Arugula, White Bean & Parmesan Salad with a Meyer Lemon-Shallot Vinaigrette

The salad dressing here comes from a recipe by Emeril that used blood orange instead of Meyer lemon. I really liked the dressing with the lemon, although I’m sure it’s just fabulous with blood or any other orange. This makes a nice, light meal for when the weather’s warm.

Besides, you can feel good about eating a big salad. jwa and I can usually go through a whole bag of greens in one sitting without feeling guilty. For this salad, I decided to grill up about four shrimp each to top our salads. The tasty little shrimps worked very well with the citrus dressing.

This salad also reminds me of one of my most favorite salads ever — one I had last year at The Wild Coho in Port Townsend, WA. Hmmm, now I totally want to go back there again very soon.

Meyer Lemon & Shallot Vinaigrette
1 tsp olive oil
1 small shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 /2 tsp Meyer lemon zest
1/2 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp Champagne or white wine vinegar
pinch of salt
a few grinds black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Set a small pan over medium heat and add the teaspoon olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the shallots and cook, stirring often for 1 minute. Add the garlic and lemon zest to the pan and continue to cook for 30 seconds.

Pour the juice into the pan and raise the heat to high. Bring to a boil and allow the juice to reduce for about 5-6 minutes. (The mixture should be thick and syrupy.)

Pour the warm lemon mixture into a medium bowl, and add the mustard, honey and vinegar. Season with the salt and pepper and whisk to blend. Stir vigorously and slowly drizzle the oil into the bowl as you whisk. Set the vinaigrette aside as you prepare the salad.

Salad
1 big bunch arugula
1 cup canned white beans, drained and rinsed
6-8 basil leaves, torn
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup shaved or grated Parmesan
a few slices red onion

Toss the arugula with the white beans, basil, pine nuts, cheese and onion. Add a few grinds of pepper and then toss with the desired amount of the Meyer lemon dressing. You’ll probably have some left over — just store it in the fridge!

***
Ashland was great as usual. There’s a new chef at The Winchester Inn and our meal there Sunday night was incredibly delicious. So good that it will get its own post this week. Tracy’s Tiger was very entertaining and they upgraded us to a suite at the hotel. Hooray!