Sunday, August 30, 2015

Salad of Raw Herbs and Vegetables with Creamy Tarragon Vinaigrette

For a long time this is something that I really have wanted to do. A summer salad made with raw assorted baby heirloom vegetables, herbs and flowers. The dressing works very well as it does not weigh down the greens or vegetables but has enough flavor to transfer over with out having to drown everything. Dehydrated Olives : 1 cup mixed pitted olives For the salad : Assorted baby heirloom vegetables ( baby candy cane or chiogga beets, english peas, baby leeks, assorted squash and zuchinni ) Assorted herbs and flowers (picked tarragon, parsley, dill, baby mustard greens, baby kale, nostrum flowers and greens) Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Salt, fresh Pepper. For the dehydrated olives : Place in a dehydrator set at 135 degrees for at least 12 hours. Transfer olives to a cutting board and finely chop. Store in an air tight container. For the Creamy Tarragon Vinaigrette : 1/2 cup aoili, 1/4 cup butter milk, 2 TB minced tarragon, salt and pepper to taste. Combine all ingredients and season to taste. Transfer to a squeeze bottle and store chilled. To serve: Dress the greens and vegetables with the dressing. You can wisk the dressing right before to incorporate some air to make it even lighter. Place on serving vessel and sprinkle with dehydrated olives. Dot with extra virgin olive oil. Using the dressing that has been whipped, add dots and lines around the salad. Add flowers. A little bit of fresh whole grain mustard scattered about. For the above vegetables I shuck some of the fresh peas but leave some in tact and just halve them. Do not dress the flowers and be careful to not over dress the greens. In fact all I dress are the vegetables and maybe half of the green's.

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