Orgasm Salad with Lemon-Garlic Tahini Dressing

Confession time: As much as I love vegetables, I don’t particularly care for salads. They never seem filling enough, and lettuce isn’t something that particularly thrills me, especially iceberg. So while I enjoy a salad with a meal, I can’t bring myself to make a meal out of a salad.

Until I made The Orgasm Salad. And believe me, you will come from eating it. This is a salad of heartbreaking visual beauty, consisting of roasted veggies, chickpeas, red-leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, and topped with a lemon-garlic tahini dressing so good you’ll hear Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” in the background after you take the first bite. So basically, it’s perfect for those of us who choose not to participate in the commercialization of romance that is Valentine’s Day.

I’m forever alone.

I’ve found it! The Rainbow Connection! Lovers, dreamers, join me and tuck in!

For the roasted veggies
1 golden beet, peeled and cubed
1 purple heirloom carrot, halved and chopped (I washed it thoroughly and left the skin on, but feel free to peel it if you like)
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400°. Chop the veggies, and toss them and the chickpeas with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes; in the meantime, mix up the dressing.

For the lemon-garlic tahini dressing
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, smashed and rough-chopped
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 cup cold vegetable broth
The juice from half a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the tahini, water, broth, and lemon juice in a bowl (or a measuring cup; no one’s judging), and heat the olive oil over low heat. Heat the garlic for about two minutes, until it’s just cooked. Whisk it together with the tahini mixture, and the salt and pepper. If you want, give it a pulse or two in the blender to smooth things out (I skipped, because OMG HUGE CHUNKS OF GARLIC. *ahem*). Cover and chill for a half-hour.

When the veggies are done roasting, let them rest for a few minutes. Rinse a few leaves of red-leaf lettuce, and a few handfuls of baby spinach and arugula. Toss in a large bowl with the veggies and as much of the dressing as you want.