A Better Raspberry Vinaigrette

My gang and I picked about 5 quarts of perfectly ripe berries for about $30 cdn from Watson Farms in Bowmanville, Ontario yesterday. Brace yourself for a few more rocking raspberry recipes to come this week.

Strawberries are wrapping up and raspberry season is officially upon us. Raspberries are fragrantly sweet with a subtly tart overtone, loaded with antioxidants (nearly 50% more than strawberries), and perfect additions to whatever you’re preparing for dessert or dinner.

It’s this time of year that I find myself passing by the Kraft bottles in the salad dressing aisle of my grocery store singing that classic number from Annie Get Your Gun, “Anything you can do, I can do better. I can do anything better than you!” Yep, I sing musicals to inanimate objects in public spaces – because I can.

I can do anything, including the preparation of a tastier, fresher, healthier raspberry vinaigrette for my salad. Skip the bottled stuff and shake up a dressing from scratch in less than a minute, you won’t regret it.
Just remember –

The secret to a great salad dressing is the balance between sweet and sour.

Good-quality extra virgin olive oil is a must. Here, I added 3 large tablespoons of sweet local honey to round out the sourness of the vinegar and tartness of the raspberries. Play with ingredients and create your own perfect balance. Just remember to taste often and add spice in small doses.   Enjoy! xo

Better Raspberry Vinaigrette

Makes about 1 cups of dressing
Refrigerate any leftover in the jar with lid on for up to 5 days.

Ingredients:

•  1/2 cup fresh raspberries (keep about 15 berries aside to keep their shape and top salad with)
• 1/4 cup good-quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup liquid local honey
• 2 tsp. dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar (if without, try with the bolder balsamic vinegar instead)
• Pinch of salt (to taste)
• Fresh ground pepper to taste
• Pinch of dried oregano (optional)

1. In a jar with a tight fitting lid, combine the oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, oregano, and pepper. Shake well.
2. Pour over spinach, red leaf lettuce or mixed greens. I recommend adding some thinly diced red onion, a sharp cheddar and some chopped pecans. To keep my Grandmother smiling, I’ve added some hemp hearts and some of my garden’s broccoli flowers.

Load it, layer it, shake it up. Words to live by, really.

It feels good knowing that at least 90% of my salad bowl was produced within 50 km of my home. Plus, the likeliness of kids actually eating salad increases by about 60% when they’ve helped pick the berries that made the dressing. I love when numbers tastes good.

Raspberries aside, what I thought was garden devastation turned out to be the perfect salad topper. This is my first year growing broccoli in our garden and I’ve discovered that it will flower very quickly if you’re not available to prune it often, especially in this hot, humid weather. The good news is that it’s all edible! These beautiful, delicate yellow flowers offer great colour and a mild broccoli flavour to the salad bowl.

Enjoy your greens and for the record, I am sorry for embedding “Anything You Can Do” in your head for the next 24 hours. xo

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