It's salad-eating season again! Do you crave fresh salads this time of year, too? Soon we'll be harvesting garden greens, but for now, I'm making do with store bought spinach, because the craving for greens can not be ignored. I've made my own salad dressing for years. It's the easiest thing to make and get right, and it costs a fraction of what the store bought stuff goes for. Also, I can keep the ingredient list short and clean. My go-to dressing uses three parts extra virgin olive oil to one part apple cider vinegar with several dashes of herbs, salt & pepper. Sometimes I add yogurt or homemade pesto, too.
In addition to loving some fresh greens around here, we also seriously love us some Michael Franti. Love. Just the other day the Flower came up to me and asked "can you play some Michael Fwanti so we can dance Mama?" Naturally, we danced. A few weeks ago Mr Franti posted a photograph on Instagram of his homemade salad dressing, and it sounded delish. Two nights ago, I gave his recipe a go.
Using his inspiration I came up with this:
1/4 Cup raw, unsalted cashews
1 clove garlic
5 cherry tomatoes
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tsp dried parsley
salt & pepper
Throw it all in your blender with a few Tbs of water to help it blend, and pour it on your greens.
(This dinner also included frozen ravioli, because sometimes life requires frozen food, am I right? Our own canned tomato sauce, our own butternut squash roasted alongside one giant beet.)
I swear, if Michael Franti and Jamie Oliver could rule the world, everyone would be happy, in love and well-fed. Let's dance!
