Hearty Lettuce, Carrot, Cherry tomatoes Salad with homemade dressing

A crowd pleasing salad with homemade vinaigrette

I am back from my vacation to India and back to blogging with a hearty salad recipe from my kitchen. Actually blogging took a back seat after arrival of Anshika,my darling daughter. This post has a reason to be here on my blog, if interested read on.......

June's 1st weekend we drove to Albany, NY to attend a birthday party of our closest friend's daughter. For the party I made this salad which everyone appreciated and enjoyed eating as much as I loved making it all the while hoping it to turn out well. You won't imagine people loved it and few of them took a second serving too! I was so overwhelmed with the kind of response and appreciation I got for the salad, thought of sharing it with all my readers too. Also many asked for the recipe there, I have a similar salad recipe but the dressing is a little bit different so thought of posting it on my website.

Salads are a healthy way to eat good and nutritious food. And for a basic salad recipe what I do is just peep into my refrigerator and pantry for necessary ingredients like salad greens, dried fruits, any kind of nuts and lastly some acidic ingredient like vinegar or citrus juice, that's pretty much it. I start making delicious salads by combining friendly veggies that go well with each other and the flavors kind of marry with each other quiet well. I try many dressings doing my own version, sometimes, I like it, sometimes they take a ride into my kitchen sink. Coming to this dressing, it is simple homemade vinaigrette with vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, honey and Dijon mustard with little seasoning.

Source: My own
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 10 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
6 leaves of Romaine Lettuce, torn
6 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 carrot, grated
½ red onion, chopped
1 seedless cucumber (optional)
1 pack seasoned bread croutons (optional)
Handful of toasted almonds/pinenuts/walnut(any)
dried cranberries for garnish

for dressing:
1 T distilled vinegar or lime juice
1 t dijon mustard
1 T honey
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of salt/ as per taste
1 tsp ground black pepper

Method:

1. Mix all the salad ingredients except nuts and croutons in a large bowl.
2. Prepare the dressing by first adding dijon mustard in vinegar juice whisk well.
3. Add freshly ground black pepper, salt, honey mix well.
4. Whisk vigorously while adding extra-virgin olive oil.
5. Spread over the salad, mix and cover it with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated.
6. When ready to eat top it with toasted almonds and croutons.


Tip: For crunchy salad, wash the greens and use a salad spinner to remove excess water out of the leaves or you can dab excess water in the leaves with a kitchen towel.

Click on Salads from my kitchen