Pistachio Ranch Wedge Salad with Herbs

Pistachio Ranch Wedge Salad with Herbs

A dressed-up simple ranch wedge salad that becomes a ‘fork and knife’ side. Romaine hearts are drizzled in olive oil and lemon with a pistachio cream and avocado dressing, topped with herbs and red pepper flakes. This is a good recipe to make when you’re bored with lettuce or there’s not a lot of in-season produce where you are. With a heavy focus on a balance of fat (in this case avocado, butter, olive oil, and pistachio) to roughage, this salad is very satisfying.

This salad is based off of a pistachio little gem salad from Contra Wildair’s “A Very Serious Cookbook”. In this version we cut the dressing in half with avocado in the blender to keep the creamy element and added a Ranch seasoning and dill chive flavor.

In this dressing process, it’s actually a low-waste use case for a whole head of lettuce, even if it’s wilted. The external leaves of the romaine hearts are sautéed with butter before going into the blender with avocado, pistachio, and seasoning.

If you can’t find raw, unroasted pistachio (important for the dressing), you could use raw, unroasted cashews. Roasted will not work as well to create a creamy final product, and when it comes to composition, cashew is probably the closest substitute nut available. The dressing texture should be quite thick, close to a creamy dijon mustard.

Pistachio Ranch Wedge Salad w/ Herbs

This salad is based off of a pistachio little gem salad from Contra Wildair.

INGREDIENTS

2 heads of romaine lettuce (or similar in structure lettuce)

4 ounces high quality unsalted butter

1/2 large avocado

1/2 teaspoon Ranch seasoning powder

1 large egg yolk

3/4 cup raw, unroasted pistachios (divided into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup)

juice of 1/2 a lemon and zest

olive oil

Diamond Crystal Kosher salt or flaky sea salt

black pepper

flat leaf parsley

chives

dill

red pepper flakes

smoked paprika

optional based on availability: edible flowers

DIRECTIONS

1. Remove outer leaves of two heads of romaine lettuce and set aside. Slice romaine heads in half lengthwise and cut off base. Leave lettuce nested in itself.

2. In a large sautee pan, melt butter over medium heat and add external lettuce leaves. Cook about 5 minutes to soften. Transfer butter and leaves to a blender.

3. Add egg yolk, half an avocado, ranch seasoning and 1/4 cup of pistachios to the blender. Pulse on high until the dressing is thick and creamy (see above image). The dressing should cling to a spoon.

4. Take remaining pistachios and pulse in a food processor or finely chop. Note that these are for topping the salad, so make them as large or small as you want. I find a fine chop is easier to eat since it stays on the dressed greens.

5. Place romaine halves cut side up. Drizzle each with olive oil and lemon juice. Salt and pepper each.

6. Spread or dollop dressing from the blender over top of each lettuce half in the quantity desired. (I find 2-3 big spoonfuls is just about right for a large half).

7. Finely chop the herbs and sprinkle heavily over top of the dressing. Add lemon zest, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes.

8. Serve with a knife and fork.