Romaine Salad with Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing

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Flower pics from Tara's garden. Hello Susans!



Here's what Farmer John had for us in Silver Lake this week:

Zucchini
Oranges
Yellow wax beans
Purslane
Daikon radish
Sweet marjoram
Sage
Thyme
Basil
Squash blossoms
Dandelion greens
Arugula
Swiss chard
Kale
Green peppers
Collard greens

Grandmother's pincushion in mint (left).

And here's what Tara brought down from McGrath Family Farm, certified organic growers in Camarillo:

Haricot verts
Baby red onions
Strawberries
Baby squash
Mesclun
Basil
Red romaine
Green romaine
Swiss chard

It's too hot to turn on the oven. Thankfully, we got lots of salad greens this week. Salad can be a light and cool meal especially when you use a crisp lettuce and a chilled, creamy dressing. This recipe for Romaine Salad with Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing is one of my favorites. It takes just a couple minutes to mix up the dressing; and it keeps in the fridge for a week. I like my blue cheese dressing chock full of cheese, but you can reduce the amount of cheese to make it lighter.

Romaine Salad with Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing
Start by washing some romaine leaves in a cold water bath. You can crisp up the leaves by adding some ice cubes to the water bath. Break the crisp leaves into bite-sized pieces and spin in a salad spinner to dry, then store the lettuce in the fridge while you mix up the dressing.

For the dressing:

1/2 C mayonnaise
1/4 C sour cream or whole milk yogurt
1/4 C buttermilk ( or more for a thinner consistency)
2-3 t white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
1/2 t agave syrup
3/4 C crumbled blue cheese
salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix together the first five ingredients until well combined.

2. Stir in the blue cheese.

3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

You can serve the dressing immediately or put it in the fridge to get cold. To serve: Spoon the dressing on a bed of crisp romaine leaves.

You can include some spicy arugula with the romaine, if you'd like. Other tasty additions to this
salad are: crisp, crumbled bacon; candied pecans; and/or very thinly sliced red onion.

If you're wondering what to do with daikon radish, you can peel and very thinly slice it and a add a few slices to this salad.

Enjoy!

Shelley