Hearts of Palm and Jicama Salad

Sometimes, you find a great recipe where you least expect it. Two winters ago, I was in Florida visiting my parents for a week. My mom subscribes to Southern Living magazine and she noted a recipe in the February 2010 issue that she thought I might enjoy. For whatever reason, I always figured Southern Living would be full of recipes like Southern-Fried Chicken and Deep-Fried Donuts. I didn't think it would have anything remotely vegan, but sure enough, the recipe she'd noted was vegan, and it sounded really good, too - Hearts of Palm and Jicama Salad. It featured avocado, yellow pepper, jicama, and hearts of palm, something I'd heard of but never actually tried. I thought it would make a light and refreshing dinner salad, so we went off to the market and got what we needed. The salad was easy to prepare, and it was just perfect on a balmy night.

I've been in a main-dish-salad mood lately, so I dug out the recipe and made it again last night. I added a can of navy beans to bump up the protein and served it over baby spinach to make it a bit more filling.

I guess I was really hungry last night, because I was halfway through my meal when I realized I hadn't taken a photo of my plate. Oops!

Hearts of palm are pretty yummy! I can see myself adding them to more salads in the future....