We have had offerings of beets every week for the last month or so, from our wonderful CSA, Oakhill Organics. I love beets, and so does my family, so I take a bunch every week. This week, I decided to make a roasted golden beet salad, with some organic greens.

I was thinking about the salad as my beets were roasting, and happened to glance over at the wooden bowl on our counter,  filled with ripe avocados. I thought about slicing them, and adding their creaminess to the salad. As a snack most days, my girls already eat sliced avocado on toast, with fresh ground pepper, that they insist on grinding themselves.  I wanted to show them a new, and different way to eat avocados.

The idea of making a dressing out of the avocados really appealed to me. I envisioned a combination of fresh squeezed lemon juice,  garlic and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.  I have never made an avocado dressing before, so I looked online for ideas. There are tons of recipes that use one of the following ingredients, sour cream, plain yogurt, mayonnaise, cottage cheese, or a combination of a few of them.  I wanted my dressing to be simple to make, with only a handful of fresh ingredients. I had the dressing already in my head. The only ingredient that was missing, was my creamy, dairy ingredient.

I make delicious, nutritious milk kefir with ancient grains a friend gave me many months ago. I just strained a batch, and opted to use that as the creamy, tangy, dairy ingredient. This is one of those moments where I am looking excitedly at myself adding ingredients to the mason jar, and am not really sure how it is going to work out.

The salad turned out beautifully, with the gorgeous golden beets, the crisp, tender vibrant organic greens, and the white and  purple striped cabbage. The dressing was unanimously yummy. It’s velvety creaminess and tanginess, worked wonderfully with the sweet roasted beet roots. I am really pleased to share this recipe with you. If you do not have kefir,  you can substitute plain yogurt or sour cream. Dominic has been using this dressing ever since, as a spread for an open faced sandwich. He toasts crusty bread, spreads the creamy avocado dressing on, and then tops with fresh sliced tomatoes and onions from our garden.

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