Miso Slaw

I bought a head of cabbage, with the intent of making cabbage rolls. However, I sort of forgot what day it was, and realized after getting home that I just wasn't going to have time to make them that week. But I didn't want to waste the cabbage! So I whipped up a quick batch of Miso Slaw, which was a big hit.

I used savoy cabbage, because I figured the softer, lighter leaves would be easier to use for cabbage rolls. Plus, it's just pretty. I cut it into pretty shreds and set it aside.

The dressing starts with some sugar.

Next was some miso. Miso is a fermented bean paste. I used the yellow because it has a more mild flavor.

Sealed properly in the fridge, miso can last a very, very long time. Don't be afraid of buying it because you're not sure what to do with it and you don't want it to go bad. I speak from experience here!

Other uses for miso, you ask? There are tons! You could dissolve it in hot water and use it in place of chicken broth in soups, stews, and gravies.

Grab some tofu and kombu (seaweed) and make miso soup at home.

A spoonful or two added to regular chicken stock will liven it up.

You can make a marinade for chicken, fish, tofu, or vegetables (or just smear it on before cooking.)

If you're a Brit/Aussie and like Marmite/Vegemite, try some on toast.

There are tons of ways to use miso. Just get creative!

A few spoonfuls are all you need for the dressing.

Rice wine vinegar brings some tanginess to the party.

Then in goes the sesame oil. Because I love sesame oil.

A bit of mayo will lend stability to the dressing and help the components meld together, rather than separate like you see here.

Finally, vegetable oil thins the dressing and makes it easy to stir into the salad.

I admit, it's not the prettiest dressing. But it smelled amazing.

Pour it over the shredded cabbage.

And ignore my utensil drawer. It's forever open. I feel like I'm constantly shutting it to keep it out of pictures. But I forgot today.

Hey. It was a busy weeknight.

Toss the dressing with the cabbage.
















I made the slaw first, and let the cabbage soak up some of the dressing flavors while the rest of the dinner came together. When it was time to serve it, I sprinkled it with some sesame seeds and dug in. It was pretty amazing! Make it yourself and find out just how amazing it really is!

Recipe: Miso Slaw

1/2 cabbage, finely shredded
1 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. miso paste
1/4 c. vinegar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. mayonnaise
3 tbsp. vegetable oil

Combine all dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over cabbage, combine well, and serve.

Thousand Island Dressing

One of my favorite junk foods growing up was the Big Mac. It was the special sauce that sold me on it. It's creamy, sweet, salty, and crunchy. However, as an adult, I find this iconic sandwich somewhat lacking--to get the sauce, I have to have the dehydrated onions and the thin, beef-ish patties, too? No thanks. Instead, I learned to make the sauce at home so I could add it to any burger I pleased. And you can use for many different things! Top a salad with it, or pour it into a small bowl and use it to dip your fries. Let's see just how easy it is, shall we?

This is how easy it is! Six ingredients easy.

Plop some mayo in a bowl.

Add a few squirts of ketchup.

 Add a splash of vinegar. I was going to use white vinegar, but all our white vineger is for cleaning and in huge gallon jugs. I didn't feel like trying to pour a tablespoon of vinegar out of a huge gallon-sized jug. Plus, I like cider vinegar better anyway.

A sprinkling of sugar makes it sweet.

On to the cutting stuff. I cut myself a ring of onion.

Then I chopped it up fine.

Yeah, I did the "lazy" cut. But uniform dices weren't really the goal here (or, so I tell myself to justify cutting it this way.) I just needed little bits of onion.

Check out these great pickles. I was talked into buying these little baby cucumbers at the market last month. I love the sweet pickles called cornichons, and a friend in culinary school happened to have a great recipe for them. They're so crunchy and sweet, I love them! Of course, my favorite way to eat them is on top of a piece of crusty bread smothered with pate.

Pick out a few pickles. If you don't have cornichons, sweet pickles or even relish is fine here. And if you use relish, you don't even have to mince them.

Since I used whole pickles, I did have to mince.

The pickles and onions went into the bowl of mayonnaise. And I remembered to use salt and pepper.

Ah, there it is. That familiar pink-ish dressing that adorns the most famous burger in the world.

Only this is a hundred times better.

I slathered some sauce onto my burger bun.

Mmmm.
















Use this dressing as a salad dressing, on a burger, or even as a french fry dip. Change it up to suit your personality--use sour pickles instead of sweet, or add some heat with a jalapeno pepper. Use sriracha or cocktail sauce instead of ketchup. For a slightly healthier idea, try Greek yogurt instead of mayo, and use fresh cucumbers instead of pickles.

Recipe: Thousand Island Dressing

1/2 c. mayonnaise
3 tbsp. ketchup
1 tbsp. vinegar
2 tsp. sugar
3 tbsp. relish or chopped sweet pickle
1 tsp. minced onion
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl; stir to combine. Let sit at least an hour for flavors to blend.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

If I had to guess, I'd peg ranch dressing as the most popular salad dressing (and maybe dip, too!) I admit that sometimes I have a craving for a salad with a drizzle of creamy dressing on top. But we have a hard time finishing a whole bottle of dressing with just our little family, and I'm a little squicked out by using dressing that's been in the fridge for weeks, much less months. So I decided to make my own.

