Crab and Avocado Salad

I originally planned the very romantic Pulled Pork dinner for Valentine's Day, but had also added this to the week's menu.  Since this seemed like a much more sophisticated and classy meal, I made the quick switch.

This was an incredibly good and easy to make dinner.  I tried to cut costs a bit by using imitation crab, and my husband didn't notice anything different, so I guess it worked!  We both liked this quite a bit, and the boys of course weren't interested.  I was a bit nervous after reading tepid reviews of it on Food Network's page, but then noticed all those who reviewed it poorly left out anchovies from the dressing; I also noticed that those who rated highly said they definitely HAD used the anchovies, so I made sure to INCLUDE them!

I'm not typically a fan of Caesar salads, but this homemade salad dressing was delicious.

An excellent Friday Lenten meal for you!

Crab and Avocado Salad from Food Network Magazine via Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

• Kosher salt
• 1/2 pound haricots verts or green beans, halved
• 2/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt
• 3 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
• 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh chives
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 3 anchovy fillets, chopped
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 pound lump or claw crabmeat
• 1 Hass avocado, halved, pitted and diced
• 3 romaine hearts, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat croutons
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

Directions

Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the haricots verts and cook until crisp-tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking.

Puree the yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, chives, basil and anchovies in a blender until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
Toss the crabmeat, half of the avocado and about 1 tablespoon of the yogurt dressing in a small bowl. Toss the romaine, croutons, haricots verts and the remaining avocado with the remaining dressing in a large bowl.
Divide the romaine salad among plates, top with the tomatoes and place some of the crab mixture in the center.