We eat a lot of salads at Chez Carr. And for Mr. C., there are really only 2 kinds of salad dressing that he could eat every single night of the week. Blue cheese dressing and Caesar salad dressing. And I must admit, they are my favorite dressings too. Along with Thousand Island dressing on top of a perfect crab and shrimp Louise or Italian dressing with a bit of finely diced Parmesan cheese lightly coating cold, crisp greens. Oh heck, when it comes right down to it, I pretty much like any kind of homemade salad dressing.

In our last farm box we received not just one, but two small red cabbages. I already had a head and a half of green cabbage in my fridge when their red cousins arrived. So I made coleslaw a few nights back and we feasted on it for two dinners and a lunch. But cabbage is never going to be Mr. Cs favorite edible, even though it’s insanely good for us.

So how to dress up a salad to help disguise the fact that there’s going to be a whole lot of cruciferous going on? I knew blue cheese or Caesar dressing would definitely not work with 2 kinds of cabbage, carrots, green onions, pea shoots, diced cucumber, a bit of red leaf lettuce thrown in for good measure, finely minced fresh ginger, and slivered almonds. I figured that what this salad required was a big, bold, blast of flavor. Perhaps a dressing of Asian persuasion?

So I went on line and found this recipe on the culinaryhill.com site. I made a couple of minor changes of course, but I must say, life was good around the Carr dinner table last evening. (Cruciferous and all!)

Now for us, this dressing is never going to take the place of a truly great creamy blue cheese dressing or a perfect Caesar dressing with lots of anchovy action going on. But as a change of pace, and with ingredients that are bold flavored and super crunchy like the one I fixed last night, this dressing was perfect. And it was different. And isn’t it nice to change things up a bit every so often. I frankly get bored making salads every evening. But if I’m making a new dressing, the whole process of peeling, hacking, and slashing the veggies is made better because I get to make something new to go on all those damn cut veggies! And I really like to try out new recipes. It’s actually quite fun. (At my age, I take my fun any way I can get it!)

So if you too could use a new salad dressing to enliven your taste buds, this is the recipe for you. It’s easy to prepare. And because of its bold flavor, it actually covers up some of the veggie flavors that might not be on your family’s all-time favorites list. If I can get (you know who) to eat his cabbage, then it’s got to be a truly tasty dressing.

As always, peace, love, and delicious salads to all.

And sorry about no picture. The dressing is brown. That’s all you really need to know anyway.

2 T. vegetable oil

1 tsp. toasted sesame oil

1/3 c. rice vinegar

3 T.  hoisin sauce, or more to taste

5 tsp. soy sauce, or more to taste

1 T. peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

1 T. finely minced fresh ginger  

Shake or whisk all ingredients together. Let sit at room temperature at least 30 minutes before dressing your salad. Store in refrigerator.