I love your recipe, but i have a suggestion: I know everything has its reason, but I would urge you to keep sugar out of your salads. Heck, sugar is in everything else; let's keep our (healthy) salads sugar-free! Besides, you already have apples in it, and candied nuts. Try the same recipe w/just roasted nuts, and no brown sugar in the dressing. (Plse don't take offense; i rant against sugar everywhere.)
A riff on your salad that you might like:
add Madras curry powder to your dressing and toss it with sliced tart apples, Julienned beets, and sliced celery.(It's from our fav Burlington VT restnt, Penny Cluse.)
I'm sort of obsessed with vinaigrette so thank you all for these recipes and suggestions. One of the best and most useful guides to vinaigrette success that I've ever found came from the Soups and Salads volume of a series called Great American Cooking Schools. This one is by Sandi Cooper. Here's what she has to say from my Gourmet recipe app where I copied it down.
1 fat garlic clove, mashed to a paste with about 1/2 teaspoon of salt 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard 1 cup virgin olive oil ā cup white wine vinegar 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, or 1/2 tsp. dried salt and feshly ground pepper, to taste Directions 1 Add the garlic paste to the mustard and stir. Pour in the oil and whisk until the dressing has become quite thick. The mustard acts as an emulsifier in this dressing and not only thickens it, but makes it fairly stable, as well.
2 Now whisk in your vinegar, herbs, salt and pepper. Taste the dressing. If it tastes a bit oily, DON'T add vinegar; if it tastes a bit vinegary DON'T add oil. First add a bit more salt! Usually this brings everything together. Now taste for balance. You should not taste just garlic or just mustard. You should not really taste the oil or the vinegar, and the herbs should be just like perfume: heady and seductive, not overpowering and brazen. This is the essence of a perfect dressing to be used with lettuce, vegetables, fish, meat, pasta, rice or whatever the imagination devises.
3 To make the dressing thicker, add a beaten egg and which until thick. To make Roquefort Vinaigrette, add 1/2 cup crumbled Roquefort to 1 cup Vinaigrette, just before serving, and whisk gently. To make Avocado Vinaigrette, peel a ripe avocado, mash the flesh into a puree with a fork, add to 1 cup Vinaigrette, and whisk until smooth. Season with either 1/8 teaspoon Tabasco sauce or 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.
b, different vinegars have different % acidity (see their labels) so in vinaigrettes, you have some choices: you can choose to use lower acidity vinegars, as are many of those mentioned here; and you can use less vinegar and more of another acid, like lemon juice, that is less strong; or use less vinegar altogether. I noticed the other day, as i was using up a bottle of Cane Vinegar (from the Philippines) in a Chicken Adobo, that cane vin. is only 4% acid-- very low.
One garlic clove, microplaned or mashed to a paste, a heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard, pinch of salt, several grinds of black pepper, juice of one lemon, and olive oil (I never measure this--just add evoo until it's as tart as you want it). This is my absolute favorite salad dressing, and I love it because it's not vinegar-based. It has a really pleasant citrus flavor. You can even grate the rind of the lemon into the dressing if you like.
Lemon juice + a touch of white wine or champagne vinegar, generous dollop of stoneground mustard, small dollop or honey or a teaspoon or so of maple syrup, salt, pepper, great tasting olive oil. Mmmmm. ;o)
I like half sherry vinegar and half lemon juice. 1 part acid to 3-4 parts oil (extra virgin olive oil +/- toasted nut oil). Salt, pepper, shallot/garlic/red onion to taste, +/- Dijon, +/- honey/sugar.
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A riff on your salad that you might like:
add Madras curry powder to your dressing and toss it with sliced tart apples, Julienned beets, and sliced celery.(It's from our fav Burlington VT restnt, Penny Cluse.)
1 fat garlic clove, mashed to a paste with about 1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 cup virgin olive oil
ā cup white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, or 1/2 tsp. dried
salt and feshly ground pepper, to taste
Directions
1
Add the garlic paste to the mustard and stir. Pour in the oil and whisk until the dressing has become quite thick. The mustard acts as an emulsifier in this dressing and not only thickens it, but makes it fairly stable, as well.
2
Now whisk in your vinegar, herbs, salt and pepper. Taste the dressing. If it tastes a bit oily, DON'T add vinegar; if it tastes a bit vinegary DON'T add oil. First add a bit more salt! Usually this brings everything together. Now taste for balance. You should not taste just garlic or just mustard. You should not really taste the oil or the vinegar, and the herbs should be just like perfume: heady and seductive, not overpowering and brazen. This is the essence of a perfect dressing to be used with lettuce, vegetables, fish, meat, pasta, rice or whatever the imagination devises.
3
To make the dressing thicker, add a beaten egg and which until thick. To make Roquefort Vinaigrette, add 1/2 cup crumbled Roquefort to 1 cup Vinaigrette, just before serving, and whisk gently. To make Avocado Vinaigrette, peel a ripe avocado, mash the flesh into a puree with a fork, add to 1 cup Vinaigrette, and whisk until smooth. Season with either 1/8 teaspoon Tabasco sauce or 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.
https://food52.com/recipes/2560-maple-syrup-and-dijon-vinaigrette
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