Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

On picture perfect days like today, it's a pretty great thing to be a San Diegan. We have that shiny, shimmery sunglow to bask in, minus the miserable heat and humidity of less lucky locales. Today I decided to celebrate the beauty of early summer with late lunch on the patio.

I've been wanting to try a Smitten Kitchen salad recipe that involves carrots and avocado so today was the day. I think the hardest part of this dish was finding the sweet white miso. It's one of those ingredients that I figured everyone not born or grafted into the Stoops family would probably know so I felt kind of embarressed in my ignorance of what it was and where I'd find it. I spent some time skulking through Stater Brothers, searching in areas where I suspected I might have success, only to find lots of other Asian offerings but none of the sweet miso. And what exactly was I looking for, anyway? A plant? A can of something like Coke? Darned if I knew.

I felt slightly less stupid when none of the employees at Stater Brothers could give me any kind of definitive answer about the ingredient either. Some came out and admitted they didn't have a clue, others tried to confuse me with explanations but no product. Yea sure, guys! You people are as clueless as I am about what on earth this stuff is.

Sprouts provided the answer to my missing miso and I went on to prepare the recipe with no other problems. Though I will say right now that if I'm going to get more seriously involved in cooking new and different recipes, I'm going to have to invest in a food processor that doesn't look like it was made by Fisher Price. Just sayin'

The salad looks pretty. Actually, when I put mine on one of our breakfast room placemats, it looked like I'd deliberately cooked up something just to match the colors in the mat. The carrot/ginger/shallot and oils mixture (and don't forget the miso), gives each taste a bit of a tangy kick. And really - how could anything with avocados be bad?

My first taste of avocado came when I was a little girl living in West Virginia. My teacher brought in a few to give us children a taste of something exotic from far away. Who knows what we were "studying" at the time, as all academic knowlege related to this incident has obviously been erased from my memory bank. Here's what I do recall about that day. Every other child in my class HATED the taste of that strange fruit. I'm not talking a mild distaste or wavering opinion between maybe and not so much -these kids acted as though our teacher had calculatedly set out to poison them with a slimy green toxin. They couldn't spit their teeny little bites out quickly enough.

Except for little hillbilly Barbara, that is. The future Californian in me must've known that I'd one day be able to pick this strange new fruit from my own backyard...(ok, not really. But surely my mother-in-law's backyard is close enough to prove the point I'm making) because I couldn't get enough of that subtle but oh so wonderful taste into my mouth. Lucky me, with the rest of the haters in class, my amused teacher let me have seconds..and thirds...and fourths...til all her mini-crop was completely gone.

And now here I am - all grown up and eating avocados whenever I want. Life is good.

Avocado Salad with Carrot-Ginger Dressing
From Smitten Kitchen

Serves 4, with dressing to spare

1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 small shallot, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons sweet white miso
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seed oil
1/4 cup grapeseed or another neutral oil
2 tablespoons water

1 small/medium head of lettuce (I used Bibb) or mixed greens of your choice
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
1 avocado, quartered

Whiz the carrots, shallot and ginger in a blender or food processor until finely chopped. Scrape down the sides, then add the miso, vinegar and sesame oil. While the machine running, slowly drizzle in the grapeseed oil and the water.

Divide the lettuce among four bowls, add some of the onion and a quarter of the avocado. Drizzle with plenty of dressing and serve.