Update to Oil-and-Vinegar Cole Slaw

Found a new recipe for it this week, and more simple you could not find:

Put in the bottom of a large bowl:
2 Tablespoons honey
Whisk in:
3 Tablespoons cider vinegar
And then whisk in:
2 Tablespoons canola or other tasteless oil
Toss in:
1 (8-10 oz) bag preshredded coleslaw or broccoslaw mix
Add:
Salt and pepper if desired.

Old Hellmann's Sheet o' Salad Dressings

I can't find my sheet around the house, but here is a link to the one I was talking about, posted on RecipeCurio.com

It has recipes for Green Goddess, Creamy Italian, Creamy Tart French (!?), Russian, Creamy Roquefort, Thousand Island, Fresh Strawberry (!?), Tangy Buttermilk, and Parmesan Cheese dressings. There are also links to other salad dressing recipes at the bottom of the page.

Two notes:
--I have not tried any of these recipes.
--I usually use Hain Light Safflower Oil Mayonnaise, but I will use Hellmann's Canola Mayonnaise if I can't find Hain.

Eating Well Magazine has a Cucumber Dressing Recipe

This month's Eating Well magazine has a recipe for Cucumber Herb Vinaigrette.

It only keeps three days, though.

Soy-free Salad Dressings

Got a question the other day on soy-free salad dressings. Our number one salad dressing here in the Soy-free Kitchen is Good Seasons, made with extra-virgin olive oil and red-wine vinegar. I called the Good Seasons company to make sure there was no soy in the ingredients. It makes a great Cobb Salad (for our Approximate Cobb Salad, see below).

When you buy salad dressing at the store, remember to read every label, every time. We have gotten fond of a certain kind of soy-free dressing, only to find out that they have changed the recipe and used soy oil at a later date. (I used to love Ken's Light Creamy Italian, but it started using soy oil.)

Right now our favorite store-bought dressing is Drew's All-Natural Kalmata Olive and Caper. We buy it at Whole Foods. One of these days I will hunt up a bunch of recipes from the 70's all made with Hellmann's mayonnaise--funky recipes like Green Goddess. You can make them with Hellmann's Canola mayonnaise or other soy-free mayo (we like Hain Safflower Light mayo.)

Approximate Cobb Salad
serves 2

2 cups (packed pretty well) mixed baby greens
1 small tomato, diced
2 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 hard-boiled egg, diced
2-4 oz cooked chicken, diced
1/2 avocado, diced
2 oz. bleu or roquefort cheese, dice or crumbled
chopped chives or scallions, if you have them

1. Arrange the greens on two large salad plates.
2. Arrange the tomato, bacon, egg, chicken, avocado, and cheese in attractive stripes over the greens.
3. Sprinkle with chives or scallions and then with Good Seasons salad dressing, made with red-wine vinegar and olive oil.

SOY-FREE CONSIDERATIONS:
none

Oil and Vinegar Coleslaw

I got a request for a mayonaise-free coleslaw the other day. (BTW, Maria, I told you it had poppy seeds, but I misremembered. It was celery seeds. Although I can't see why you couldn't use poppy seeds if you want. . . .)

Celery Seed Dressing

1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1 to 2 tsp celery seed
1 tbsp grated onion (or 1 tsp dried onion flakes)
1 cup oil
1/2 cup cider vinegar

Put the sugar, salt, mustard, celery seed, onion, and half the oil and vinegar in a blender. Blend until the seeds are uniformly distributed. Slowly add the rest of the oil, and then the vinegar, blending thoroughly.

Notes:
Pour as much as you like over shredded cabbage and carrots. Use the kind in the bag; I do.

This makes a lot of dressing. Save the rest in the refrigerator.

You can make this with an egg beater or hand mixer, but the blender is better. Just shaking it up in a jar doesn't distribute the sugar as well, and it separates faster.

SOY-FREE CONSIDERATIONS:
Do not use generic "vegetable oil"; use canola or another identified one-ingredient oil like safflower or "light" olive oil.