Salad for Lunch

I'm packing a salad to lunch tomorrow, but cos it's something I haphazardly threw together (and was too lazy to head to the supermarket near my haus) I'm not too excited about it. Instead I'm reminiscing of this totz yumz salad I made a few weeks (maybe months) back! Man it was yummy. I was super excited about making it because back then I'd been having this insane craving for salad. Who craves salads anyway? Must have been all my OL (office lady) friends in the CBD instagramming their salad lunches, but because my office only has the requisite mixed rice stalls and fish soup stalls, well, I had to make my own to bring to work. I was inspired by this recipe here from 101 cookbooks, a really cool blog with great healthy recipes and pretty photos, but so damned healthy I feel a bit sorry for the author. I wonder if she misses eating fried chicken and cheesy pasta... 

The point is that she talks about how her salad holds up through the day and that's exactly what I was looking for in making a salad to bring to work-- it needs to stay crisp and fresh, but yet have enough goodies in it to make me stay full. 

I used mostly organic produce for my salad, except the avocadoes, olives and mushrooms, all of which are harder to get them organic in Singapore. I used a mix of baby kale, romaine leaves, broccoli heads, sliced celery and carrots, plus organic chickpeas which were cute and tiny!

As for the salad dressing, this one's a keeper! My mom taught me how to make her amazing salad sauce years ago but that one is an olive-oil-balsamic-vinegar-secret-ingredient-mix that can sometimes be a little boring, seeing as how I've been having it for yeaaaaaars, and I've always had a thing for creamy salad dressing anyway. I guess I'll start alternating between them!

Miso Dressing:

1 large clove garlic, smashed in a pestle and mortar
1 tablespoon white miso (brown miso is fine too)
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or any other light vinegar
pinch of ground cumin
1/3 cup plain yoghurt

The original recipe called for heavy cream but it's salad! How can I put heavy cream into a salad?! If I had sour cream I would have substituted with it but I just added a little more yoghurt. Eugh so easy and delicious wehhh I wish I was having this for lunch tomorrow!! 

Tada isn't that a beauty. I also added in some penne, about a handful just cos I love my carbs. And of course some toasted pinenuts because they are delicious. Sliced in the avocado just after I tossed it so it wouldn't become avo-mash. 

Clearly I overestimated the size of my tupperware... 

Ok now I'll have to make this again soon. jtong cooks yall!