Green Goddess Salad Recipe
This green goddess salad piles romaine, rotisserie chicken, and chilled farro into a wide bowl with edamame, cucumber, radish, avocado, and crumbled bacon. I finish it with a homemade herb dressing that pulls every ingredient together into one delicious meal that I enjoy for lunch or even dinner.
Ingredients
For the Dressing:
- 1 ½ cups yogurt
- 1/3 cup milk
- ½ cup fresh green onions
- ½ cup fresh basil leaves
- ½ cup fresh parsley leaves
- 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon honey
- juice of ½ lemon
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
For the Salad:
- 5 cups field greens and romaine lettuce leaves
- 1 rotisserie chicken, torn or cut into bite size pieces
- ½ peeled and thinly sliced red onion
- 1 cup edamame
- ½ sliced cucumber
- 3 sliced radishes
- 6 medium boiled eggs, peeled and cut in ½
- 2 cups pea tendrils
- 3 chopped crisp cooked bacon strips
- 2 peeled, seeded and sliced avocados
- 1 to 2 cups of cooked Farro
- micro greens for garnish
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients for the dressing to a blender and blend on medium speed until smooth and combined. Serve or cover and keep it in the refrigerator until it’s ready to be used.
- Prepare the farro and then chill it until cool.
- Make the medium boiled or hard-boiled eggs. Chill them in an ice bath and then peel and slice them.
- Cut the chicken into edible sized pieces
- Place the greens in a large salad bowl.
- Evenly spread out or layer on the chicken.
- Next, place on the onions, edamame, cucumbers, radishes, and eggs.
- Now place on the pea tendrils, bacon, avocados, farro, and microgreens.
- Serve alongside the dressing.
Notes
To make the best green goddess salad, I highly recommend tearing the romaine off the head along the natural vein instead of cutting it with a knife. Knife cuts crush the cell walls and put a rust-brown edge on the leaf inside an hour, and the lettuce goes limp by day two. Hand-torn leaves split where the vein gives, the cells stay intact, and the salad eats crisp a full day longer in the fridge.
Chill every ingredient: Warm chicken on cold greens steams the lettuce into a wilted mess. I rest the chicken on a sheet tray for 10 minutes off the heat, then refrigerate it while the rest of the salad comes together. The farro and the bacon get the same treatment.
Save the avocado for the top: Avocado browns the second it meets acid and oxygen. I slice it last, lay it on top of the bowl, and pour the dressing over the rest of the salad rather than the avocado itself.
Stretch the dressing: A single blender of green goddess covers a platter for four. For a dinner where the salad is the main course, I double the dressing recipe so each plate gets a generous pour and the leftovers are in the fridge for the next bowl.
Cook the farro a day ahead: Cold farro out of the fridge holds its shape better on the plate than warm grain straight off the burner. I cook a batch on a Saturday afternoon and the salad assembles in 10 minutes on a Sunday.
Make-Ahead: I make the dressing, the farro, the eggs, the bacon, and the chicken up to 3 days ahead and store them separately in airtight containers in the fridge. I wash and dry the greens up to 24 hours ahead, slice the cucumbers and radishes the day of, and slice the avocado the moment the salad goes together.
How to Store: I keep undressed leftovers in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 2 days. Dressed leftovers go soggy fast, so I only dress what is about to be eaten.
How to Freeze: I do not freeze any of the salad components together. Greens, cucumbers, radishes, avocado, and the dressing all split or wilt on the thaw. Cooked farro is the only component that holds up on its own in the freezer.
Nutrition
Calories: 516kcalCarbohydrates: 35gProtein: 49gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 268mgSodium: 711mgPotassium: 1029mgFiber: 8gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 3381IUVitamin C: 57mgCalcium: 197mgIron: 4mg