Crunchy Greens With Carrot-Ginger Dressing
This recipe draws inspiration from the sunny-orange flavor of green salads with carrot-ginger dressing at Japanese American restaurants. The pulpy, aromatic dressing may be the star, but a salad is only as good as its lettuce. After washing and thoroughly spin-drying the greens in a salad spinner (alternatively, you can pat them dry in a clean kitchen towel), one way to maximize their crunch before adding the dressing is to refrigerate them, covered, for at least 30 minutes. Little Gem has a sweet, juicy sturdiness, but regular packaged mixed greens, baby spinach and chopped romaine hearts work, too.
Ingredients
- 1 smallcarrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
- ¼ cupextra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoonsrice vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoonssoy sauce
- 1 tablespoongranulated sugar
- 1 teaspoononion powder
- salt
- 2 headslittle gem lettuce, leaves separated, or 1 romaine heart, chopped
- 1 cuploosely packed fresh mint leaves
Directions
- 1
Make the dressing: In a food processor, purée the carrot, ginger, olive oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, onion powder, a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon cold water until as smooth as possible, 1 to 2 minutes.
- 2
Dress the salad: Place the lettuce leaves in a large serving bowl. Add a couple of tablespoons of the dressing and toss, then add more as needed to evenly coat. The salad should be lightly dressed, not drowned; don’t use every drop of dressing if you don’t need to. Taste for seasoning, adjusting with more salt as desired. Top the salad with the mint leaves and serve immediately.