Winter Salad with Yogurt-Lemon Dressing

This winter chop salad appeared in the February 2011 issue of Bon Appétit. It has a lot of ingredients, so get your chopping arm ready.

The recipe writers declared it was designed around a love of the vegetable kohlrabi. Well, guess what…Whole Foods didn’t have any kohlrabi, so my version is kohlrabi-less. There are so many other tasty vegetables here though; I don’t think you’ll miss it much. But if you can find it, by all means toss some in.

I made a few other modifications to the recipe: I added agave nectar to the dressing so that it would have a little sweetness and substituted olive oil for the canola. Another ingredient I couldn’t find was whole-milk yogurt, so I substituted lowfat, which worked fine.

If you want to add some meat, this salad would also be great topped with some sautéed or grilled chicken. Bacon crumbles would be good too.

Winter Salad with Yogurt-Lemon Dressing
Adapted from a recipe by Bon Appétit, February 2011

Serves 2 main course or 4 side dish servings

Dressing:
1 garlic clove, chopped
Sea salt
½ cup plain lowfat yogurt
3 tbsp. chopped Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Salad:
4 cups coarsely chopped or torn lettuce leaves (romaine or leaf)
¾ cup ½-inch cubes chopped, peeled jicama
1 small carrot, thinly sliced
½ cup diced celery
3/8 cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3/8 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved
¼ cup thinly sliced radishes
¼ cup roasted unsalted sunflower seeds

1. Add garlic to a small bowl, sprinkle with salt and use a blunt instrument (spoon or muddling tool) to mash into paste. Add other dressing ingredients and whisk to combine.

2. In a large bowl, combine salad ingredients. Toss with dressing and serve on plates or large bowls.