Green Goddess Salad for Summer-Time

  

This summer is the first summer I've ever had a CSA box.  A friend and I are sharing a mini box and it's been an adventure!  This week I needed to find something to use up a variety of the green-goodness-veggies that came in my box.  In particular I had chives and basil to use.  Since I also had cucumbers, I decided to try that Green Goddess salad that seemed to take over the internet a few months back (or was it longer?  Who knows!)

The recipe that I worked off of was this one.  I ate it as a side with a dinner and with some chicken stirred in for a hearty summer lunch, and the original author says she eats it with tortilla chips (like salsa) or on sandwiches or tacos.  I'm also pretty sure lots of things could be swapped out.  I did happen to have nutritional yeast, for example, but could see swapping that with grated parmesan (it wouldn't be vegan then, but would probably be good!).  Also, I swapped the "one head green cabbage" with a bag of pre-made cole slaw mix.  Totally worked and saved time and mess.  

Ingredients

Salad

• 1 bag cole slaw
• 1+ large cucumbers (I used about 1.5 medium cukes)
• 1/4 cup chives
• 1 bunch green onions or scallions

Dressing 

• 1 cup basil leaves
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 2 cloves garlic (or equivalent)
• 1 smallish shallot
• 2 lemons, juiced (about 6 to 8 Tbsp)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup nuts of your choice  (I used unsalted cashews and pistachios.  Original author also recommends walnuts as an option) 
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar 
• Any extra chives you have on hand (optional)

Directions

1. Wash and chop all of the salad ingredients.
   
2. Place in a large bowl with plenty of room to stir
3. Add olive oil, lemon juice, and rice vinegar to the blender first
4. Then add the other dressing ingredients to the blender
   
5. Blend until it is all blendy, and a pourable dressing.  
   
6. Pour dressing into bowl and mix.
   

Oven-roasted Butternut Squash

Ok, so I fully recognize that roasting small chunks of squash isn't at all hard.  But I know that later on I will wonder about the time and oven temp, so it gets a blog post! (Made this on Sunday afternoon/evening, 1/16.  So this is actually something new.) 

Ingredients: 

• 1 large butternut squash
• about 3 Tbsp. olive oil (or less)--I used a rosemary-infused oil and it was great!
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Put parchment paper on a baking sheet
3. Peel and seed squash
4. Cut into 1/2 to 1 inch chunks
5. Put sqaush on baking sheet 
6. Drizzle with oil, and sprinkle on salt and pepper
7. Toss with clean hands and arrange in one layer on the pan
• Note: I had to do two batches, because it wouldn't all fit on the pan at once.  It made a total of 4 containers like the two pictured above.   
  
  
  
  
  
8. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing/turning once with a spatula, until squash is tender
   
   
   
   
   

Makes: about 4 servings