Copy Cat

Last week I met Sara at the Cheesecake Factory in Bellevue, and as usual, deciding what to order took forever.  Their menu is extremely overwhelming! Are the multiple pages really necessary?!  I got the avocado egg rolls and just about died they were so good! I HAD to make them at home.  There are a lot of recipes for these online, the one from Food.com seemed the most legit. Instead of making the actual deep fried egg rolls I decided to put all of the ingredients on a bed of crunchy romaine lettuce and use the dipping sauce as a salad dressing. You should stop what you're doing and make this right NOW! I followed the recipe pretty closely but didn't add the tamarind pulp because I couldn't find any at Whole Foods.  The dipping sauce ended up being fairly thick, when I make this next time I'll add a little more olive oil. Yum!

Cheesecake Factory Avacado Salad


Ingredients:


Dressing

• 3 teaspoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 pinch powdered saffron
• 1/2 cup cashews
• 2/3 cup fresh cilantro
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 cup olive oil (needs more)

Salad

• 4 cups of romaine lettuce
• 1 avacado, peeled, pitted and diced
• 3 tablespoons sundried tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon minced red onion
• 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro

Directions:  Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a food processor and blend until creamy.  Combine the salad ingredients in a large bowl and top with the dressing. You'll probably end up with extra dressing but that's a good thing! Enjoy!