All Green Salad with Mexican Mint Marigold Vinaigrette

Mexican Mint Marigold is one of my favorite plants – they’re tough, they bloom beautifully in the Fall, and they make an amazing salad dressing! Here’s a crunchy, all green salad that works great with the Texas Tarragon flavor. 

Let’s make the vinaigrette first so the flavors have a few minutes to marry while we work on the salad. You’ll need a small glass jar with a tight fitting lid and these ingredients:

• a few sprigs of Mexican Mint Marigold (MMM) leaves
• ¼ of a clove of elephant garlic
• pinch of flaky salt
• ¼ cup of good olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Ume plum vinegar
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon raw honey
• juice of ½ a lemon
• fresh cracked black pepper

Chop the MMM leaves and the garlic together, then add just a pinch of flaky salt. Using the side of your knife blade, smash and drag the MMM, garlic, and salt across your cutting board several times until you have a smooth paste. Regular garlic is fine to use, but I like the milder flavor of the elephant garlic for this recipe. The large pieces of flaky salt help to grind the herbs and garlic. Course Kosher salt would work well too. 

Add the remaining vinaigrette ingredients and your herb/garlic/salt paste to the jar and shake it up until creamy, then set aside while we make the salad. 

For the salad, we’ll need only green things:

• a handful of brussels sprouts
• 1 bunch of lacinato kale
• 2 chopped green onions (save the white parts for something else)
• 1 avocado – cubed
• handful of green peas

Chop your brussels sprouts lengthwise into very thin shreds. Remove the kale stem and chop the leaves into thin strips and add to a large bowl with the brussels sprouts. Add the peas and green onions, then toss while adding the dressing a little bit at a time – not too wet. Add the avocado last so it doesn’t get mashed while you toss. 

Top with a sprinkle of hemp hearts and Mexican Mint Marigold flowers – yes, they’re edible too! 

Enjoy,

-Jesse