EDF: Extra Crunchy Salad

Lately, we have had a lot of visitors and dinner guests around this house, none of whom can ever bear to come empty handed.  The wine gets drunk, the cheese dip gets, well, dipped, but there are unsurprisingly a few items that linger after company has departed.  It’s been a week since I tripped to the grocery, so today when I rifled the fridge for lunch, the produce pickings were slim, save a bag of celery and a heart of Romaine lettuce.  These are both foods about which I feel totally neutral, which I think is also an accurate description of their nutritional value, and would never have purchased on my own, but thanks to our many visitors, there they were.

Not one to let anything go to waste (even if maybe I should, ahem, super moldy cheese), I remembered this lovely post over at at Everybody Loves Sandwiches, and based my own crunchy-crunch salad on the one featured there.  Of course, there were ample substitutions, because what’s the point of eating down the fridge if you have to go out and buy more stuff to put in the fridge to make it happen.  Verdict: The salad was pretty darn good, even if my jaw is still a little sore 5 hours after the fact.

Double Crunch Celery and Romaine Salad

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil
1 T lemon juice
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 t whole grain dijon mustard
1/2 t honey

1/4 c. chopped walnuts

2-3 c. chopped Romain lettuce (white and green parts)

1 c. thinly sliced celery

2 T grated Parmesan cheese

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard and honey.  Add walnuts, lettuce and celery.  Toss to coat.  Top with Parmesan cheese.

And, in the spirit of EDF, substitutions greatly encouraged.  Just let me know if you find a good one.