Dressing Experiment

Alright, first things first... thanks to my friend Suzy (check out her amazing projects on her blog savedbysuzy.blogspot.com) who showed me how, I made a new tab!  See above?  It's called 'How I Make Puree.'  I probably should have put it up sooner... but I didn't realize that I wasn't the only person who didn't know how to make a puree!

I was also thinking I'd put my 'done' recipes up there, but I'm not sure how to organize them.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner?  Or by vegetable?  But many of the recipes could use any number of vegetables... hmmm, let me know if you have any bright ideas!  

So, today as my research team was mowing the lawn, I thought I would make him a salad for lunch on this hot summer day.  Now, I know what you are thinking... how can you hide vegetables in something that is made of vegetables?  Just wait my friends, I have found a way.  :)  Well, actually, I have to agree that it is sort of silly to try and make salad healthier... but if I can eat half as much ranch dressing, I come out ahead. 

So began the dressing experiment.  At first I thought it would be a grand experiment, with many different kinds of dressing, but it turned out that we only had ranch and balsamic vinaigrette.  Well, we also had jalapeno ranch, but I wasn't going there (sorry, research team, but I am going to have this salad too!).

This week the purees are carrot and cauliflower.  I figured I'd mix up some dressing with each puree and see what I like best!

I mixed each of the dressings (balsamic vinaigrette and ranch) with each puree (carrot or cauliflower) in equal portions.

Here is an example of my measuring skills...

These are the purees:

These are the dressings:

Stir each one up, and begin the taste test!

I didn't think I should use carrots as the tester, because it seemed unfair to the carrot puree, so I used my favorite dipping tool, green pepper.

After eating half a pepper, and switching over to tasting the dressings with a spoon, I decided I liked them all!  I leaned toward the carrot balsamic vinaigrette or the carrot ranch... but maybe just because the orange color was so pretty!  I just couldn't decide which one to put on the salad, and eating the other half of the pepper was not going to help. 

I thought I'd build the salad and see if that inspired me one way or the other.  I started with spinach and threw in whatever I could find in the kitchen.  I was pleasantly surprised by some avocados I found in the fridge (usually I keep them on the counter), and resisted the urge to put carrots in, because I was going to use one of the carrot dressings. 

I ended up with spinach, the rest of the green pepper, blueberries, walnuts, and a whole avocado.

With the avocados and blueberries, I guess I thought it leaned more toward the vinaigrette...  maybe a salad with hard boiled eggs and meat would have leaned more toward the ranch, but either way, I chose the carrot balsamic vinaigrette and mixed it in.

Now, don't be shocked here, but I didn't measure the carrot puree or the vinaigrette...  but I think that the ratio was more carrots to vinaigrette.  :)

It was so good!  We ate the whole bowl.

The Verdict:

The research team likes carrot puree better than carrots, and he likes balsamic vinaigrette better than I do, so he thought it was very good.


The conclusion here is that whether you are eating a salad or need something to dip your hot wings in, any vegetable puree would mix right in and only serve to enhance the flavor and lessen the fat.  And the best part?  After this very healthy lunch.... I can have some cookie dough ice cream!!