Week 16 - Salad

  French Dressing/Sauce Vinaigrette

Recipe 16 - 52 in 2022

Salad #3

    I don't know that I've ever made a truly home-made salad dressing and thought there are so many recipes in my books for dressings, that for Week 16 (I'm late doing this entry), I decided to make a salad dressing and serve it with a simple garden salad. I chose this French Dressing/Sauce Vinaigrette from a 1973 edition of The Joy of Cooking. This dressing is used as a base ingredient in other dressing recipes in the book and I may some of those eventually.  I enjoyed this dressing so much, that I've already made it a second time. It is easy to make, takes just a few minutes to mix up and was great on my salad, but would be good to just marinate vegetables in and I think it would even be good in a rice/macaroni salad. 

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

6 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice (I used lemon juice and it was amazing!!!)

1 clove garlic (I used a rounded tsp minced garlic)

1/4 tsp dry mustard (optional) (I used Trader Joe's Spicy Mustard) 

Directions:

Combine 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice. Whisk together until smooth. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil and whisk again, thoroughly. Add the last tbsp vinegar or lemon juice and the last 3 tbsp olive oil. Whisk together and add 1 tsp minced garlic, whisking again before pouring into a jar. Cover well and refrigerate until ready for use. Shake well before using. I discovered the dressing will congeal a bit when it is refrigerated. Just let it warm up a bit before using and remember to shake well each time you use it. 

Enjoy!!!

French Dressing/Sauce Vinaigrette

Garden Salad with French Dressing/Sauce Vinaigrette

Lemonchick's Blackbean-Corn Salad

Lemonchick's Blackbean-Corn Salad

    I wanted to do something simple for healthy lunches/dinners this weekend and remembered a salad I used to make.  This recipe is totally adjustable dependent on your tastes; add more or less of something or substitute a different kind of bean even.  Using canned beans & corn and prepared pico de gallo instead of all fresh ingredients is way less time consuming (there's no shame in using canned ingredients).  To start, I gathered all of my ingredients together and washed and chopped half of a bunch of cilantro (stems and all). I drained and rinsed one can of black beans (I used a low-sodium variety, but I like to rinse them anyhow) and then scooped the beans into my mixing bowl. Next up was draining and rinsing a can of corn and you guessed it, scooping that into my bowl. I let that sit while I cubed up 5oz queso fresco cheese.  After putting the cubed cheese into the bowl, I added about 1 cup of prepared pico de gallo (finely diced tomato, onion, jalapano and cilantro) to my bowl. Using my favorite wooden spoon (Yes, I have one), I tossed the ingredients together, before adding the extra cilantro I had chopped.  I added the juice of one small lime, poured my concoction into an airtight container and then placed it in my refrigerator. 

    When I was ready for lunch today, I washed a bit of regular, plain ol' iceberg lettuce garden salad mix and put it in a bowl.  I scooped about 1/2 cup  of my blackbean-corn salad mixture onto the garden salad (I'm not sure; it  may have been more; I didn't use a measuring cup). I sprinkled some black pepper on the salad and drizzled buttermilk ranch dressing over top. I also added a little drizzle of hot sauce. If I had had tortilla strips, I would have added some for a little crunch.

    How'd it turn out you ask? Good.  I enjoyed it.  The only major thing I would have done differently, would be to have used the whole 10oz of queso cheese, because I love cheese and would have liked cheese in more bites. 

    So, if you decide you want to try this salad, remember like I said, you can adjust ingredients as you like. Do you like pinto beans better? Use pinto beans. If you don't like onion or cilantro, you could leave those out as well, but I definitely  suggest adding diced tomato.  Don't like tomato? Leave tomato out. Do you like spicy?  Add extra, diced jalapeno. Don't like queso fresco? Use shredded Monterrey Jack or Cheddar. And, you can use a different salad dressing if you like.  I should add that although this recipe is vegetarian, shredded chicken or carnitas (shredded roasted pork) would be delicious on this. You could even use sliced steak.  This salad is also good as a side dish if you don't like lettuce.  

*I present to you Lemonchick's Blackbean-Corn Salad*

Ingredients:

1 can black beans (rinsed) or about 1 1/2 cups cooked (dried) beans

1 can corn (rinsed) or about 1 1/2 cups cooked corn off the cob

1 cup pico de gallo

1/2 bunch of cilantro (rinsed and chopped)

5oz or more of queso fresco cheese

As much of your favorite lettuce/salad mix/spinach that you like

Ranch dressing to taste or try another flavor, because it is your salad after all

Optional: 

Pepper to taste

Hot sauce (I used Tapatio) to taste

Shredded chicken/pork 

Sliced steak