Prep Time: 20mins – Cook Time: 5mins – Serves 1
Ingredients
Italian dressing: 40 ml olive oil, 15 ml lemon juice, 10 ml red wine vinegar, 10 ml honey, ¼ tsp garlic powder, 1 pinch dried basil powder, 1 pinch oregano, 2 pinches sea salt, and 1 pinch black pepper powder.
Cranberry caviar: 100 ml cranberry juice, ½ tsp agar-agar powder, 1/8 tsp salt, 1 pinch dried mint powder, and 5 g sugar.
Salad components: 30 g chopped avocado, 1 avocado slice, 10 g chopped tomato, 10 g chopped mixed bell peppers, 15 g chopped cucumber, 10 g chopped red onion, and 5 g chopped parsley.
Grains: 30 g boiled mixed quinoa and 20 g boiled couscous.
For assembly: 40 ml Italian dressing, ¼ tsp cranberry caviar, 1 fried basil leaf, and 4 slices spring onion, julienned.
Method
For the Italian dressing, combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend for 1 minute, gradually adding the olive oil until emulsified.
For the cranberry caviar, heat all the ingredients except the agar-agar in a saucepan and boil for 5 minutes. Add the agar-agar and boil for another 2 minutes, then strain the mixture and pour it into a squeeze bottle. Allow it to cool to at least 30°C. Drop the mixture into 500 ml of chilled corn oil, drop by drop, to form caviar. Strain the oil and rinse the caviar in cold water.
For assembly, toss all the chopped ingredients with the Italian dressing in a mixing bowl. Transfer the salad to a plate and top with the avocado slice, fried basil, and cranberry caviar.
