spring berry salad with lemon verbena vinaigrette

After buying lemon verbena at Herbfest this year, I found myself unsure of how I could use it, aside from making soap. (And then I started singing “How do you solve a problem like verbena?” whenever I went outside to water the plants. I have issues.) I thought I’d try making it into a lemon verbena vinaigrette; the first time, I chopped the verbena, but since the leaves are a little bit poke-y, that wasn’t the best idea. So I ended up pureeing the dressing in my Vitamix until the leaves were completely pulverized. The vinaigrette has a lemony, slightly herbal taste, with a tart kick from the champagne vinegar–it’s not a sweet dressing, but that’s okay because you’ve already got the sweetness from the berries in this salad.

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Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 5

Recipe Modified from: ohmyveggies

Ingredients

⅓ c. champagne vinegar
⅓ c. extra-virgin olive oil
⅓ c. lemon verbena leaves, loosely packed
1 (5-ounce) package spring mix salad greens
2 c. fresh berries (I used red and yellow strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries)
2 tbsp. sunflower seeds

Instructions

Combine vinegar, olive oil, and lemon verbena leaves in a blender. Blend on high until leaves are pureed into the vinaigrette. (If you don't have a high-powered blender like the Vitamix, you may want to strain the dressing through a fine mesh sieve of cheesecloth.)
Divide greens onto 4 plates. Top each with ½ cup of berries and sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Drizzle vinaigrette over the salad (there might be extra--don't feel like you need to use it all!).

Recipe Modified from: ohmyveggies

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