Tag: summer salad recipes

Farmer's Market Salad with Better-Than-Kraft Raspberry Vinaigrette

On August 19, 2014

In Clean Eating, Dairy-Free, Paleo, Products I Use, Recipes

Water, Sugar, Vegetable Oil (Soybean Oil, Canola Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil), Red Wine Vinegar, Vinegar, Contains Less Than 2% of Salt, Red Raspberry Juice Concentrate, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Dried Onions, Spice, Poppy Seeds, Natural Flavor, Oleoresin Paprika, Potassium Sorbate And Calcium Disodium Edta (to Protect Freshness). Contains: Poppy Seed.

Those are the ingredients in a bottle of Kraft’s Lite Raspberry Vinaigrette.

Tasty, huh?

Most salad dressings we buy in the store contain lots of preservatives and chemicals, and as you can see above, very little (less than 2% each!) of real, whole food ingredients we’d expect to see in a salad dressing.

What’s most shocking?

Kraft’s raspberry vinaigrette doesn’t even contain raspberries!

Now there’s a head scratcher.

Homemade salad dressings are one of the easiest upgrades you can make to your diet. They take very little time to make and, in most cases, require either a whisk or a blender to mix everything together.

That’s why I wanted to try a recipe for a homemade raspberry vinaigrette that tastes 100 times better than the bottled stuff…and actually contains raspberries! 🙂

I served it on top of a summer salad, whose recipe is below, but feel free to put it on any salad you like.

The dressing is inspired by this recipe, but I made several tweaks.

Farmer’s Market Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Dressing

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar (Bragg’s is the brand we use! Make sure it contains “The Mother”)
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons honey (I used raw honey)
1 teaspoon dried basil
2/3 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen, thawed
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salad (All veggies are ideally organic! Check out this post for how to save money on organic food.)

1 head of lettuce of your choice or 6-8 cups of salad greens
2 peaches, thinly sliced
2 avocados, pitted, peeled and thinly sliced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
1/3 cup sliced almond, toasted
Optional: 1/4 cup fresh basil, thinly sliced into thin ribbons

Directions

Combine all dressing ingredients in a blender for 30-60 seconds and liquify. If you have a Vitamix, follow these directions.
Assemble salad and toss ingredients together, leaving almonds aside.
Drizzle dressing on salad and sprinkle almonds on top. Toss to combine.
Optional: Top salad with chicken or fish, or serve with a side of soup!

Heirloom Tomato & Chickpea Summer Salad

By Rachel Druckenmiller

On August 10, 2014

In Clean Eating, Dairy-Free, Paleo, Products I Use, Recipes, Vegan

I used to hate tomatoes.

I don’t know what it was specifically that fueled my aversion, but unless they were blended together in pizza sauce or in my can of Spaghettios or Beefaroni, I wanted nothing to do with them.

Fortunately, over the years as I’ve opened myself up to foods and giving them a second chance rather than immediately writing them off, I’ve found that I really like tomatoes.

Especially heirloom tomatoes.

If you want to learn all about heirloom tomatoes, check out this link by a guy who has an entire website devoted to tomatoes!

I also pulled this little bit of info off of Hometown Harvest’s website. I’ve met the owners, Tony and Abby, and respect and admire their approach to food and the fresh, local products they source to their customers, which is why Bill and I switched from a different produce delivery company to Hometown Harvest.

An heirloom tomato is an open-pollinated tomato whose seed grows “true to type”—meaning, if you plant Cherokee Purple seed, you’re going to get Cherokee Purple plants. From generation to generation, that seed will stay true. Some heirloom tomatoes have, in fact, stayed within one family and so are heirlooms in the truest sense of the word. Other heirloom tomatoes circulate widely.

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes

Heirloom tomatoes also tend to have a thinner skin and are more prone to bruising and puncturing, so it’s important to handle them carefully. Their flavor is second to none, and they come in lots of different colors, so they spruce up the plate!

I made this recipe using heirloom tomatoes for the first time last summer and LOVED it.

Oh my goodness it is so tasty! It was the perfect way to use the heirloom tomatoes we got in our Hometown Harvest bag this week and at the farmer’s market in Easton, Maryland on Saturday morning.

If you like to “go downy ocean, hun,” you should plan to stop by Easton’s farmer’s market on your way to or from the beach.

We’ll be making this dish tomorrow night for Meatless Monday. Give it a whirl if you’re looking for something new to try. Enjoy! 🙂

Heirloom Tomatoes & Chickpea Summer Salad

Ingredients

Serves 6

Base

2 large heirloom tomatoes, sliced into 1/2 inch discs (or whatever thickness you like!)
1-2 handfuls of fresh greens or lettuce of your choice

Chickpea Medley

5.5-6 cups cooked (~ 3 15-ounce cans) garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed (We like Eden brand!)
5 ounce baby spinach
1.5 cups cilantro, large stems removed (or parsley if you don’t like cilantro or want a milder taste)
3/4 cup red onion, chopped finely

Dressing

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon 100% pure maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener)
3/4 teaspoon sea salt + ground pepper

Arrange the tomato slices on top of the greens and then follow this link to the full recipe for the medley and dressing from one of my favorite vegan bloggers over at oh she glows (she makes veggies taste fantastic!).