Farmer's Market Salad with Avocado Herb Dressing

Celebrate the bounty of Summer with a beautiful farmer's market salad featuring golden beets, heirloom tomatoes, radishes, and snap peas topped with a homemade avocado herb dressing.

Salad Ingredients

This salad is very flexible in terms of ingredients. It's all about freshness and variety, and it's really hard to go wrong, so pick whatever vegetables look best at your market. For my salad, I chose the following:

• Golden Beets - I think the beets are a must in this salad! I'm not usually a huge fan of red or purple beets, but golden beets are milder with an earthy nuttiness and a little sweetness. If you're not a fan, carrots or sweet potatoes work too.
• Radishes - I used a variety of colors and let them soak for 10-15 minutes in cold water. Summer grown radishes tend to be a bit spicier than radishes grown in cool spring or fall weather because of the increased isothiocyanates compounds they produce in warmer weather. A quick soak helps to tone down the flavor a bit.
• Heirloom Tomatoes - What's a summer salad without fresh tomatoes? Heirloom tomatoes come in many colors and shapes and add a delicious pop of color and flavor to the salad.
• Sugar Snap Peas - These add a nice crunch to the salad. I like to chop some up and leave some larger ones in as well for variety.
• Cucumbers - Another staple of any summer salad these also add a refreshing flavor and some crunch.
• Spring Mix Blend- A mix of lettuces and greens give a nice variety of flavor and texture to the salad. I like to use a baby kale or baby romaine blend.

Avocado Herb Dressing Ingredients

• Avocado - you'll need 1 avocado.
• Buttermilk - This will add a nice tangy flavor to the dressing, but if you don't have buttermilk on hand, don't buy it just for this! Instead, just make a homemade substitute by adding one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a 1-cup measuring cup. Then fill the rest of the way to the 1 cup line with milk and stir gently. Let the mixture sit for around 5 minutes until it is slightly thickened.
• Fresh Herbs - I used dill, tarragon, parsley, and chives. The dill is a must but feel free to try mixing in other herbs to change up the flavor. If you have some leftover it's nice to add some of the herbs to the salad as well.
• Lemon Juice
• Garlic

How to prepare the dressing

To make the avocado herb dressing, seed and peel the avocado. Then add to a food processor along with 1 cup of chopped herbs, a ½ cup of buttermilk, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 clove of garlic, and a ½ teaspoon of salt. Puree for around 20-30 seconds until smooth, scraping the sides as needed. If the dressing is too thick add 1 to 2 teaspoons of more buttermilk and pulse in the food processor until you reach your desired consistency.

I prefer to make the dressing around 30 minutes ahead of eating and refrigerate it to give the flavors time to combine. It will keep for around 1 week refrigerated in an airtight container but it may brown a little due to the avocado.

Cooking your beets

The quickest and easiest way to cook the golden beets is simply to boil them. Just submerge the beets in a pot of boiling water for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size, until they are softened. After cooking the skin will pull away easily or rub away with paper towels.

For extra flavor you can also roast the beets whole or cut into wedges. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F and roast for around 1 hour for whole beets or 30 minutes for wedges.

Preparing the salad

To make the salad add around half of your lettuce mix to the bowl. Then layer in half of the vegetables. Add the remaining lettuce and top with the rest of the vegetables. Then spoon on the avocado dressing and sprinkle on some of the chopped herbs and serve.

Other great salad ideas

• Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Kale Salad
• Asian Chopped Salad
• Quinoa Greek Salad
• Keto Cobb Salad from Stem + Spoon

📖 Recipe

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