Spinach Salad Dressing

That looks mouth-watering, Cooksie!

MORE bacon! ;-)

Lee

Or at least some Bacon salt (any of 4 different flavors).

How could I forget the magic ingredient .

I will be trying this one. Thanks......

Cooksie said:

Great dressing for spinach salad with a nice balance of tangy and sweet:​

1 small white onion, quartered

1 c vegetable oil

1/3 c white vinegar
1/3 c sugar
1 T prepared mustard
1 t celery seeds
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper​

Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender, blend until smooth, and chill. I only made 1/2 recipe, so I was able to use my mini chopper.​

For my salad I used spinach, radishes, red onion, and chopped egg. It doesn't really need the red onion because there is onion in the dressing, but it does need some bacon .​

Recipe Source: Southern Living Magazine, March 1984​

Click to expand...

Looks good!

One more time - didn't have celery seeds, so I used celery salt and omitted the regular salt, subbed Dijon for regular mustard:

Oh, good - bacon this time!

Also, noticed that you added the raw mushrooms which I love, too!

Lovely, Cooksie! Great dinner idea on a hot summer day!

Lee

I'm going to be lazy and just do a copy paste on this recipe that I developed. My friend posted this on her web site and used it on the air which I thought was pretty neat.


LENI'S SPINACH SALAD

Our listener, Leni, sometimes comes home from working in her vegetable garden just too tired to make a fuss for dinner. At times like that, she loves to toss together this spinach salad, which is hearty enough for a main course, but it goes well with pizza, pasta or take-out chicken, too. Leni sent me her notes on making it.

To serve 4 (or two as a main course) you'll need a package of washed baby spinach and a package of fresh sliced mushrooms. Also from the produce department, a small red onion - which you slice thin. Then, you need 5 slices of bacon, some good croutons, and some shredded Parmesan cheese - along with a small can of garbanzo beans - rinsed.

All you'll need for the dressing is a little red wine vinegar - you'll see.

In your salad bowl, put the baby spinach and scatter over the sliced mushrooms. Break the thin sliced red onion into rings, and scatter those across (you can rinse the onion slices if they smell strong, and pat them dry, first). Scatter over the rinsed garbanzo beans.

Now, in a skillet, cook the 5 slices of bacon - drain them and crumble the bacon over the salad. To the skillet with the bacon drippings, add a half cup of red wine vinegar and a half cup of water, along with 3 tablespoons of sugar. Let it come to a simmer, grind over some fresh pepper - and pour the hot dressing onto the salad. Sprinkle over the croutons and Parmesan, and serve.

About 15 minutes and less than $10 for a main course for 2 - or a side dish for 4. Can't beat that!


The only thing that I sometimes do that is different from what Melinda gave on the air is to put the red onion slices into the skillet for a few moments once the dressing has reached a simmer until they are translucent.

I serve this with spaggetti and garlic bread. I'll put the left over salad dressing into the refrigerator or freezer. Any other leftovers go into the refrigerator for another salad. If the spinach is spun in a salad spinner and then put into a zip loc baggie it will last two or three days.

I never ever buy sliced mushrooms. something about the brown that turns me to the O_F_F position.

I buy the bulk fresh - gills closed - bigger/smaller/many as I need/mix&match....

it's really not hard to slice a mushroom.

Same here. For one thing I don't use the stem either. Melinda was using this recipe as one of her Roadrunners, things that you can toss together in a short time. The premise is that it is items that you already have or can pick up in a hurry at the store. The thing that takes the longest is frying the acon.

Unless I'm stuffing them, I ALWAYS buy sliced mushrooms!

The whole mushrooms in my store always need to be cleaned, and I detest that chore.

My sliced mushrooms are not brown on the edges at all, unless their caps are brown. Mine look exactly like the ones in Cooksie's photo when I buy them and when I use them.

Lee

I peel my mushrooms as taught by a Lebanese lady who worked with me. It takes off all of the dirt.

I buy the boxes of whole mushrooms. That way I can slice if I want to and quarter them for other things like steak sauce.

I just wash them off, and they come clean. There's no way that I'm going to take the time to peel them, but I understand that we all have our different methods of doing things in the kitchen. That's one of things that makes this place interesting.

I brush off the big pieces of dirt and .....