Friday Food for Thought—Simple Salad, Delicious Dressing

This salad is quick and easy to make, and the flavorful dressing makes it a great choice to serve with barbecued meat.

Salad Ingredients

2 Belgian endives
1 head radicchio
1 head of leafy green lettuce
(Boston, butterhead or leaf lettuce)

Tear the lettuce and radicchio into bite-sized pieces and put them in a salad bowl. If the endives are not too big, cut off the stem end, separate the leaves, leaving them whole, and toss them with the lettuce.

Dressing:

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon grated ginger root
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil or ½ teaspoon dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together the dressing ingredients, gradually adding the oil, then stir in the basil. Pour dressing over salad just before serving, toss, and enjoy!

To grate the ginger, I use a bamboo ginger grater like this one. In this picture, you're actually seeing three ginger graters stacked on top of one another. I bought mine in my local Chinatown. Such a simple device, and it works like a charm and easily rinses clean. Gotta love that.

You may have noticed that I always use homemade salad dressing. Each salad is unique, so it deserves an appropriate dressing. So to avoid having a dozen bottled dressing in the fridge, I make my own. Besides, what's easier than whipping up a salad dressing? Two minutes and you're done!

This is one of my favorite salad dressings ever, so I sometimes double the recipe and store what's leftover in a covered jar in the refrigerator.

Until next time,
Lee