Tag Archives: dressing

Parsley Dressing

27 Sep

There’s more to curly parsley than just a chain restaurant garnish…  Just like there’s more to my friend Tania than meets the eye.

Perejil y Ajo

This is a recipe I learned from her. Tania is a hair stylist but, every time you go to her salon, you get your hair done and your tummy full. The last time I was there she fed me lunch… and as any typical yogi would do, half the plate she gave me was salad. But this salad was special… it had a special dressing.

Tania tells me this parsley dressing is her go-to salad dressing at home. It’s super easy to make and she always has a bottle of it on top of her kitchen counter. I bragged so much about it to another friend in our running group that Tania had to make a dressing batch just for this other friend to try.

I have been dreaming of making salads with this dressing for a while now… and this is my homage to Tania’s Parsley Dressing. I hope I make it justice. A bottle of this is standing on my kitchen counter as I type!!

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PARSLEY DRESSING

1 bunch of curly parsley, thicker stems removed and coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove
½ tbs kosher salt
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup water

This is the time to take out your immersion blender… I first used my food processor, but just a bunch of parsley is too small to use a large processor. Tania makes it in her Vitamix blender…

  1. In a glass measuring cup measure the olive oil and the water. Add the garlic clove, salt and the coarsely chopped parsley to the large measuring cup. Start pureeing with the immersion blender until the oil emulsifies and turns creamy.
  2. The measuring cup is nice because the spout will help you decant it into a bottle where you can keep the dressing for future use.

The dressing is chunky… but it’s super flavorful. Pour it over a green salad or even boiled potatoes or rice. It’s very, very versatile.

This is a great use of all that curly parsley that goes on sale frequently. I tend to prefer flat-leaf parsley in recipes, but for this preparation, curly works just fine.

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Mixed Green Salad… great way to return to the land of the eaters

11 Mar

After a week without eating solid foods, you certainly want to maintain your system as clean as possible. We are encouraged to eat only fruits and salads after we finish our spiritual retreats.

This was the salad I made right after we came back to the “land of the eaters”… it was improvised by what was freshest at the market on New Year’s Day, but it turned out to be so delicious, that we prepared it exactly the same for a few days after because I got so enamored of the flavors.

This is my way to get you enamored with salads too… hope it works!!!!

Salad - After Retiro

MIXED GREEN SALAD

2 large handfuls of Baby Arugula
1 large handful of Baby Spinach
1 handful of Alfalfa sprouts
1 Tomato, sliced
¼ cup sliced Almonds
¼ cup dried Cranberries
Lemon Vinaigrette – Lime juice, Extra Virgin Olive oil, Salt and Pepper
  1. Combine the first 6 ingredients in a large salad bowl. Squirt the juice of ½ a lemon, drizzle some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss all the ingredients with your hands to combine well.
  2. Eat immediately… as the lettuces will wilt if you let this salad sit for too long.

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Tomato Basil Dressing

2 May

When I am at home cooking for myself, I am lazy. So I just dress my salads with either an organic brand of prepared salad dressing or just drizzle a bit of olive oil and lemon juice over the greens and call it a day.

But when I am with the Yoga Center people, I need to prepare salad dressings most days I cook for them. Most of the times, we create what we lovingly call Left-Over Dressings. But once in a while I will create such a delicious combination that I will write the ingredients and make it over and over again… such is the case with this Tomato and Basil Dressing.

I created this dressing for the first time during my recent trip to Asunción, Paraguay. Several of us were in charge to cook for the whole group, right before our spiritual retreat. We needed to prepare a salad dressing that will stand up to the delicious greens, sprouts and other veggies we were eating… hey, we were fasting and people get reaaaaaaallly hungry.

The results were so delicious I wrote down the recipe and have been making it a few times since. Each and every time we get great compliments on the flavor and simplicity. Hope you like it as much as my yoga crowd…

TOMATO BASIL DRESSING

4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 small cucumber , roughly chopped
1 small red onion, roughly chopped
1 small green bell pepper, cut into medium-sized pieces
½ carrot, peeled and cut into medium chunks
2 garlic cloves, smashed
½ bunch of fresh basil, washed and cut somewhat including the stems
1 tbs salt
1 heaping tbs Garlic & Herbs Seasoning blend
Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
The juice of 2-3 large green limes
1 cup olive oil
A small drizzle of honey or agave nectar
  1. In a blender, add all the solid ingredients. I like to add the tomatoes first because they’re the most liquid and will create the right environment or the rest of the ingredients to puree well. I also add the salt, pepper, lime or lemon juice and other seasonings.
  2. Puree well using the blender… let the blender go for a while to ensure the mixture is well pureed.
  3. While the blender is going, add the olive oil thru the hole on the blenders cover. Drizzle the oil in a small steady stream. This will allow the dressing to emulsify and fir the oil to stay integrated in the dressing and not separate when it’s standing. Add also the drizzle of honey after the oil is integrated.

This recipe will yield you two large jars of dressing (I recycle glass jars for this purpose)… good enough for a hungry crowd like ours. You can certainly scale it down if you prefer or just keep it in the fridge for a whole week of deliciously dressed salads.

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