Mango salad with Asian Ginger Sesame Dressing

 I posted a salad like this very recently, but this one is better, so completely disregard the last one! This salad gives Rumbi's a run for their money.

Asian Ginger Sesame Salad Dressing

1/3 c rice vinegar

1/3 c sugar

One chunk of a yellow onion (probably 2 T fine chopped onion)

1 nub fresh ginger (probably 1 T minced)

2 T soy sauce

2 T sesame oil

2/3 C vegetable oil

Combine the first 5 ingredients into the blender and pulverize till the onions and ginger and blended. While the blender is still going, add the sesame oil and vegetable oil.

Now the salad ingredients are really up to you. I did romaine lettuce, red bell pepper, mango,  macadamia nuts, and won ton strips.

How do you get won ton strips do you ask? Now I have seen them sold in bags in the grocery store next to the croutons. However, I have only seen it few and far between. I always make my own. Buy a package of egg roll or won ton wrappers cut them into strips and fry them in hot oil. Season them lightly with salt.

marinated cucumbers

So remember when I said I cooked for ward temple night and served marinated cucumbers. Well actually, I totally forgot I prepared them until the dinner was almost over. I opened the fridge, and there they were, staring me in the face. So I pulled them out so everyone cook see how pretty they were as they were reaching for their dessert. All I can say is they missed out. Luckily, the are soo good day two.

Marinated Cucumbers

Washed and half peeled cucumbers sliced ( I like the English cucumbers)

red onion sliced

Rice vinegar

apple cider vinegar

olive oil

sugar

salt

fresh pepper

water

Now I am truly sorry to say, I don't have measurements, but measurements doesn't matter. Do equal parts rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar and water.. Give a couple swirls of oil, a good sprinkle of salt pepper and a liberal amount to sugar according to your tastes.

The salad dressed to impress

Maybe its just me, but its seems like salads with fruit and poppy dressing are all the rage these days. At any given Relief Society luncheon or bunkco club you will see a salad like this with a different variation. To know the poppy seed dressing is to know an infinite combinations of great salads. In the salad pictured above I did;

Romaine lettuce

Baby spinach

sliced strawberries

diced mangoes

baby sweet peppers (don't know these peppers? look for them they are so good!)

slivered almonds

shredded mozzarella

poppy seed dressing

The possibilities are indeed endless. Candied walnuts or almonds, mandarin oranges, feta cheese or goat cheese, any berries, advacados, pine nuts, dried cranberries, apples, pears . . . it goes on and on and on.

Here is the dressing, this comes from my grandma

Poppy seed dressing

2-3 T diced red onion ( I just cut off a hunk of onion, don't bother measuring I just pulled that number out of thin air)

1/3 c red wine vinegar

1/3 c sugar

1/4 t dry mustard

1 t salt

2/3 c oil (what ever kind you like)

1 T poppy seeds

Do this all in your blender. Combine the onion, sugar, vinegar, dry mustard and salt and puree the crap out of it (till you don't see the onion anymore). While the blender is going, slowly add the oil until well combined. Add poppy seeds and give the blender a couple pulses.

So there it is, it will last in the fridge for almost forever. A helpful hint is to toss just the lettuce with the dressing, then add all the toppings, that way all the nuts and berries don't sink to the bottom, and the cheese doesn't get soggified by the dressing.

So you can impress your book group now, and be in with what's "cook" in the salad world.

lemon ginger salad dressing

Have you noticed salads are all the rage? Well, I can be cool too. Here's a little ditty. This is a nan original.

Lemon Ginger Dressing:

1/3 c fresh squeezed lemon

1/4 c rice vinegar

1/3 c sugar or honey

1 T lemon zest

1 T fresh grated ginger

3 T soy sauce

2 T chopped red onion

3/4 c vegetable oil

Now, I didn't measure out the grated ginger or the red onion. These measurements are just guesses. I cut off a little nub of ginger (peeled) and cut off a little bigger nub of onion (peeled). I put them in the blender along with the sugar, lemon zest (to which I did not measure, I just zested one lemon), vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice. I blended that until the ginger and onion are blended in. While the blend is still going, I slowly added the oil. The dressing is sweet, I like sweet. If you are not a sweet fan, I would decrease the sugar to 1/4 c.

Now this dressing goes good with a salad that has some sort of fruit. In the salad I made, I did romaine lettuce, mangoes, macadamia nuts, avocado, red bell pepper and won ton strips (you can buy won ton strips in the grocery store, usually on the display in the produce section where they have croutons, tortilla strips and almond slivers. I however fried these ones because they were out at the store). 

Now if you added some chicken or some salmon to this, it would make a meal!

My BFF's

The fun thing about this time of the year is that my life long friends come into town, and we always try to get together. This year I had the girls (and their families) up to my place for dinner. Originally, I had visions of this great "martha stewart-esque" fancy pants dinner party. With all the skiing and playing we have done over the holidays, I couldn't even get my house clean! (you can faintly see my unmade bed in the upper left corner of the picture, I tried to cut it out as much as possible). So I went with one of my one pot wonders and a great salad, and had someone else bring a dessert. These are the girls I have known since the beginning and I love them to death! I made Bon Jon, which is a Iranian dish passed down from my Grandma who learned it as a young mother when she lived in Iran. It is one of my favorite dishes. Unfortunately for all of you, I am going to share the recipe next time. Today, I will share the recipe for the salad, which is all I have the energy for, when do the kids go back to school again?

Strawberry and Goat Cheese Salad w/ balsamic vinaigrette

This is a salad I invented after having a similar salad in Washington DC. 

Salad Ingredients:

Baby Spinach

Arugula

Romaine lettuce

Strawberries

Red Onions

Pomegranates

Sliced almonds

Soft Goat Cheese

Salad Dressing:

1/3 c balsamic vinegar

1/3 c sugar or honey

3/4 c olive oil

1/2 lemon squeezed

1 shallot

1 t salt

In your blender, combine shallot, honey, vinegar, salt. Blend until the shallot is fine blended. Add lemon juice. While blender is running, slowly add oil till emulsified. 

Putting together the salad. Slice the strawberries and onions as pretty as your little hands can do them, make them thin. Crumble the goat cheese (which can be messy, so crumble it right out of the fridge, it kind of has the consistency of cream cheese but a little harder) . Seed the pomegranates. Combine romaine, spinach and arugula (buy the pre-made mix bag).Toss with dressing, top with the rest of the ingredients. 

So pretty, so yummy.

This is Bon Jon, stay tuned I make it all the time!