Sprout Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing

Can salads be sexy? I think so! Especially when they are drizzled with this ultra creamy roasted garlic dressing. Fresh sprouts, peppery arugula, crunchy radishes and sunflower seeds, and salted tomatoes – I don’t want to use the word “perfect” here, but it’s pretty close.

Tips

  • Start the garlic early. It takes about 45 minutes to roast, and you’ll want to factor in at least 20 minutes of cooling time.

Serves 2

Ingredients

For the roasted garlic dressing

  • 1 head garlic
  • ½ tsp olive oil
  • 3 tbsp mayonnaise or veganaise 
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • ½ tsp diamond kosher salt
  • Lots of freshly ground black pepper

For the sprout salad

  • 1 cup cherry tomato quarters
  • 2.5 cups arugula                                                                                                                                         
  • 1 cup sprouts of choice (pea shoots or sunflower sprouts work great)
  • 1 cup microgreens (or extra arugula and sprouts)
  • 1 scallion, thinly sliced
  • 2 radishes, thinly sliced
  • 2 tbsp sunflower seeds       
Instructions

For the dressing: 

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 
  2. Use a knife to chop the top ¾ inch of the head of garlic off, revealing the cloves inside.
  3. Drizzle olive oil over the top of the garlic, then wrap completely in tin foil. 
  4. Place wrapped garlic in the oven (directly on a rack is fine) and roast until very soft and browned, about 35-45 minutes. 
  5. Remove from the oven and let cool until manageable to touch. 
  6. Use your hands to squeeze the garlic flesh into a food processor or blender. The garlic should be very soft and come out easily. 
  7. Add mayonnaise, lemon juice, dijon mustard and blend to combine. 
  8. Taste and add salt and pepper. Adjust seasoning as needed. 

For the salad

  1. Generously salt the cherry tomato halves and set aside for 10 minutes. 
  2. In a salad bowl, combine the rest of the salad ingredients and stir to toss. 
  3. The cherry tomatoes should release a good amount of liquid. Drain the liquid into your salad dressing and stir to combine. Add the drained cherry tomatoes to the salad bowl. 
  4. Add dressing (starting with ½) to salad and toss to combine. Add more dressing if desired.