Edible Tulip

50 Salads for Everyday Eating: #25 Healthy Egg Salad

Mmm, egg salad on crispy romaine with a side of brined olives - sounds like a perfect lunch for a perfect sunny afternoon on a deck with a perfect view to the world. For a week in the summer I retreat to a cabin in the Adirondack woods with my parents where we sit at the edge of the earth which in this case is a bunch of thick planks forming a deck that abuts itself precariously over ancients rockfaces that fade and fall into Lake Champlain.The sun hits the water just so and the whole horizon explodes like a field of fireflies. When a storm sweeps by it's majestic and alarming and the sky turns black before it gives way to a rainbow, usually a double one. There's always something to spot. It's best to keep your eyes peeled at all times.

We eat well. We make picnics of summer bounty for dinners -- sometimes we eat a picnic meal for supper, othertimes we grill whole fishes and toss baby potatoes in a warm vinaigrette; we make spaghettini in the most tender tomato sauce with capers and black olives, and we grill pork tenderloin and make sweet potato fries. There is always a big bowl of fresh greens and platters of sliced tomatoes drizzled with basil and olive oil. For lunch, we eat healthy sandwiches and raw vegetables and salads made with nuts and fruit and proteins like chickpeas, tuna, hard boiled eggs. This is an easy lunch to prepare after, say, a wicked game of tennis on the clay courts, or a breathless swim in the frigid temperatures that is always Lake Champlain in July.

Egg salad typicallly goes between two pieces of bread but I prefer it on a bed of crunchy greens. Try it, I think you'll like it.

Healthy Egg Salad (two servings, with greens):

4 large eggs, hard-boiled, cooled and finely chopped

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, tarragon, chervil or chives, or a mix of all four

1 green onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

1 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tbsp plain Greek yogurt + 1 tablespoon Hellmann’s mayonnaise (or 2 of one)

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon paprika

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine the first three ingredients in a bowl, mashing with a fork until fluffy. Meanwhile in a small cup or bowl, prepare the dressing by combining the lemon juice, vinegar, yogurt, maoyonnaise, mustard and paprika. Whisk until fully blended then fold into the egg mixture until everything is well combined.

Prepare two bowls of washed torn romaine lettuce. Add a dollop of egg salad to each. Add a hanful of mixed brined olives. Season with a sprinkling of fresh herbs and salt and pepper to taste!

Perfectly healthy lakeside eating. Sigh.

50 Salads for Everyday Eating: #24 Nasturtiums -- the edible flower

The first summer I worked as the chef at the Dunedin Art Retreat Centre nestled in a hamlet in the hills of the Niagara Escarpment, at the headway of three rivers, and with a view to Georgian Bay, I was shocked at the sudden explosion of colour on the back deck of the retreat centre in late July. There were these playful bobbing things of every vibrant colour you could imagine, the prettiest sweetest flowers, just flailing and bouncing in the wind. They were attached like grounded electrical wires to fragile leaves that looked like silver dollars barely holding on atop tiny stems. I found the entire thing enchanting. Then I learned it was all edible.

The flowers taste a touch sweet and the leaves are slightly peppery (think of them as a perfect cross between watercress and arugula), both equally delicious, especially when paired together. I encourage you to try to grow your own. My mother plants nasturtium seedlings in all of her vegetable gardens and some plants thrive, whereas others just wither. Last summer I planted some seedlings in a few different container boxes on my back deck and was thrilled as all get-go to see them bob and bounce and wave at the neighbours for about 5 months despite absolute inattentativeness on my part. A young man stopped me on his way to the back recycling bin one early cool fall afternoon and said "what are those things growing on your deck? Those pink and purple and red and orange and yellow flowers that look like they're having a party every afternoon. I come out and look at them every single day." Both the leaves and the flowers thrived from late spring until late fall when the first cruel frost hit Toronto. Until then I ate half and left half. They need full sun but otherwise they are hardly picky. I went away in the hottest part of the summer for a few weeks and when I returned almost all of my plants and herbs and vegetables were past resucitation. But the nasturtiums? Oh ya, waving welcome back at me in full glory.

