As the name of my blog indicates, I spend a lot of time thinking about home. Of course, my Heavenly Home is the one that is eternal, so that’s where I need to lay up my treasures, and that’s the one I’m striving for. But in the meantime, I have been given this tiny piece of the here-and-now—this home on the edge of town, this family, this neighborhood—in which to serve Him. And, though this is in the earthly realm, I want the things that happen here to be investments in the Heavenly realm.



Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Salad On Tuesday: Week 6 {Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing}

Last week, we served this simple but flavorful, colorful side salad along with roasted rosemary chicken and potatoes.






Salad:
(Yikes!  I don't think we measured anything, but these are the ingredients we used.)
bag of spinach
strawberries, sliced (2 cups?)
slices of red onion (1/2 of an onion?)
grated Monterey Jack cheese (1/2 cup?)

(Oh my...can you even call this a recipe?)
Toss all ingredients together in large salad bowl.


Dressing:
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Whisk all ingredients together and pour over salad.  (Or do what we did and allow each person to add dressing to their own taste.)




I am beginning to experiment with homemade dressings for several reasons.
  • I was inspired by this post at Mary's Nest.  
  • I believe that simple fresh ingredients are healthier and taste better.
  • My mother always made a vinaigrette dressing for salads.  She brought a tomato salad to our Father's Day meal, served with her vinaigrette, and it was as good as I remembered.    

That said, I forgot to refer to Mary's post when I made this poppy seed dressing to accompany the strawberry spinach salad.  If I had, maybe the dressing would have emulsified.  I did add a little mustard as I seemed to recall that it served as an emulsifier, but as it was, we had to shake the dressing vigorously and pour it immediately!  I also would have used olive oil instead of canola oil.   We did enjoy the tangy flavor of this poppy seed dressing.



Do you ever make your own dressings for salad?  
Have you ever used an immersion blender?  (And are they worth the price?)




Looking for a recipe from another week?



Posted by
Labels:

4 comments:

  1. SueJuly 17, 2012 at 11:16 PM

    I love spinach salad this one is very similar to mine, strawberries and red onion together is what makes it, not to mention the homemade salad dressing, and like you I like my homemade dressings better! I also place pecans in my salad, and in my dressing i use orange juice. Thanks for sharing.

    I read your last post and so related to it, all of our children live so far away and what an adjustment it was for us to make, and like you i have my moments. But our desire is that they be where God wants them.
    I am so glad they are moving closer to you, and Cheryl, I will most certainly be praying for them this week!
    We are so busy with getting estimates from contractors and I am packing everything downstairs. It is like I am moving, and I keep asking myself "where am I going"?lol
    Enjoy your week.
    Hugs,
    Sue

    ReplyDelete
  2. AngelaJuly 19, 2012 at 12:50 AM

    I LOVE this kind of salad. And I'm with Sue, I like some pecans or walnuts thrown in. I need to make more of my own dressing. (And I haven't ever used an immersion blender. I'm not even sure what they're for:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brenda Leyland @ Its A Beautiful LifeJuly 20, 2012 at 8:12 PM

    I love this salad too. And the poppy seed dressing...lick the spoon yum!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tim, Allyson, and kidsAugust 5, 2012 at 1:36 PM

    Oh, Cheryl, I <3 my immersion blender. We have this model that my parents gave us for Christmas last year. We've been making yummy, creamy salad dressings all summer from homemade mayo. The mayonnaise only take a few minutes to make with my hand blender. (I have a blog post in the works about how to make it.)

    I also use it for making Kristin's refried been soup recipe and our summer squash soup.

    I know my mom found it on sale between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I think it was about $25, so a $10 savings.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...