Fall Vegetable Salad with Dill Vinaigrette
Last week I had lunch with a good friend at a place called Local Foods in Houston. They have 2 locations now and we visited the newer one on Kirby for the first time. This location has more seating and boasts a lovely outdoor space. The weather cooperated perfectly making for a lunch I’d gladly repeat every day if I could. We split a pork sandwich and their fall harvest salad. The salad was so delicious that I knew I’d be trying to recreate it at home.
While I am sure there was more in this salad that I couldn’t quite pinpoint or remember when I made a grocery list, I knew that is had broccoli, cauliflower, roasted brussels sprouts, pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds and goat cheese. We chose to add chicken to ours at the restaurant, but it would’ve been just as incredible without it. You could leave out the chicken for a vegetarian salad or if you’re serving this as a side salad, or add it if you’re serving as a main course.
One of my favorite parts about this salad was the dressing. Again, I know mine isn’t the same as Local Foods, but the dill in the dressing stood out to me and really brought out all the delicious flavors of the salad. So I made a dill vinaigrette to dress this salad. And it’s pretty special. I’ll be making it again.
Make sure to use fresh dill and parsley in the dressing and chop them very fine. As with all homemade salad dressings, you can adjust the flavors to your liking. Add more or less honey (I found this to be on the sweet side) add more salt, some cracked pepper, or more garlic if you’d like. Shaking dressing up in a small mason jar is an easy way to make and store the dressing.
The amounts below are enough for 2 to 4 salads, depending on how big you make them and who’s eating. After prepping all the vegetables they can be refrigerated for use later on, so you can easily enjoy this salad for lunches during the week by simply tossing the ingredients together when you’re ready.
Salads at our house are almost always greens, carrots, celery, tomatoes, dried cranberries and nuts if I have them around. I love that this salad has so much stuff in it that I’ve never thought of putting in to a salad! It’s delicious. You can make it for one or for a large group. And it’s a great fall salad with the roasted brussels and sweet pops from the pomegranate seeds. And of course there is goat cheese. Thank God for goat cheese! I hope you try this salad.
Fall Vegetable Salad with Dill Vinaigrette
Inspired by Fall Harvest Salad from Local Foods
Ingredients
For the Salad
- Spring mix
- 3/4 cup broccoli florets
- 3/4 cup cauliflower florets
- 8-10 brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, outer leaves removed and cut into quarters
- pomegranate seeds
- roasted, salted sunflower seeds
- 2 ounces plain goat cheese
- cooked chicken (optional)
For the Dill Vinaigrette
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped dill
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
- 2-3 teaspoons honey
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- pinch of salt
Directions
For dressing
- Shake all ingredients together in a jar or whisk together in a bowl. Set aside or store in the fridge.
For Salad
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Toss brussels in a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast, shaking the pan once or twice, for 20 minutes until brussels sprouts are tender and browned. Set aside to cool.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and prepare a large bowl of ice water. Boil broccoli and cauliflower for 2 minutes, then drain and put vegetables in the ice water, swish around a few times, then remove from the water to drain.
- Prepare the salad by either tossing salad greens, broccoli and cauliflower, brussels sprouts in a large bowl with your desired amount of dressing, then plating and topping with pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds and goat cheese OR plate everything together and drizzle on the dressing.