green goddess salad

before you all gang up on me and tell me this is not how green goddess is done: i know. this is my green goddess. i don't like anchovies, especially not without the pretense of having cooked them. so there are none of those in this dressing. but you might like the rest...

green goddess is one of my favorite dressings. it occured to me it has no standing salad recipe. so why should cesar feel so superiour? especially when it's spring, and there's bountiful asparagus, and bright radishes and yay, spring mix that actually tastes like it should.

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut in inch pieces

1 cucumber, peeled and cut

1/2 zucchini, cut

5 red radishes, thinly sliced

4 scallions, white and green part separated

3 handfuls spring mix

4 oz feta cheese, preferably an aged one, crumbled

sliced almonds, toasted

1 tb sesame seeds, toasted

to trim the asparagus you hold each end in one hand and you bend it. it'll snap, and that's where you cut the rest of your bunch. save the trimmings for soup or stock. blanch it and set it in a strainer. cut the cucumber and the zucchini to the same rough size as the asparagus. thinly slice the radishes. cut the green part of scallions to size. mix all the veggies and the cheese with the spring mix. if you're reluctant to use raw zucchini, you can always blanch it with the asparagus, or you can roast both at 400F for 15 minutes.

now for the dressing:

1/2 cup sour cream

1/3 cup mayo, preferably homemade

3 tb lemon juice

1 tb fresh tarragon, finely chopped

1 tb fresh parsley, finely chopped

4 scallions, white part only

1 tb tahini

1 tb extra-virgin olive oil

salt, pepper to taste

put everything in a blender and give it a whirr. if you have to do it by hand, be sure to mince everything!

you won't need all of it for a single salad. put the rest in a lidded container and keep for a week in the fridge.

when you've tossed the salad with the dressing, toast some almonds and some sesame seeds and sprinkle them on top. serve at once.

i absolutely love the asparagus - sesame seed flavor combo. nut on nut, like tone-sur-tone of the same color. after i took this photo i actually went back and sprinkled twice as much on. please, believe me: homemade mayo tastes nothing like the stuff you buy jarred. all it takes is one sampling to know the difference. it's easy to make, and maybe it's a minor detail, but if you have food on the brain, it will rock your world. go see what posessed nancy of roving lemon's big adventure to make her own. there's reasons beside taste to make mayo at home. (but if you do it just for taste, that's ok too.)

p.s.: this is the first salad i've included on this blog. part of it is, i don't think we really need recipes for salad. part is, salad is not my thing. i don't fawn over salad. it doesn't stay on my mind for days. i don't quiver with anticipation of the first bite. this, however, got me pretty excited. i'd been thinking about it the entire afternoon. in the 2 minutes between putting down my daughter for the night and grey's anatomy starting on tv, i assembled it, top speed and fork in hand i got to the table as my show started. it really was everything i had hoped. and then enters the patient. if tonight's episode didn't spoil my appetite, nothing will. i think maybe i would have stopped eating if i wasn't enjoying it so much. besides, i grew up with my cousins, all boys, and i think i've seen far more disgusting things at the table. anyhoo, long live salad! and spring!