Power Greens Salad with Creamy Orange Ginger Dressing - #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: One more copycat recipe from my April conference travels! I had a layover in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, and decided to go ahead and eat while I could, even though I wasn’t terribly hungry, since the flight would be a long one. The restaurant, the Stone Arch, served a “power greens” salad with a creamy orange-ginger dressing. It was so good that I cleaned my plate. And was glad I had—mechanical problems with two different planes delayed departure nearly three hours. Instead of getting home around 9 pm, I rolled in just before midnight.

The salad is what New York Times food writer Sam Sifton calls “a no-recipe recipe,” largely because I know what was in it, but not the proportions, although I did make a rough estimate to give you an idea. You can vary the ingredients based on your preference and what you have on hand.

As for the dressing, I didn’t have much to go on—the online menu didn’t help—so I searched out a few options. Ultimately, I tried both a yogurt and a tahini version. (The photos are from the tahini tryout.) The yogurt was our favorite. Tahini, sesame seed paste, has a distinctive taste that was a bit strong on its own, but mellowed nicely when we mixed in a little yogurt. You know your preferences, so choose accordingly!

The salad is great by itself, or pairs nicely with just about any protein. Sliced hard-boiled eggs would be nice on top. We served it with sauteed shrimp and grilled naan, and a little white wine!

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe so you can print it easily. Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Power Greens Salad with Creamy Orange Ginger Dressing

For the salad:

8 ounces mixed greens (I used arugula, kale, spinach, and spring greens

1 medium orange (zest it first, for the dressing)

1/4 cup blueberries

3-4 green onions, cut diagonally in inch-long pieces (slice lengthwise first if thick)

1/4 cup ramen noodles, broken (for topping)

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon orange zest (one medium orange)

½ to 1/3 cup orange juice

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons plain yogurt or tahini

1 teaspoon grated ginger (fresh or jarred)

½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, or more to taste

1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or more to taste

Wash the greens and place in a serving bowl. Peel and slice your orange; cut the slices in half and add the greens. Add the blueberries and onions. Mix.

Mix the dressing ingredients with a small food processor or immersion blender. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Dress salad and toss. Top with crushed noodles.

Serves 2.

Got a new favorite salad or another dish you've recently discovered? Do tell!

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

TO ERR IS CUMIN: A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, coming July 16, 2024 in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

Available at Amazon  * Barnes & Noble  * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * And your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  Watch for To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery, in July 2024 and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.