Chopped Salad with Toasted Pumpkin Seed Dressing

There's a lot being said about raw food and its benefits, especially for veggies.  As a chemist, I get the point that cooking can leach out and/or decompose nutrients.  So how to (get the family to) ingest those veggies raw, without the rich ranch or onion dips?  Chopped salads, that's how.

I thank Rachel Ray for reminding us about chopped salads, and how flavorful they can make raw veggies.  And the produce section is your palette.  Think about the dressing carefully - it should flavor well, but not through rich fats and processed ingredients. I have strong radar aimed at processed foods, even from the healthiest of natural food providers.  Better if you can prepare it yourself from basic ingredients you recognize and understand.  I don't quite get guar gum.

So get this - it's probably all in your crisper drawer, or should be.
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 zucchini, sliced into quarter moons
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
kernels from 1 fresh corn cob
1/4 cup diced purple Bermuda onion
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 jalapeño pepper, minced (optional)

Toasted Pumpkin Seed Dressing:
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp sherry vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper, about 1/4 tsp
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1Tbsp toasted pumpkin seed oil
1/3 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp toasted, salted pumpkin seeds

Mix all the veggies together in a large bowl. Whisk together the dressing.

Toss the dressing together with the veggies and allow to marinate at least 30 minutes. Stir and top with pumpkin seeds.

Serves 4.

Cook's Note:  You could substitute walnut oil for the pumpkinseed oil, if you cannot find the later.  Substitute 3 Tbsp walnut for the 1 of pumpkinseed oil, and reduce the olive oil by the same amount.