Continuing on our theme from last time when we discussed getting more fruits and vegetables into our diet with a morning smoothie, I thought we'd branch out past breakfast.
Another way to make your vegetables more appealing, is to dress them up a bit. Yes, I'm talking about salads and the dressings that can make them sparkle. Making your own dressing means you know exactly what is going into the recipe and onto your food. Have you looked at a label on a commercially produced bottle of salad dressing recently? Even some of the organic ones have a few ingredients I can't pronounce.
I make a red curry miso dressing that I shared at the last class I taught because everyone who has tried it asked for the recipe. I've even given it as a birthday present before. To make the dressing you'll need:
Red Curry Miso Dressing
1 inch peeled ginger
2 small peeled garlic cloves
1 tsp red curry paste
¼ cup yellow miso paste
½ cup olive oil
1 TB sesame oil
¼ cup rice vinegar
1 TB apple cider vinegar
1 TB light agave nectar
Place all ingredients in blender and keep it going until smooth and creamy. It will thicken after being refrigerated for a while. If you want it to thin out, leave it on the counter for about an hour before pouring.
This is my favorite dressing to use on a wilted kale salad. Truthfully, the kale isn't really wilted with heat but bruised to soften it. To do this, tear a rinsed bunch of kale into bite sized pieces and place in a large bowl. Drizzle the kale with olive oil and sprinkle on about a half a teaspoon of coarse sea salt. Then you massage the kale until it is shiny with the oil and a slightly darker color.
Another easy dressing is a mustard vinagrette. I like that on spinach salads with dried cranberries, red onion, avocado and pumpkin seeds. For this dressing, you just need olive oil, regular yellow mustard, apple cider vinegar, dried thyme, garlic, agave nectar, red cayenne pepper and sea salt.
You'd be surprised how your already appealing veggies will be even more so with the right, homemade dressing.
If you have any questions about this segment, you can send an email to me at wvtfveggie@gmail.com.