 Simply add nasturtium flowers and leaves to any of your favourite simple summer salads for a bit of playful elegance.

50 Salads For Everyday Eating: #23 Sliced Brussels Sprouts with Sugar Snap Peas and Fresh Mint in a Lemon Parmesan Dressing

Another sweet winter medley but this one's on rotation with finely sliced Brussels sprouts, fresh mint leaves and a lemony-Parmesan dressing.

Base of the salad starts with a few celery ribs chopped up and tossed into a bowl. Followed by some sugar snap peas, also chopped and tossed in. Then we take a few raw Brussels sprouts, peel off their outer layers and de-stem them, then we go to work and slice them thinly into oblivion. About the only legume that would work here is the mighty chickpea, preferably cooked from dry. You can omit the chickepeas and instead add toasted hazlenuts, pine nuts or almonds. Or you can just add them with the legumes -- delicious! Since Parmesan is the overwhelming flavour here, we're trying to keep everything else in her balance. Then I tossed in big leaves of fresh mint and fresh oregano.

I kept adding to this dish, grounding it out into a real salad with chopped radicchio and torn red leaf lettuce, but you could also go with arugula, spinach, or/and a whole head of chopped parsley for big flavour and fresh breath and WHAM!

celery, chopped

sugar snap peas, chopped

handful of brussels sprouts, thinly sliced (super thinly!)

fresh mint leaves

fresh oregano leaves

a bit of super finely diced red onion

a handful of cooked garbanzo beans

OR: chopped toasted hazelnuts, almonds or pine nuts

a ton of fresh parsley chopped or some torn lettuce, or both

Dressing

1 1/2 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

1/2 teaspoon sugar (this is for those who find lemon a bit too citrusy, but you can omit)

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan

1 small shallot (or not!), finely chopped

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, garlic, and shallot. Add the grated Parmesan, then drizzle in the oil and stir until thick and combined.

Add the salad ingredients, plus any greens (parley, lettuces) you want and toss to coat.

50 Salads for Everyday Eating: #22 Sweet Winter Medley (sugar snap peas, grated beets, slivered cabbage, pistachios)

This is another easy, assemble the night before salad to take to work that keeps for a few days and simply requires dressing just before eating. It's got most of my favourite flavours -- the sweet herbacious crunch of sugar snap peas (those things that look like snow peas but are fatter), mint and cilantro (although one or the other or neither will do too), the rich grounding of nuts (I used pistachios but you could do roasted peanuts or candied macademias or toasted almonds or any nut that you call your own). This salad has a bit of a Vietnamese face to it because it's bursting with freshness and perfectly combines sweet, sour and heat. Try it; you might just get addicted.

Remember that a lot of these recipes are purposely constructed to be loose and free flowing. Salads are one of those things, unlike cakes and pastries, that don't require exactitude of any sort. It's a combination of flavours that are generally willing to oblige alteration or even substitution. I encourage you to take away specific things that you dislike and experiment at finding replacements. Also remember that ingredients are measured out usually for a large single serving, what one person might eat as a healthy main lunch course. Salads are easily doubled, tripled, times 10.

Tips

1. I take my salad dressing to work in old mustard jars. They seal well enough that you can vigourously shake without wearing plastic covering.
2. Keep an assortment of nuts and dried fruit on hand in your pantry. They really do wonders for a simple salad. I buy a lot of raw nuts -- almonds, pecans, pistachios and sunflower seeds -- but try to make both caramelized/candied and chili/spicy varieties with the pecans and almonds. When you have a salad like a sweet dressed coleslaw the addition of chopped spicy salty nuts is incredible.

Ingredients

Handful of chopped pistachios

1/2 cup chopped Savoy cabbage

1/4 cup slivered green cabbage

Handful chopped sugar snap peas

1 celery rib, chopped

1 small beet, peeled and coarsely grated

1 tablespoon minced red onion

1 tablespoon each chopped mint and cilantro

Dressing (~ 1/2 cup to last for a few servings)

4 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons dark sesame oil

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon hot chili flakes

4 tablespoons light olive oil

1 teaspoon freshly grated raw ginger

50 Salads for Everyday Eating: #21 Korean-Russian Inspired Carrot Slaw with Coriander and Sesame

Inspired by a traditional Korean-Russian carrot salad, this is a simple dish with complicated roots that have wended their way through time from Korea through Central Asia to Moscow which is where I partook in my first tasting.

