Maple Dressing

We catered a dinner tonight and there was a lovely vegetarian there. She thanked us profusely for not making the vegetarian choice some kind of pasta. Apparently at most of the dinners she goes to, the most common vegetarian choice is lasagna.

"I like lasagna, but you can get too much of it."

I'm sure.

I never really considered cooking something completely different for vegetarians, and I didn't realize they often ended up with a pasta dish. I love the vegetarians in my life and I tend to enjoy the challenge of cooking vegetarian more than cooking for meat eaters. (Cooking meat is kind of a no-brainer. You get great meat from a butcher who gets his (or her) meat from a small scale organic farmer and you can't go wrong. You can't wreck it. Unless I suppose you like to over cook it.)

Anyway, when we prepare for the vegetarians at our dinners, we usually try to do something that's comparable to what we're making for all the carnivores. Tonight we did Mozzarella Chicken with mushrooms and onions and so our vegetarian choice was exactly that except with portobello mushrooms.

Back to the title of the post. Our lovely vegetarian really liked our salad dressing tonight. It is one of my personal favourites, but I think it's made better because it dressed locally grown hydroponic lettuce, wild blueberries and a sliver of onion. Here's the recipe. It's good on just about anything.

Maple Dressing

1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup cider vinegar (or your favourite mild vinegar)
1/3 cup real maple syrup (or more)

Whisk.

Um, that's it. Kind of embarrassing it's so easy, but it's the truth.

Enjoy!

My Favourite Dressing

There are two that I love, actually. One that I am dreaming about, especially after finding a forgotten cache of Manitoba strawberries in the freezer is our own recipe for a simple strawberry dressing.

Strawberry Salad Dressing
1 cup real strawberries (it just won't work with those clamshell Californians, sorry.)
1/2 cup Manitoba honey
1/2 cup cider vinegar.

Whirl this together in a blender and adjust the flavours to your own liking... more sweet? Add honey. More tart? Add vinegar. Want some extra zip? Add a dash of balsamic vinegar. Toss with a simple salad of mixed greens or spinach, nuts, finely sliced red onions and your favourite fruit.

The other is one I got from a friend, which we modified slightly. I almost always have it in my fridge. It is delicious on just about anything and I love it when it's poured over tomatoes, cucumbers and green onions. I usually squeeze just a bit extra grainy dijon into it, because I can't resist mustard.

Sweet Honey Mustard Dressing
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup apple sauce (or cider)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup white wine vinegar, or cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste.

This is also great on a simple romaine salad tossed with seasonal fresh vegetables.