Carrot and Avocado Salad

A few weeks ago, after Matt had won an award from McDonald's, we decided to celebrate by heading to a Chicago landmark that recently re-opened. We went to the Pump Room, a notorious Chicago spot which was famous as a bar, and hosted the likes of Frank Sinatra (in fact our table was right next to their big booth dedicated to Old Blue Eyes). We decided to go for the prohibition style cocktails, but when we got their, we realized they had updated their restaurant with a new, modern decor. So, we decided to try their dinner service as well.


As an aside, for Lent this year we gave up all meat (beef, chicken, pork, everything), so going out to dinners has been quite an experience for us lately, as we are very carnivorous people. We asked our server for some vegetarian favorites on the menu and she recommended the Roast Carrot and Avocado Salad. She told us that although it sounded weird/was not a normal pairing, that it was one of their best selling dishes. We ordered it and to our surprise it was DELICIOUS.

After the dinner, Michele was determined to find a recipe to recreate this dish at home. To our surprise, we actually were able to find Jean-Georges Vongerichten recipe for this dish. To find the complete recipe visit http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/home-cooking-with-jean-georges/. We highly recommend this salad and here is a picture of our homemade version for comparison. ENJOY!