It was love at first bite.

A bit sweet, kinda pickled, with mysterious, compelling hints of paprika and coriander. Korean traders settled in the former Republic of Russia and brought their specialty, pickles, like kimchee that deliciously spicy marinated cabbage condiment. This salad combines those same flavours, a bit of Europe merged with some of Central Asia, which is Moscow. Everything about Moscow is that unique blend of Eurasian influences.

Ingredients (for a picnic side dish for 2)
1 lb. carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 hot pepper, seeded and minced
1 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. paprika
3/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cider vinegar (please try to use cider vinegar, the acidic apple flavour tossed with the grated carrots is hard to get with any other kind of vinegar)
2 tbsp. vegetable oil (sunflower, light olive oil, canola)
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. soy sauce

(I added a handful of small currants for chewy sweetness and a few slivers of radish but both or either are absolutely optional).

Toss the first 8 ingredients together in a large serving bowl. In a separate dish, combine the vinegar, vegetable oil, sesame oil and soy sauce. Whisk the dressing, then pour over the salad just before serving.

When I lived in Moscow, back in 1998, I ate this salad every day. It only cost  a few rubles and with a king can of beer that was my day time ration. My boyfriend and I were broke, so broke we used the same tea bag for a day's worth of tea, just resting the poor wasted thing on the window ledge to dry out in the sun between steeps. Instead of American marlborough cigarettes we bought Russian-made marlboroughs which were thick with tar and like inhaling a gust of dust but that didn't deter us. When you're 25 and aspiring poets and foreign correspondents and you live in the Motherland you smoke. But despite my drinking and smoking affections, I did crave some good raw food and that became my biggest challenge, my great sleuth operation: getting my hands on some vegetables in Russia that were neither beets nor potatoes. The babushkas "Russian grandmothers" make and sell this spicy carrot slaw at the metro stations for the equivalent of a few pennies and it is a complex and delicious dish filled with hints of coriander and jalapeno and the fruity bite of cider vinegar. Sitting in the window in the sunshine overlooking Sparrow's Hill eating this salad is one of my fondest memories of the difficult time in Moscow.

(If you haven't tried Georgian cuisine - as in food from the former Soviet state, not the collard greens and peas and corn of the southern USA - then you have not tasted the most delicious bread in the world called Kachapura which is a pastry like bread folded over and through a melted stringy fondue-type  cheese meaning it's a bit beery and bitter but blended with the sweetness of the bread it's really something to behold. We used to take a bottle cheap red Georgian wine to a restaurant we loved and eat the Kachapura and their herb speciality which is just a big platter of herbs all wild tasting and raw. Outside the patio window the sounds of Russia echoed in the night air. Those were interesting days indeed. If you live in a big city, try to see if you can find Georgian food. It's an adventure!)

50 Salads for Everyday Eating: Four Asparagus Salads and Four Vinaigrettes (#17, #18, #19, #20)

Eggs and steamed asparagus. This is perfect comfort food, plus it's a ridiculously easy lunch and the two seem in perfect harmony: one's a bit earthy, sensual, demanding after so much time underground whereas the other is more satisfying, comforting, and willing to be second fiddle.

There are a number of variations on this: chopped/grated hard boiled eggs overtop of warm asparagus; soft boiled gooey droopy egg yolk on barely cooked asparagus; poached eggs with asparagus on toast. All are equally pleasing. Pick your fancy.

