Salad Days

I’m trying to be more mindful about what I eat. Since my work schedule is really interfering with my exercise routine, and since I’m currently exerting about 25 more pounds of force on the Earth than I’m comfortable with, I’ve decided to start being far more discriminating about what I do or do not eat. To that end, I’ve started eating a lot more greens.

Now, I have been – in the past, mind you – the kind of person who’s ALWAYS been happy to eat salad because I used all those lovely veggies merely as vehicles for dressing: usually Italian dressing, and usually a lot of it. Of course, that paradigm isn’t going to do anything about helping me meet my healthy eating goals, so I’ve had to come up with a way to change the way I approach a bowl of lettuce. What I need is a dressing that can be drizzled sparingly, but that packs a wallop of flavor.

Enter my dear friend, Organic Mama. She and I share not only a passion for language, but a passion for cooking, as well. She’s been inviting me to her Passover Seders for years now, and every year she indulges me by serving this dressing with the salads. It’s SERIOUS yumminess, it’s kicky enough to get me through a field of greens with as little as a tablespoon or so of dressing, and it really needs to be shared.

1/2 cup olive oil
1/6 Balsamic vinegar
1/6 apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
1 clove crushed garlic
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a carafe or jar with a tight fitting lid and shake it well. I alter the recipe both by doubling it (it’s easier to pour out 1/3 of a cup of the vinegars than to figure out how much 1/6 would look like) and by grating the garlic cloves instead of crushing them; I’m overly fond of garlic, and I find that grating it allows the garlic to more uniformly float in the suspension. I often forget the salt and pepper, too, but I’ve not found that to diminish the yumminess in any way, shape, or fashion.

Enjoy!!