This recipe draws inspiration from the sunny-orange flavor of green salads with carrot-ginger dressing at Japanese American restaurants. The pulpy, aromatic dressing may be the star, but a salad is only as good as its lettuce. After washing and thoroughly spin-drying the greens in a salad spinner (alternatively, you can pat them dry in a clean kitchen towel), one way to maximize their crunch before adding the dressing is to refrigerate them, covered, for at least 30 minutes. Little Gem has a sweet, juicy sturdiness, but regular packaged mixed greens, baby spinach and chopped romaine hearts work, too.

Crunchy Greens With Carrot-ginger Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1 small carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped

• 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

• 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon onion powder

• Salt

• 2 to 4 heads Little Gem lettuce, leaves separated, or 1 romaine heart, chopped

• 1 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves

Directions:

Make the dressing: In a food processor, purée the carrot, ginger, olive oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, onion powder, a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon cold water until as smooth as possible, 1-2 minutes.

Dress the salad: Place the lettuce leaves in a large serving bowl. Add a couple of tablespoons of the dressing and toss, then add more as needed to evenly coat. The salad should be lightly dressed, not drowned; don’t use every drop of dressing if you don’t need to. Taste for seasoning, adjusting with more salt as desired. Top the salad with the mint leaves and serve immediately.

Total time: 10 minutes, serves 2-4.

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