Some hints:

1. Asparagus always tastes better when it's fresh and local and in Ontario that means May when the spears are thick and hardy and pungently delicious. But sometimes you have to do what you have to do so out of season imported asparagus is ok too. The key to taking the tough ends off is to wash the asparagus thoroughly to get out the grit and then with your hands snap off the ends (not the feathery bit, the bottom part). They break naturally where the tough old bits give way to the more tender edible stalk. 
2. This is both a formidable lunch and a great starter plate. Consider steaming the asparagus -- place in low lying boiling water in a frying pan -- for about 3 minutes or until bright green and tender to a fork. Then you want to drain and while still warm add your eggs and either a bit of butter or a drizzle of olive oil, maybe a few capers, some coarse sea salt and ground pepper and either chopped tarragon or parsley. 
3. Fatty sauces like bearnaise are obvious choices, but so is something tangy and unusual like pesto. Consider your options.

If this looks sort of paltry, add thick slabs of seed bread, and another egg or two, then sop up the leftover mess and take a nap. A perfect lunch in May.

Above is a salad made of warm ingredients: asparagus and beet greens tossed in a dressing while hot. It's subtle but delicious, would be great as a side to fish, served with bread, as an appetizer or made large and served for lunch. The lemony Parmesan dressing is what brings everything alive. Whee, seconds please!

Lemony-Garlicky Dressing

1 garlic clove, pounded in a mortar with 1/2 teaspoon salt until smooth

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

dab of Dijon mustard (optional)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

A generous pinch of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Whisk all the ingredients together until smooth and toss with the beet greens immediately after you add the asparagus.

**The leafy greens leach water from the beet bulbs so it's best if you break the stalks away from the beets when you get them home. Soak both in cold water. And then store separately in ziplock freezer bags.

Asparagus and edamame are both spring babies, the most tenderest, local and sublime while in season. Match with other seasonal ingredients like small heirloom tomatoes and toss with a zingy super simple dressing. A few suggestions are below.

Fresh Basil Dressing
1 3/4 c. olive oil
1 handful fresh basil leaves, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Tarragon Dressing
3/4 c. olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. fresh tarragon, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Parsley-Lime Dressing
1/4 c. olive oil
1/2 c. lime juice
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 tsp. fresh oregano, chopped
Salt and pepper

50 Salads for Everyday Eating: #16 Lentil Corn Salad with Tomatoes, Cukes and Fresh Herbs

I eat a lot of lentils all winter long. They're easy to cook, unbelievably economical, filling yet with a certain levity, and they blend well with some of my favourite flavours: curry, strong tasting herbs (like tarragon), lemon, rich Indian influences like coconut milk and tumeric. But in salads, I like them simple and that means pairing them with something sweet -- corn is perfect,  some fresh bite like chopped celery or cucumber or tomato, a backdrop of floral with herbs, and a very simple wine mustard vinaigrette. It's a really easy and spectacular lunch and keeps in the fridge for a few days. A salty sundried tomato feta is a kicker of a topping if you've got some lying around.

At the health food store, shoot for either the black beluga lentils or the tiny French du puy lentils. Both are smallish and tender and chewy. If you're at the supermarket, try to find Eston Lentils. They are also small and brownish/greenish. In this case, smaller really is better. You can go canned with this recipe but you will lose a lot of the vitality that the dry lentils bring to the dish. You don't need to pre-soak lentils. You can cook them in 20-30 minutes. I rinse mine, bring to a boil, lower the heat to a medium low boil for 20 minutes, then drain.

Quinoa or bulgur would both be great grain additions, cooked separately, and added before dressing.

Serves 4

2 cups dried lentils, cooked through (or 2 cans)

1 1/2 cups frozen corn, steamed, and drained

fresh basil, chopped

3 medium sized tomatoes, diced, or a handful of grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 an English cucumber, diced

possible additions: finely diced red onion, chopped green onion, crumbled salty cheese, hot chile flakes, cooked grains (rice/quinoa/bulgur), a bedding of arugula, ...

Two to one, olive oil to red wine vinegar. Add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Maybe a pressed garlic clove. Shake in a jar or whisk with a fork in a glass. Drizzle over while the corn and/or the lentils are still hot. Season with coarse salt and fresh pepper.

50 Salads for Everyday Eating: #15 Edamame, two ways

Edamame are young soybeans and packed with protein, omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin A and a hardy, nutty flavour. I find them lighter than regular legumes—lentils, chickpeas, fava, ...—and fun to eat. If they're in their slightly furry encasing, it's fiddly fingerwork but delicious with sea salt. If you buy them frozen, already shelled, then it's simply a matter of boiling them until heated through and then they are slippery, sweet, verdant.

