win "wild about greens" :: contest and recipe

I decanted the dressing to a recycled salad dressing bottle and made the tag in an extremely rare, Martha-Stewart-esque moment.

Nava Atlas is certainly one of the most prolific, plantalicious cookbook authors I know. And she's also one of the most gracious people in the vegan community – always there to give an encouraging word to aspiring herbivores, plug other cookbooks, and share her infectious positivity. Oh, and she's a visual artist and also writes non-fiction books, too. [Clearly this woman does not sleep!] Nava's newest cookbook, Wild About Greens, focuses, as you hopefully have deduced from the title, on recipes made with kale, spinach, chard, and the like. Gorgeous photos were shot by the lovely and popular blogger Susan Voisin.

I think this is a simple yet brilliant book concept. I don't know about you, but I am so over the "vegan series" of cookbooks: vegan this, vegan that, and vegan the other  [and I am allowed to say this because I wrote The Urban Vegan and Celebrate Vegan]. Using the word "vegan" in a cookbook title is definitely a trend that's past its prime. I love how Nava has chosen to focus on an impossibly broad-yet-narrow area of cuisine. And Nava's 125 recipes give you plenty of inspiration and cover the spectrum from salads to smoothies, and just about everything in between.

Wild About Greens contains 8, count 'em 8 recipes for Massaged Kale Salads. I made the Kale Salad with Dried Fruits and Nuts.

Contest:

Nava's publisher is giving away a copy to one lucky winner [US residents only, please]. I'll announce the winner sometime next week. All you have to do is tell me your favorite green veggie in a comment. To gain additional chances to win, do any or all of the following:

1. Like VegKitchen.com on Facebook.
2. Follow @navaatlas2 on Twitter.
3. Follow @theurbanvegan on Twitter.
4. Like The Urban Vegan on Facebook.


Recipe: Green Goddess Dressing
As if the book giveaway is not cool enough, Nava has kindly allowed me to reprint her Green Goddess Salad Dressing Recipe. I whipped up a batch this afternoon – it's light and the perfect dressing for summer salads. It looks like pesto, and that made me think it would taste great as a pasta sauce or even atop a baked potato. I'll definitely be making this again...

I used this dressing over Trader Joe's Healthy 8 Veggie Mix 

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup peeled, seeded and chopped cucumber
• 1/2 cup firmly packed fresh parsley
• 2 good handfuls of baby spinach leaves
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons white or red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, or 1 teaspoon dried dill
• Freshly ground pepper to taste

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Place all ingredients in the container of a food processor. Process until all that remains of the parsley is tiny flakes. Refrigerate the unused portion in an airtight container. Use within two days. [Besides using this as a salad topper, Nava also suggests drizzling it on lightly cooked or cooked veggies.]