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Chopped Chicken Salad with Homemade Ranch~ Whole30/Paleo

A Paleo Whole 30 chopped chicken salad that will rock your world! Allow time to soak cashews for 3-4 hours

Course Salad
Cuisine American
Keyword easy lunch recipe, Paleo recipes, Whole30 recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 4 servings
Author Linda Spiker

Ingredients

To Make Cashew Cream:

  • 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked and blended with 1/2 cup water

Ranch Dressing Ingredients:

  • 1 cup  light olive oil or avocado oil
  • 2 large eggs the second is back up ( both eggs need to be room temp, very important!)
  • Juice of half a lemon room temp
  • 1/2 cup cashew cream or coconut milk (If you aren't on W30 you could use buttermilk)
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro chopped
  • 2 tablespoons chives chopped
  • 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

The Salad:

  • 1 smallish head romaine lettuce chopped finely
  • 1 medium tomato. diced small
  • 1/2 a cucumber diced small
  • 1 apple diced small
  • 1 avocado diced small
  • 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
  • 2 cups rotisserie chicken or leftover roasted chicken

Instructions

Make the dressing:

  1. Bring one cup water to boil. Turn off heat and add cashews. Allow to soak for 3-4 hours. Strain and rinse. Place soaked cashews in blender and add 1/2 water. Blend until smooth. That's your cashew cream. Set aside.
  2. Place a room temp egg (have a second egg as back up) and olive in a narrow jar that is wide enough to accommodate an immersion blender.The egg must be room temp. If you forget to take the egg out of the fridge in time, you can place it in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes to bring it to room temp.
  3. Add the juice of half a room temp lemon.
  4. Place an immersion blender into jar with the blender touching the bottom. Turn on immersion blender keeping it at the bottom of the dish. In about 30 seconds or less you will have mayonnaise! Stop blending. If mayo doesn't set up, use that second egg. Add it to the jar and mix again, it almost always saves the day. Add chopped herbs, spices and cashew milk (or coconut cream if using, being sure to whisk it before adding) and give one more quick blend to incorporate herbs and spices! Ta-da!

The Salad:

  1. Chop and dice all ingredients and place in a bowl. Toss with desired amount of dressing right before serving. Extra dressing can be saved in the fridge for five days.