I like edamame in salads two ways. The first is with an Asian kick. Above I simply tossed with finely sliced green cabbage, soy sauce, vegetable oil, a bit of white wine vinegar and some black sesame seeds. Chopped mint, parsley or cilantro would be perfect, as would fine minced green onions. A really super meal is edamame tossed with glass noodles, a minced red chile, and some fresh herbs in a peanut oil dressing with lime and grated fresh ginger.

The second is more herbaceous and spring-like and includes asparagus, because for me, these two go hand in hand. They both have earthy, musky personalities that work well with heat and sweet. Here I simply tossed with fresh tomatoes and herbs (tarrogon, basil) and chopped up red leaf lettuce, some diced cucumber and red onion and then tossed in a dressing made in the blender (the mini blenders are great!): lemon juice, handful of parsley, a bit of red wine vinegar, 1 small garlic cloves. Once these ingredients are pureed, whisk in some good tasting olive oil, toss with the salad, and top with coarse black pepper.

50 Salads for Everyday Eating: #14 Black Bean, Chick Pea & Corn Salad in a Zesty Lime Cumin Vinaigrette

So, here's one of the simplest, healthiest, easy to buy for, easy to assemble salads you will ever come across. It's hearty and robust and you can up the green quotient by adding more herbs or tossing with a variety of lettuces. This is a perfect take-to-work lunch because it's high in protein which helps to sustain long lasting energy and keeps you from getting snackish mid-afternoon. I'm a firm believer that salads should be large and ample, colourful and sassy. I lug a padded thermos bag to work and it is filled with morning fruit and an enormous glass container with my lunch. Often when I carry my lunch to the kitchen fridge first thing in the morning I am met with open-mouthed stares. These are proud moments. The idea behind this salad series began with the realization that my lunches were having on impact on my co-workers. People were dropping by my desk to peer at my salads, and ask questions like curious journalists: what? how? I want. Then the I want turned into I can have and women started bringing their own inspired lunches to work and actually bringing them over to show me what they made. These are people who have always wanted to eat better but just fundamentally didn't have the basic foundation to feel confident experimenting with food. What I try to do is debunk all of that.

1. I think recipes are guidelines but exist to muck around with.
2. I think we all have favourite flavours and it's always ok to revert back to those tastes and either build recipes around them or substitute them in for other things you simply may not like. I tend towards things that are  bitter and tart rather than sweet and starchy. I like tastes that are punchy and verging on explosive; other people prefer mellow and discrete. That is ok. You can downplay large flavours by reducing called for amounts or excluding an ingredient altogether whereas I can add more complexity and bite if I find something bland. Figure out what works for you and then start adding to it and experimenting. My salad dressings are acid based -- vinegars or citrus -- because I like the simplicity of acid and oil but you may prefer dairy-based dressings, or sweeter dressings with honey or maple syrup,  in which case you can make the salads I've suggested as they are and then toss with your own dressing.
3. I think salads get a bad rap as being insubstantial, rabbit food, or simply not filling. And I say, screw that! If you eat a tiny container of baby spinach with a few croutons tossed into it, then yes, that's a lame excuse for a meal, but it's not the salad's fault. I tend to stay away from baby lettuces, I don't find them that interesting. They are too wall-flowerish to stand up against anything more interesting which is almost everything. Stick to hearty romaine and chop up the ribs which act like celery and provide great crunch. Green leaf, endive, escarole and red leaf are good too. Some are buttery, others slightly bitter which works well with toasted nuts and dried fruits -- cranberries, chopped apricots, ...
4. If time is your issue substitute dried beans for canned ones, fresh kernal corn for frozen/canned, wash your vegetables at the start of the week and keep in the fridge in ziplock large freezer bags. They'll keep for the entire week and will be ready to use.
5. I often hear people complain after a meal "ew, why did I eat that? I feel so disgusting!" or "I'm starving!" and then they pick at a box of crackers all day followed by granola bars and a few hunks of cheese. Don't deny yourself and feel unsatisfied. Indulge, and feel amazing!

