This salad’s dressing skips the oil and uses nut butter as the fat instead. The rich, creamy dressing is spicy with ginger and black pepper and bright with lime. Drizzle it on a variety of winter fruits. To get to 8 cups of fruit, consider my favorite combination: 2 oranges, 2 apples, 3 persimmons and 4 figs — or go with whatever fruit looks best at your market. Eat the salad on its own or, for a sweet application, with muesli, toast or yogurt, or for a savory one, with bitter or baby greens.
Total time: 25 mins
Storage Notes: Refrigerate leftover dressed salad for up to 2 days; before serving again, taste, and season with more lime juice and/or salt, if needed.
Servings: 4 When you scale a recipe, keep in mind that cooking times and temperatures, pan sizes and seasonings may be affected, so adjust accordingly. Also, amounts listed in the directions will not reflect the changes made to ingredient amounts.
When you scale a recipe, keep in mind that cooking times and temperatures, pan sizes and seasonings may be affected, so adjust accordingly. Also, amounts listed in the directions will not reflect the changes made to ingredient amounts.
Tested size: 4 servings; makes 8 cups
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup almond butter (salted or unsalted both work; may substitute another nut or seed butter of your choice)
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (from 1 lime), plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Water, as needed
- Flaky or fine sea salt
- 8 cups chopped or thinly sliced pieces of mixed winter fruit, such as apples, pears, figs, Fuyu persimmons, oranges and/or tangerines
Directions
In a small bowl or 2-cup liquid measuring cup, stir together the almond butter, lime zest and juice, ginger, and pepper. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dressing is pourable, then dip a piece of fruit in and taste; add more salt and/or lime juice until the dressing is assertively bright and rich, yet tastes balanced with the fruit. You should get about 1/2 cup.
Arrange the fruit on a large platter or plates and sprinkle lightly with salt. Drizzle with half to three-quarters of the dressing, enough to lightly cover, and serve slightly chilled or at room temperature.
NOTE: To keep the apples and pears from browning, rub them with the cut sides of the juiced lime halves.
Recipe Source
From cookbook author Ali Slagle.
Tested by Anna Rodriguez.
Email questions to the Food Section at food@washpost.com.
