Dressed to Get Leied Salad

Some friends came over for dinner tonight, so I made a salad in their honor. I asked them what their favorite vegetables are, to which they responded "tomatoes, avacado, cucumber and carrots".. All of which come from California at this time of the year. To round out the west coast theme I decided to include a taste of Hawaii and Mexico too. I made a coconut lime dressing with chili pepper for a California style salad with tortilla crisps on top. 

As a side dish we had panko breaded chicken. This is a good side dish for this salad, but make extra salad dressing if you decide to serve the chicken and offer it as a sauce on the side..otherwise you will have to watch your guests struggle to balance bits of salad on top of their chicken once they discover how well the flavors go together.  

A little girl and her exasperated mother were standing behind me in line at the grocery store. The little girl kept poking at things and her mother kept saying "Bethany, don't touch that.." She swung precariously from the end of her mothers grocery cart. The mother, now barely able to hold herself upright, was hanging her forehead on the handle of the cart. 

Suddenly, the little girls eyes grew wide. 

"Mommy, mommy, mommy..mooooooooooommmmmmm!!!" she said 

"mmmm?" the mother said. 

"Mommy LOOK!! they have GREEN LEMONS here!!!" the little girl pointed at the limes destined for my salad. 

It made my day.

The dressing:

3 Tbsp coconut (in a can of coconut the creamy part usually separates from the liquid..just use the creamy part)

2 Tbsp canola oil

Juice from 1 small lime 

Juice from 1/2 lemon

pinch of salt

1/2 Tbsp chili powder

the white part of a green onion

1 tsp honey

sprinkle of chipoltle pepper (optional)

lime zest

The salad:

finely chopped romaine

1/2 diced red pepper

2 small carrots sliced thin

1 chopped tomato

3 chopped mini cucumbers

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

1 small avacado cut bite sized

some edible flowers

crisp tortilla topping (below)

tortilla topping:

cut two small flour tortillas into strips 

throw strips into a pan of piping hot canola oil, salt liberally and stir vigorously.. when lightly browned remove from pan and let drain on paper towels. 

Katie's vote: "the salad was equal to laying in a hammock on a sandy beach, pina colada in hand, watching a hula dancer"

Eliza's vote: "usually coconut is a selfish flavor and takes over the whole dish, but this dressing was nice because I could taste the coconut AND the other flavors in the salad"

Christina's vote: "I resent that I had to share"