We had lunch with our dear friends a couple of weeks ago and she made two wonderful salads for lunch - a simple pasta salad and a quinoa salad. Both were delicious, but what made them that way was the fabulous salad dressing!
I love homemade dressings. They usually only have a few ingredients (all of which you can pronounce) and are so fresh and flavorful.
I asked Kimberlee for her dressing recipe, but she is a "little of this and a pinch of that" kind of a cook. Anyway, I have recreated it to the best of my ability and I wanted to share with you.
If you like the taste of basil - you will really enjoy this dressing.
1 c. olive oil
1/3 c. white wine vinegar
1/4 c. yogurt or sour cream (I prefer yogurt with all the good probiotics)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced (depending on how "hot" you like things)
1 very large handful of fresh basil leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
Dash pepper
Kimberlee put all the ingredients in a wide mouth quart canning jar and then blended it all with an immersion blender. (How ingenius is that?!)
My immersion blender died, so I just put it all in my blender to immulsify it. Then I transfered it to a bottle.
Her quinoa salad was so simple - cooked quinoa, cooled; 1 cucumber sliced (the slices were then quartered); 1 medium sized zucchini, sliced (those slices were also quartered) and I think one other thing, (grape tomatoes?) It really was just so good.
Won't you give it a try...and then tell me what you think.
Mmmm. I never thought to make a dressing with yogurt. I sure love greek yogurt.
ReplyDeleteI just got some summer peach and red apple balsamic vinegars from a cute shop on Balboa. I love making simple vinaigrettes with good olive oil & flavored balsamics - so good on bitter greens with sweet summer fruit and walnuts.
Wish we could linger over lunch together... miss you. :-)
I'm with you - vinaigrettes are the best. Your new balsamic vinegars sound wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI learned that if you add a bit of mustard (like Dijon) or yogurt then your oil/vinegars separate less.
One of these days - we'll get to have our lunch {and latte and ..... :-) }
Oh, this sounds so delicious....and I love Kimberlee's recipes. I have a stash in my recipe book that I treasure. Your recipes are so good, too....my stash of Pur et Simple recipes is growing, too!! I will try this for sure!
ReplyDelete~Julia