Basic Simple Green Salad

A simple and basic green salad recipe that can be used as a base for your favorite flavors and toppings! Chef Keoni Chang shares two of his favorite variatio...

Balsamic Vinaigrette

I was craving for some light food since I've been lazy and buying Wendy's Apple Pecan Grilled Chicken Salad with their refreshing Pomegranate Vinaigrette.  So I decided to make my all time favorite basic dressing here.  Real fast and quick if you have all the ingredients in your cupboard and fridge.   

Ingredients:

1 tsp garlic, grated or finely minced
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper, to taste


Directions:

Whisk vinegar, mustard, lemon juice salt and black pepper in bowl using stainless steel whisk. Slowly add oil, whisking until well blended. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

Get your toss salad greens and drizzle the dressing over!!  Ono it's kaukau time!!  Enjoy!!  :D

My Salad-In-a-Jar

1 quart mason jars

Veggies

dressing

Vegan Asian Salad with Hoisin Sesame Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1lb fresh rinsed spinach
1 head romaine lettuce chopped
1/4lb mung bean sprouts
1 carrot peeled shredded
1 cucumber sliced and diced
1 large tomato sliced into wedges or 10 cherry tomatoes
1 green bell pepper seeded and chopped
2 nori sheets cut into flakes
chinese parsley or cilantro chopped
1 tsp ginger root minced
1 clove garlic crushed and minced fine


Dressing:

balsamic vinegar
hoisin sauce
sesame oil
extra virgin oil
black pepper


Procedure:

Cut veggies according to your preference. Combine in mixing bowl drizzle dressing either premix or straight drizzled from the bottle like me and toss.  No salt needed.  Hoisin is perfectly salty by itself.  Also add chili pepper flakes if you like it spicy.  Also can add slices of fresh oranges or canned mandarin too.

The tanginess of the balsamic with the sweetness of the hoisin along with the smoky sesame oil is a wonderful
combination I found out.   You'll love it too!


Yields about 2 big bowls for me or 4 servings!!  LOL

Enjoy kaukau time!!

Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1 garlic clove
1/4 cup quaity Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
pinch of salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
3/4 cup quality extra virgin olive oil
sugar or sweetener optional to your taste or none for a zero carb dressing

Method:

Add the Balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard and salt, pepper, and garlic.

Give it a quick whisk  allowing the mustard and vinegar to combine and begin to emulsify.

Or you can cheat like I do and use my salad dressing mixer shown below which I purchased from Pampered Chef along with the garlic press!

Begin to slowly add the olive oil until well combined, being careful to add just a little bit at a time so the dressing will emulsify, the mustard should help emulsification so don't leave it out. 

You can add other ingredients, herbs and spices to kick it up a notch it's up to you.  But this is the basic recipe I use.

Store in a glass jar for about a week.

Ono!!  Enjoy with your Apple Orchard Chicken Salad!!

:)