Green Goddess-y Goodness

Last week I promised you an Avocado Dressing that goes especially well with  refreshing salads loaded with purifying bitters like arugula, radicchio, spinach and radishes. This dressing provides prefect harmony thanks to what I call the Mary Poppins Principle, which holds that sweet balances bitter, as every good Nanny knows. “Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down… “

Avocado is not exactly the sugar Mary Poppins was referring to, but it is considered sweet according to Ayurveda. Its qualities are heavy, wet, cold and it is strengthening, tonifying, nourishing. In summer, when days heat up, Avocado has the cooling, hydrating affect your body seeks. Plus, it lovingly embraces those important bitters in your salad, tricking your body into wholeheartedly accepting these medicinal roots and shoots.

Summer’s Green Dressing

This dressing is inspired by the outrageously talented cooks at the Zen Mountain Center, near Idyllwild, where we lead a Yoga Retreat every September. Last year, their Avocado Dressing was a favorite. I’ve pared it down to make it simpler and offer both versions below.

Green Dressing
1 Avocado
1 Lemon, juiced
1 Clove Garlic
1 Handful Raw Sesame Seeds
1 T Dijon Mustard
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Put everything in the Cuisinart and blend until it is smooth, adding enough olive oil to bring it to the desired consistency. Mine are rough measurements. Please adjust to your own taste.

Avocado “Soufflé” dresses the Greens

“In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.
You find the fun and, Snap!, the job’s a game.
And every task you undertake, becomes a piece of cake,
a lark, a spree, it is very clear to see….”
~ Robert Sherman, Mary Poppins, 1964

Namaste!