Delicious Green Juice

I try not to be too over the top with the weirdo healthy stuff on this blog (and believe me that I have had many failures that I never subjected you to), but when done the right way, green juice can be so delicious! This is the prime time of farmers market abundance in the DC area to make really tremendous green juice and I wanted to share my tried and true formula for a sweet and pleasant tasting juice that is loaded with all of the healthy nutrients from lots of green veggies.

Delicious Green Juice
1/4 organic water melon, cut into slices with rind (If you are not able to find an organic watermelon, cut the rind off)
1 bunch kale with stems still on
5 stalks of celery cut into 1 inch pieces
1 apple, sliced
Juice of 1 lime
If watermelon is unavailable, simply add 3 additional apples for sweetness. The core of this ratio is one part sweet, one part green, one part celery, and one part citrus (can be lemon or lime).

My best piece of advice for juicing is to prepare everything before you turn the juicer on. Have everything handy and available and make sure the pieces are small enough to prevent overloading your juicer. Mine is particularly finicky around the stringy celery stalks, so I cut those extra small. Once you're ready, start feeding all ingredients through the juicer with the exception of the lime. Once all ingredients are juiced, squeeze the juice of one lime and enjoy.

Summer Salad with Potatoes and Avocado Dill Dressing

Adapted from Marie Simmons Fresh & Fast Vegetarian

Going with the creamy, but not-too-rich theme of the month, I want to share my new most favorite salad dressing in the world. Behold the wonder of Marie Simmons Avocado Dill dressing. It's in the same vein as tatziki, in that it's not overly heavy and would be a great dip for vegetables or a side sauce or drizzled on any protein. I discovered it as the dressing in her recipe for this beautiful summer salad that has enough potatoes to be a full meal by itself. It's not a quick throw together at the last minute type of deal, but look at how pretty it is! It's just as elegant an experience to eat it and peel through the layers with that amazing creamy dill dressing in every bite.

Summer Salad with Potatoes and Avocado Dill Dressing
Dressing:
1/2 avocado
3 tablespoons cup greek yogurt
1.5 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 cup dill, chopped
1/4 cup cucumbers, roughly chopped, seeds removed
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salad:
The rest of that cucumber, sliced
2 tomatoes sliced
1/2 pound potatoes (I used a combination of gold and purple yukons, which added some nice color)
1/4 cup onions sliced thin with a mandolin if available
1/4 cup radishes, sliced thin with a mandolin, again, if available
1/2 pound greens of your choice

Boil a pot of water and toss the potatoes in there to start cooking and then start making the dressing. Toss avocado, greek yogurt, mayonnaise, dill, and 1/4 cup of rough chopped cucumbers, and salt into food processor and blend until very creamy. Scoop it into a bowl and cover before setting in the fridge to chill. After the potatoes have softened (probably about 20 minutes of boiling depending on size), set them aside to cool as you prepare additional vegetables. Slice tomatoes and cucumbers into 1/2 slices and sprinkle with a hit of salt. Mandolin the onions and radishes, but make sure to leave the onions separate. The pretty presentation depends on the onions resting daintily on top.

After potatoes have cooled, slice them into 1/4 inch slices and set aside. Grab plates and you can start layering. Start spooning the dressing onto the plate and swirl in circles until it's about a inch away from the edges. Place the potatoes down directly in the dressing arranged in a circle before layering the tomatoes, cucumbers, and radishes on top. Drizzle with a little more dressing before topping with the greens and thinly sliced onions and yet another drizzle of dressing. Serve immediately.