Crispy salad with almonds to go

Wednesday night was one of the three Celebration of Lights fireworks competition in Vancouver.  This consists of three nights of the most spectactular fireworks displays and over 1 million people all around English Bay coming down to see them.  I am lucky enough to have a couple of friends who have boats moored within a 10 minute walk of the bay.  So I met with them for a dinner on board before walking over to watch.  I made a salad to go along with some wonderful sandwiches that Nancy made.

I made the dressing at the bottom of the container and then layered the ingredients on top, so that when I arrived and we were ready to eat, all I had to do was shake the container with the lid on and voila freshly tossed salad.

Dressing
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of vinegar (I used my home made herb vinegar this time it was tarragon)
1 tablespoon of dijon mustard
1 small garlic clove grated
1 handful of fresh chopped mint and basil
1 teaspoon of salt.

Salad
1/2 english cucumber cubed
4 campari tomatoes cubed
1/2 bunch green onion chopped
1/2 can of garbanzo beans
1 head of romaine (cos) lettuce chopped

Topping
3/4 cup of toasted slivered almonds

Mix all the dressing ingredients in the bottom of a large sealable container.

Then layer the ingredients finishing with the lettuce, so that it is not touching the dressing, therefore stopping it from getting soggy.

Toast the almonds in a dry frying pan, until just turning golden.

This is something that you really do not want get distracted while you are doing it, as they turn from golden to burnt in seconds.

Place these in a small ziploc bag and place on top of the salad then place on the lid.

This will keep like this for quite sometime with out wilting and getting soggy.

When we arrived on the boat, I poured the almonds on to the top of the lettuce, then replaced the lid and turned the container upside down and shook to distribute the dressing.

This made a healthy tasty salad and went well with the italian style sandwiches that Nancy had made and some raw vegetables and dip.

We enjoyed our light dinner with some white wines brought back from the Okanagan.  As the skies darkened we made our way through the crowds and found a little spot on the grass to watch the fireworks.  Wednesday night was Brasil, and we all agreed they were some of the most spectacular fireworks we had ever seen.  The finale did not stand out as much as normal because it seemed like a finale the whole way through.  You have got to love Vancouver in the summer.