House Balsamic Vinaigrette

I have a confession to make. I generally hate salad. At least, I did, until I began to experiment with the classic sherry vinaigrette on page 56 in the French Farmhouse Cookbook by Susan Loomis. I discovered that I don't like sherry vinegar, and that I am a wimp about mustard, so I tweaked and tweaked until I came up with a recipe that I really did enjoy*. Now I like salad :) In fact, one of my absolute favorites is a simple salad of baby greens and grape tomatoes tossed with a little of this vinaigrette.

This recipe forms the base for all of my homemade salad dressings, with few exceptions. It's very easy, can be made by hand, in a blender, or in a food processor, and tastes infinitely better than bottled dressings. Homemade salad dressing seems so fancy (from this bumpkin's perspective, anyway), but really, they are the easiest thing in the world. Mine probably aren't cheaper than the store bought bottles of, say, Kraft, or whatever, but that's because I use quality--often organic--ingredients, not cheap soybean oil and vinegar.

A note for those worried about the amount of fat in this:
First of all, eat real food in moderation and enjoy life :)
Second, I dress an entire bowl of salad for my family with about 2 tablespoons of this, no joke. A serving size for any fat is 1 tablespoon, I believe. This dressing is flavorful and sticks well to salad leaves because it is a thick emulsion. It just takes a little while to get it gently tossed in the leaves. Also, I don't like very vinegary dressings. So if you want to add less fat, do it. I don't care. You'll probably end up needing way more salad dressing for the same amount of leaves.
Third, this the only salad dressing that my little two and a half year old always eats. Back when we ate dairy, he wouldn't even reliably eat ranch. It's also one of the only dressings that I like.

House Balsamic Vinaigrette
makes just over 3/4 cup
1/3 cup good quality balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp black pepper
salt to taste
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup good quality olive oil

Mix everything but the oil in a small mixing bowl, food processor, or blender. Slowly add the olive oil, whisking or blending all the while, until the olive oil is fully incorporated, creating a thick emulsion.

*But it all came about because of that original recipe by Susan Loomis, so a big fat thanks to her!

Cabbage Salsa and Cilantro Mayo Sandwich Toppers

To find the recipe I used for Curry Burgers, check out the (very awesome) website theppk.com. It's a great way to use leftovers, and I think we'll be using this basic recipe to make veggie burgers out of many of our leftover legume based stews. For the record, my 2 year old son loved the burgers but hated the curry we used to make them. For some reason he thought they were chicken nuggets...

This is my master recipe for Cabbage Salsa (or, Citrusy Coleslaw if the concept of salsa with non-tex-mex cuisine offends you). My family started out using this as a taco topper (using the tex-mex variation), but it soon moved to burger topper, and even a side salad. We eat this several times per month, often with tacos, but with a few variations, it's super good with many other cuisines as well (such as Indian inspired flavors!).

For full disclosure, I found a handful of recipes for cabbage salsa online and tweaked it to my own liking. It's been so long that I don't know which recipes were the specific inspirations for this, so I can't credit any of them.

Cabbage Salsa, Basic Recipe
3 cups shredded cabbage or prepackaged coleslaw mix (which is what we used for the batch pictured above)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 limes, juiced (this will vary by the lime--Most of the time I only need 1)
1 bunch of green onion tops (green parts only), chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Tex Mex Variation:
1 jalapeno or Fresno chili, minced
1 tomato, chopped fine
dash of ground coriander and cumin, to taste

Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl and toss well to combine. The lime flavor will be most sharp if served right away. Or, you can let this rest in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes to let the flavors blend. The cabbage will soften slightly if you do this. We eat the leftovers the next day, but because it is wilted by that time, we frequently toss fresh shredded cabbage in the mix to reintroduce the crunch factor.

Cilantro Mayo
1/2 cup vegan mayo
2 Tablespoons minced green onions
3 Tablespoons finely minced cilantro

Stir ingredients together and serve. This works best served immediately. Great flavor for tex-mex, Indian, or North African flavors (think chili burgers, curry burgers, or falafel). This was pretty much essential on our curry burgers, especially with sliced tomato. It kicked them up from good to great.