Green Goddess Salad

Green Goddess is a complete meal on its own, but it goes so well with either Filet or with Duck. In both cases, the freshness of the salad balances out the richness of the meat beautifully. Add a complex New Zealand Pinot Noir from Martinborough, Waitaki, Bendigo, or Bannockburn and you have a fantastic meal fit for Michelin stars.

Ingredients

Dressing

• 1 cup Italian Parsley (aka Flat Leaf Parsley)
• 1 cup Cilantro (aka Coriander)
• 50 grams cashew nuts
• 1 tsp green tobasco sauce
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 3 cloves garlic
• 50ml olive oil

Salad

• 1 cup Broccoli florets
• 1 cup Edamame beans
• 1 cup Green Beans
• 1 cup Baby Peas
• 50 grams white Quinoa
• 50 grams red Quinoa
• 1 cup of Italian Parsley (aka Flat Leaf Parsley) chopped
• 1 cup Mint chopped
• Juice and Zest of 1 Lemon
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt to season

Method

1. Put all dressing ingredients in a food processor and blast until smooth.
2. Stir fry Broccoli until just tender, make sure you get some char on them to enhance flavor. Salt to flavor as you go.
3. Boil salted water, add the Green Beans, and after 1 minute add the Edamame and Peas. Cook for 1 more minute and remove from pan, putting them in iced water. Putting them in iced water makes the green color pop - and this is after all a GREEN Goddess salad, not a pale grey salad. The veggies should still have some crispness to them.
4. Reuse the water from the veggies to cook the Quinoa. It should take about 10 minutes in the boiling water for the Quinoa to just start to split, and that is when its perfect. Quinoa provides some feel and texture to the dish - but if you don't like that texture, leave it out. Strain and dry the Quinoa.
5. Before you assemble the salad you want to the ingredients to be relatively dry. Pat them with paper towels, or just leave them sitting on a towel for a while before you put it all together.
6. Assemble gently, adding the Mint and Parsley and adding the lemon juice, olive oil and salt to taste. You will have a lovely crisp salad - but now the magic.
7. Your choice - spoon some of the dressing on top and put the rest in a separate bowl for your guests to add themselves, or do what I do and pour the contents over the salad and gently mix. Visually the second is a little less appealing, but I love the dressing so much I want it to cover every bit of the salad.