Avocado and Romaine Salad Surprise

Dressing

Step 1

Place the orange juice and the sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer the mixture until reduced to about 1 1/4 cups. Remove from the heat and let cool a few minutes. Whisk in the orange zest, 2/3 cup lime juice, salt, and cayenne. Transfer to a bowl and slowly pour in the olive oil in a thin stream, whisking continuously so that an emulsion forms. Whisk in the sesame oil; taste for salt. Chill in the refrigerator before use. Whisk again just before dressing the salad.

Step 2

Right before the gusts arrive, make the salad; Toss the cucumbers, jicama, and radishes in a large salad bowl with half the dressing.

Step 3

Peel the avocados, and cut the flesh into 1 inch chunks; toss the flesh with the 2 tablespoons of lime juice as you work. Add the avocado chunks to the salad bowl, along with the scallions, half the pomegranate seeds, and half the pepitas.

Step 4

Cut the romaine crosswise, working from the leafy end to the root end, into strips that are about 1-inch wide (you need about 14 cups of strips). Add the lettuce to the salad bowl, along with half to two-thirds of the remaining dressing, tossing well to coat. Taste the salad, and add as much of the remaining dressing as suits your taste. Top the salad with remaining pomegranate seeds and pepitas. Serve at once.

NOTE: The simplest way to seed a pomegranate is to cut it into a few pieces and rap the skin side sharply with a spoon. Do this over a bowl of water and you can separate out any bits of membrane.