“Plenty” of Mistakes: Rice, Radish and Avocado Salad with Lemon-Cumin Vinaigrette

Well oops.

I tried this beautiful salad from Yotam Ottlenghi’s Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi last week and instead of following the directions I royally butchered it. And it’s vegetarian, which makes the “butchering” that much worse.

Stuff I did wrong:

I only had half an avocado instead of two small ones
I skipped the fava beans entirely, and added fennel because I love fennel and this type of salad should be accommodating
I skimped on the two tbsp of the olive oil because I like a more pungent, drier salad
I juiced one of the lemons before realizing I was supposed to segment it

It was so bland. I mean, it was warm and fluffy and acidic, but the grains stuck together because of the smaller amount of oil, and the dressing was too lemony and not lemony enough because it didn’t spread evenly over the sticky grains. I even toasted and ground the cumin to make it stronger and that couldn’t save it. To be fair, though, I think the salad is supposed to be bland. It’s beautiful, with the red radishes and purple radish cress (as though you can actually find that when you want it anyway…), but if your avocados don’t sing, and your olive oil isn’t scrumptious all on its own, this recipe is en route to back of the fridge where the worst leftovers go to die.

Unless you smother it in curry or stir-fry, of course. Or serve it with something a heck of a lot more flavourful that can carry the meal. Then it’s no worse than plain white rice. I hear a lot of people in the world like that. Even as breakfast. And the greens and radishes are so good for you. So get rid of the contents of the back of your fridge and buy more avocados and delicious olive oils. Then your life will probably be better. Probably. Also, buy this book. Not the new one by the same author.