Salad Ingredients

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
2 cups corn kernals (if canned, rinse thoroughly; if frozen, cook for 1 minute in boiling water, then drain)
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
1 tbsp chopped red onion

1 tbsp each chopped cilantro and mint 

Toss the ingredients together with the vinaigrette and serve with crumbled feta cheese.

Lime Cumin Vinaigrette

1 garlic clove
Coarse sea salt
Grated zest of 1 lime
2 to 3 tbsps fresh lime juice
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/3 cup olive oil

Mash the garlic and the sea salt in a mortar until smooth. Combine in a bowl/glass jar with the other ingredients, toss or whisk with a fork to fully combine before pouring over the salad.

50 Salads for Everyday Eating: #13 Kohlrabi and Carrot Coleslaw with Raw Ginger in a Smoky Sesame Dressing

Kohlrabi historically hails from Eastern Europe (doesn't it just look German, or say, Bulgarian?) and kohl means cabbage and rabi means turnip. And there's no two better identifiers to distinguish the flavour of kohlrabi then green cabbage and raw turnip. It tastes like cabbage but with the consistency of the white Japanese radish, daikon. It's slightly sweet like turnip but it has none of the nip of raw red radish. It's fresh,  herbaceous and subtle. I peeled a bulb and cut into it and then I stood over the sink and closed my eyes and chewed the flesh trying to figure out its notes. It is reminiscent in flavour of cabbage - slightly spicy, slightly pungent - but it doesn't have the same chemical release that raw cabbage sometimes emits. You know how sometimes after you eat raw cabbage you walk around feeling like you're breathing fire? Kohlrabi has more of a slow burn; it's fresh tasting, with a subtle sweetness followed by a surprising lemony kick.

I had a difficult time finding recipes for kohlrabi at all, but even more so ones that I actually wanted to try or to tweak. I wanted to use it raw and in a salad but not just chopped into something more overwhelming or cut into moon slivers and braised with butter. I wanted to centre it and see if it could not only hold its own, but shine. After chewing on a few pieces, and contemplating its personality, I thought it would match well with raw carrot which is sweeter but also more fibrous.

So this salad dish is a tango of two - grated raw kohlrabi and grated raw carrots - matched with strong tasting herbs like cilantro and mint and basil and blended together in a smoky dressing made with sesame oil / smoked salish sea salt*/ rice vinegar / grated raw ginger / hot pepper flakes / and a squeeze of lemon.

It was so satisfying and complex that I actually went back into the kitchen, took down the hand grater, and re-did the whole process in order to have seconds. I ate 3 kohlrabi bulbs in a single lunch sitting. It's really that good.

* This sea salt is deeply smoky, infused with the aura of cedar wood smoke. Perfect for grilled fish but also simply divine sprinkled on raw vegetables that lean towards the watery or the hot where the smoky saltiness provides just the right balance. But it's a personal taste, and really, any coarse sea salt that you enjoy the flavour of would be just fine.

I am very free-flowing with my dressings, sometimes using an old mustard jar to shake the ingredients together, often just whisking them with a fork in a small glass and then pouring on top of my salad, but mostly adding them directly to the salad and then tossing it all together. I prefer fresh and flavourful and tend to stay away from dairy (or mayo) based dressing, or ones that are too gummy, and by gummy I mean any of the store bought ones that are practically congealed.

Here's a similar dressing I use to make Asian influenced coleslaws but in a more recipe based friendly format. Other dressing combinations that would work: lime and fresh mint; lime-cumin; a curried vinaigrette with a touch of maple syrup; a peanut dressing (made with roasted peanut oil)/soy/chives/serrano chile.

Sesame Vinaigrette with Chili Oil

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 green onion, chopped, including the greens

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon soy sauce

3 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil + 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil (toasted sesame oil can be substituted for both or you can use just whatever sesame oil you have on hand)

1/2 teaspoon chili oil (or 1/2 teasoon dried chili flakes or 1/2 teaspoon minced jalapeno or serrano pepper)