Making ranch dressing at home is surprisingly easy. I used fresh herbs, but you could use dried if that's all you have on hand.

The first thing I do is chop some garlic. Once it's roughly chopped, I sprinkle it with salt.

I used a really big clove of garlic. If you don't like garlic, I'd recommend either using a very small clove, or leaving it out (leave out garlic? I'm scandalized.)

Then I keep chopping, and once in while I run the flat part of the knife over the garlic. It turns big chunks of garlic into a paste-like substance.

Combine sour cream and mayo in a bowl, and add the garlic paste when it's ready.

I like sour cream more than mayo, so I added more of that. If you prefer the taste of mayo, or are short on sour cream, you could switch the amounts. And you could easily use the low-fat versions of these, if you're watching your calorie intake.

I love fresh parsley and dill. I grabbed a couple handfuls of both.

They got a quick chop.

Next I ran my knife through a bunch of chives.

I love chives. I've tried to grow my own a few times, but our house has very little shade outside, and anything grown inside is claimed by the cats. It looks like I'll be doomed to paying a premium on fresh herbs the rest of my life.

Add your herbs to the bowl, along with the zest from half a lemon (yellow part only, please!)

Don't forget to add the juice from the half-lemon!

Salt and pepper are your friends too.

Give everything a stir. Then add some buttermilk until the dressing is as thin or as thick as you like it.

I like to use mine as both a dressing and a vegetable dip so I keep it on the thicker side.

I wish you could smell this.

Give the dressing a little time for the flavors to blend, or just serve it right away if you can't resist.











Once you try this homemade dressing, you'll never want to go back to the kind in a bottle!

Recipe: Homemade Ranch Dressing

1 large clove or 2 small cloves garlic
salt

1/2 c. mayo
1 c. sour cream

2 tablespoons each fresh parsley, dill, and chives (or 2 teaspoons dried)

zest and juice from half a lemon
salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 c. to 1 c. buttermilk


Roughly chop garlic; sprinkle with salt and continue to chop. Use the flat side of the knife to crush garlic into a paste.

Combine mayo and sour cream in a bowl. Add garlic paste.

Finely chop parsley, dill, and chives. Add to bowl.

Add zest and juice from the lemon; season with salt and pepper. Stir everything together.

Add buttermilk until dressing is the desired consistency. Serve right away or let sit in the fridge to allow flavors to blend.

Simple Honey Vinaigrette

 Looking for an easy way to dress up salad? I know I always am. I get bored having the same salad dressing night after night, as well as having to check expiration dates on bottles in my fridge. Sometimes I get home, hoping to have a salad, only to discover there's no ready made dressing available. And that's where today's recipe comes in handy!

Salad dressing can be incredibly easy to make. The most basic salad dressing has only two ingredients--vinegar and oil. The perfect dressing will have the right balance between sweet and tangy. There will always be an oil or fat and a vinegar element; emulsifiers, such as egg yolk or mustard, help the vinegar and oil stay blended.

This simple vinaigrette starts with minced shallot. You could use onion too, but shallot has a milder flavor. If you like garlic, you could mince some garlic up too.

Next are some big spoonfuls of dijon mustard. I love dijon mustard in salad dressing.

Now for the sweet part of the recipe--honey. Honey is a nice ingredient to use; unlike sugar, there's no worry about undissolved crystals or lumps, and there are so many varieties of honey out there that you can pick and choose to suit your tastes.

This vinaigrette is going to have a couple of acids. The first is lemon juice. But before you squeeze the lemon, take time to zest off some of the peel (avoiding the white pithy part of the lemon.)

A good trick when zesting is to lay the lemon (or whatever you're zesting) flat. Then run the microplane or grater over it--rather than the other way around. This way, the zest gets caught in the high sides of the zester, and there's less risk of you slipping and zesting your hand. And you can use a lighter touch this way, avoiding the risk of zesting up the bitter pith.

Add the zest of half the lemon to your vinaigrette. Then add half of the juice from the lemon.

Give everything a nice whisk. Now it's time for the second acid--white wine vinegar.

You could use any light-colored vinegar in your pantry--white balsamic, apple cider, red wine--whatever you like.

Now stream in the olive oil. You don't want to add it all at once, or it may never incorporate fully. Stir while you stream in the oil, or add a little bit at a time and then stir.

I like to add fresh chopped parsley as well--just for some extra color.

Oh, and don't forget to salt and pepper!















I marinated some chicken in the vinaigrette mixture and then served it over a salad with the same vinaigrette. I really enjoyed it--it hit all the right notes of sweet, sour, and tangy, and it gave a really nice flavor to the chicken as well. Try it on your next salad!

Recipe: Simple Honey Vinaigrette
1/2 shallot, finely minced
3 tbsp. dijon mustard
1/4 c. honey
Zest and juice from half a lemon
1/3 c. white wine vinegar
1/4 c. olive oil
1 tbsp. chopped parsley

Whisk all ingredients together, and then serve!