm and flavorful to a raw salad any day.

Growing up, we hardly ever ate raw salad, and it was usually a standard mix of iceberg lettuce, carrot shards, cucumber slices and, you guessed it, ranch dressing. Can I even begin to explain how much I hated it?

However, raw salads and greens ARE very nutritious, and one major problem we’ve had each year of the CSA is finding ways to consume several heads of lettuce (along with all the other greens) each week. I can saute spinach and give away kale until the cows come home (yes, really, I can’t stand kale, it’s so sad), but there’s only so much I can seem to figure out with lettuce greens.

Imagine my happiness at finally discovering a raw salad combination that I absolutely love. I can eat this salad twice (or three) times a week, easily. It seems so strange, but trust me, this is delicious. The portions described are for one big salad, so adjust accordingly:

Butter Lettuce and Apple Salad

1/2 head of butter lettuce or other greens (I would guess 4-5 cups of greens when torn into forkable pieces)
1/2 Avocado, cubed
1/2 Apple, cubed (you can also use pear)
2 handfuls of walnuts, chopped (maybe 1/2 cup?)
Shredded Gruyere or other similar Swiss cheese
Ginger sesame dressing of choice (I really like Annie’s Sesame Ginger with Chamomile Vinaigrette)

I find that adding the shredded Gruyere after tossing the dressing in keeps the cheese from just clumping together.  Pears tend to be more watery in the salad, so be sure you drain/spin the greens well after washing.

I made this salad yesterday with my first fresh lettuce of the season. Even though I soaked the lettuce for at least 10 minutes in a bowl full of cold water and then rinsed A LOT, I still had some grit in my salad. (Now you know how I came to name this blog) Therefore, don’t forget to soak and/or rinse your farm fresh veggies, and enjoy the spring greens!