Crunchy salad with yogurt-tahine sauce

(Em Português)

Since Flávia left me a comment yesterday asking where have I been, I thought I'd better show up.

It will take years and years for me to become a constant person as I would like to be, but then - well... we need to start somewhere, right?

I am now back to São Paulo, honey, dealing with bureaucracy while the rain pours outside.

I have great reasons to have disappeared on the last week. Pretty ones really, which include seeing very dear people who I hadn't seen in ages and to celebrate a beautiful beginning (all of my love to the newly-weds!). 

Now that I am back home, I started eating more nicely again. So, here I come with another salad.

Since I enjoy crunchy food, there isn't much science nor exactitude in this. It's a matter of taking a look in the fridge and finding which vegetables seem interesting, washing them so that you can eat them raw without worries about microbes, chop and season.

I have used for my salad (which by the way was not consumed all at once):

4 large leaves ruffled lettuce

1 handful watercress

1 handful snow peas

1 small handful parsley

2 very small beets

1 large carrot

I washed the leaves and peas in that nice way, soaking in vinegar water etc etc, then I rolled them up - a few leaves at a time - and cut in thin strips.

I peeled and grated the beets and the carrot, and set it all aside in a large bowl.

For the sauce I used

1/2 small clove of garlic

1 pinch salt

Juice of 1 lime

1/2 tablespoon tahine

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1/3 cup yogurt*

(Cup measure: 240ml)

I ground the garlic in a small bowl along with the salt until I got a smooth paste, then I added the tahine and lime and started whisking it with a mini fouet, taking care not to spill sauce allover my kitchen.

I added the olive oil and lastly the yogurt, giving it a good stirr.

I have seen this mini fouet in a store and could not resist it, because I find it really cute. But of course you could do the same thing using a a fork or even a small spoon.

Then just toss the vegetables with the sauce and it's done.
[PS: in a second version, I served the sauce aside. Doesn't it look a thousand times better?]

Yields 3 servings.

People say this sauce is very good as a snack or entrée served with julienne carrot, celery, cucumber, pita bread... and I believe it, you know? I will test it some time.

I have read a few blogs and sites to find a version of yogurt sauce that I liked, I think the one I ended up with seems more like the one found in  Figos e Funghis.

*Usually, I make my yogurt at home, but I had just gotten back. That's why you see a store bought package in there.