Dinner salads

We're finally experiencing the high temperatures that the rest of America have been getting for months.  This past weekend topped out over 90 here in Tigard.  Couple that with feeling very full from the indulgent brunch I hosted for our family and come dinner time I was a looking for something light and healthy, and that would use up a lot of my veggies. 

Enter the big salad!  I made an enormous dish of this salad yesterday for dinner.

Let's deconstruct:  To a base of mixed greens I diced up red cabbage and mixed that in.  I steamed a couple of heads of broccoli and roughly chopped them.  I added two roma tomatoes.  One zucchini, raw, quartered and then thinly sliced and one English cucumber, cut the same way.  I had left over pinto beans that I cooked Saturday, I drained and rinsed those.  I also took some frozen corn out and thawed that, rinsed it with warm water and tossed that in the mix.  I dressed it with a homemade avocado dressing, recipe to follow.  I added shredded chicken to the boys dish but omitted it from mine, I felt like I'd eaten enough meat this weekend!  Plus it didn't really need it to feel satisfying.  The kids added some corn tortilla chips to their plates and this was dinner, and as an added bonus is also lunch today. 

We eat salads almost nightly but they're usually the side kick not the star of the meal.  This one was defiantly the star!

Krista's avocado salad dressing:

1 cup high quality extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 avocado

1/4 cup cilantro

2 tomatillos with husks removed

salt to taste

Put all the ingredients into a high powered blender and blend until smooth.  Add more oil if you want it thinner.