Vegetarian Chopped Salad

If you’re lucky enough to have a True Food Kitchen in your area, you might be familiar with the Vegetarian Chopped Salad which is a popular menu item. 

It’s delish and this week DF Evon inspired me to make a copycat recipe at home using the template from Blythesblog.com. Here is what I did.

Ingredients

I’m not gonna lie.  The ingredients are not things you might have just hanging out in your pantry.  And they are on the pricey side.  So this salad is expensive to prep for.

But.  Yes, the ingredients are so lovely, you’ll gobble up the salad as a main dish.

Almost all my ingredients came from Trader Joe’s.  Luckily, the dried fruit and marcona almonds I did have on hand so I avoided that purchase.

The farro I found at Trader Joe’s comes in a small package, so I won’t have a ton left over.  It’s also a pre-cooked 10-minute variety, so super easy to whip up.

The greens and lemon I found in my own backyard! 😊

I didn’t have jicama on hand and I rarely see it where I shop, so I skipped it.

Champagne Vinaigrette

The recipe calls for champagne vinegar.  Apparently that is something no longer on store shelves.  Oh, well.

I subbed fresh lemon juice and it might actually have been better.

Blythe’s recipe calls for ¼ cup of vinegar and ¾ cup of olive oil.  I am more of a 1:1 ratio vinaigrette person, so I used more like 1/3 cup lemon juice and about a similar amount of olive oil.  It was the perfect tangy for me.

This salad turned out really good and I’m going to finish the leftovers.  But.  Always, a but, right?

It really is NOT SIBO friendly.  The farro, dried fruit, apple and greens should be avoided for my condition.  The Manchego cheese and almonds are okay.

There is no way to make substitutions for the ingredients in this salad to make it SIBO compliant. So I just enjoyed it and will go easy the rest of the day.

What I’m Reading

The Winners (Beartown #3) by Fredrik Backman has been on my list for a while now.  Why? I’m not exactly sure, because I guess I never read book #1 or #2.  Hmmm.  In any case, I think it stands alone, because it’s very descriptive.  By which I mean LONG.  With a lot of details about hockey teams.

The characters are good, the story seems good.  But.  I just had to put this down after two weeks of trying.

I feel crazy for doing it.  The book has mainly five-star reviews.  But it is too much for me to wade through and I gave up.

And moved on. 

To Stephen King’s new Fairy Tale.  To be honest, I think many of these old authors are letting others write their books.  At least Lee Child is honest about it.  Dean Koontz, King and others have a very different feel now.

That’s ok, this one seems good and I’ll let you know when I finish if it’s a recommend.

This must be the year for giving up!  On audio I gave up on The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin.  The description sounded up my alley, but too odd.

I replaced it with a time-travel ditty, The Fortune Teller by Gwendolyn Womack.  The narration is really good, the writing is okay and the story is good.  It’s very long, so I hope I finish it before it expires from the library.

It’s 12 hours long.  That’s a lot of walking and cleaning!

Wrap Up

Much of the country and my loved ones are under a bit of crazy weather right now.  Sorry about that.  We too have had a lot of rain, and it almost doesn’t feel like we live in the desert.

This weekend it cleared up and warmed enough for me to get out and clean the patio (my new part-time job), fuss with the plants and enjoy some fresh air.

Our fire plants look really pretty right now.   I am so blessed to live in a place I love and appreciate.  And I’m blessed for you sharing my walk.

Have a wonderful week.