Vegtastic Salad with Basic Vinaigrette

Friends, it has been a long, dark winter. Thank God that spring has sprung here in Texas and the sweet sunshine has been healing my tired soul. Lately I find myself hankering for something fresh to eat while also contemplating the onset of swimsuit season. Both are excellent reasons to make a healthy Vegtastic Salad.

Feel free to riff on the recipe below and include your favorite veggies or switch up the vinaigrette ingredients based on what you have on hand. This is also a great salad to make after a trip to the farmers market with whatever super seasonal produce you find. I’ve included my preferred way to layer the salad so that you get the dressing evenly distributed without all those pretty veggies ending up in the bottom of the salad bowl.

Vegtastic Salad (Serves 6-8 as a side)

Ingredients

• Two 6-oz bags mixed salad greens
  (Like one bag of butter lettuces and one bag of baby romaine, etc.)
• 1 cup red grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup yellow grape tomatoes, halved
• 1.5 cups shredded carrot
  (I get this bagged, also)
• 2 cups sugar snap peas, whole or halved
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions

Place both bags of greens and half of shredded carrot in your salad bowl and drizzle with vinaigrette (recipe below.) Toss to combine and coat evenly with dressing. Place remaining carrots, tomatoes, and sugar snap peas in a gallon Ziploc bag. Pour in some more vinaigrette, seal bag, and shake until toppings are all coated. Remove from bag and layer on top of the salad greens. Top with fresh ground pepper to taste and parmesan cheese.

If you are doubling the recipe for more folks, just make two layers of greens and toppings.

Basic Vinaigrette

Ingredients

• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup vinegar or lemon juice (you can mix this up — I used a tbsp each of lemon juice and apple cider vinegar and filled up the rest of my measuring cup with some pomegranate vinegar)
• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a 16 oz jar and shake vigorously to combine. Taste and add a bit more honey, if needed. Dressing will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week. (Which is good because you won’t use it all for the salad above.)

Improvise your own combination of lettuces, veggie toppings and acids (citrus juices/vinegars) to keep it interesting. Before you know it, you too may feel like a salad ninja. 🙂

Scotch Eggs for Dinner

Some time ago, I came across the brilliant idea of Scotch Eggs on Griffin’s Grub. He had taken the traditional preparation of boiled egg encased on lovely breakfast sausage and then cooked it on his Big Green Egg (versus breading and frying it.) I thought it was brilliance.At various times, I had intentions of cooking up some for a weekend breakfast or special brunch but somehow never got around to it. And then one night I was trying to come up with a dinner idea. I’m a big fan of eggs for dinner so I was considering a fritatta but then it occurred to me that Scotch Eggs could fit the bill nicely.

Scotch Eggs

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs sausage
• 6 eggs
• BBQ sauce

Start by boiling and cooling your eggs. (The colder you get them, the easier they are to peel.)

For the sausage, I used some spicy chicken sausage versus breakfast sausage.

Most grocery stores these days sell a pretty wide variety of fresh sausage in the meat case. Pick out one that sounds good to you, use some kitchen scissors to open them up, and put the sausage in a bowl. Encase each egg evenly with sausage and place on a plate.

You will want to fire up your Big Green Egg (or smoker or oven) to 350 degrees and set up for indirect heat. When your temp is steady, load these beauties in like so…

And leave them be for about 30 minutes or so. You can baste with BBQ sauce halfway through if you like. (Or just serve drizzle the BBQ sauce at the end.) When they look done, take them off the grill.

Serve one per person, sliced and plated with some yummy sides.

These were a hit at my house. Even the boy — picky eater that he is — tried one. Next time you are looking for dinner (or breakfast or brunch) inspiration, give them a try.