As I promised in this week’s newsletter, here’s my new recipe for pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing – I know, it seems like salad dressings are all we do for recipes these days (see tahini miso dressing here!), but what can I say that I haven’t already said? I really like salad!
Here’s what you’ll need:
Half a pomegranate
1/4 cup oil (olive, Udo’s, canola, whatever you like)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (we used white balsamic, red works too)
A pinch of pepper
A pinch of garlic powder
Mix it up in a blender – any blender will probably work, but we use a Vita-Mix, just like we have for the past 13 years or so – we use it almost every day, and if you’d like one you can use code 06-002733 at vitamix.com to get free shipping (and we’ll get a commission which helps pay the bills around here.)
This is a great dressing that you can make in small batches like I did or double it up. I like to keep half the pomegranate to either snack on or throw into the salad as a topping. Pomegranates are cheap this time of year around here, and they’re loaded with antioxidants and other things I don’t pretend to understand beyond the fact that they’re super good for you.
But like I said, be careful opening them up or you will end up with some crazy stains on your shirt!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and what better day could there be for a green smoothie?
I’ve been meaning to get into green smoothies for a while, and recent emails I’ve gotten as part of the Taste Better “ideal breakfast” series suggest they’re pretty popular, so I finally went for it – it turns out there are more ways to use kale than just kale chips!
This one was totally simple: one banana, about the same amount of kale (in size; I didn’t weight it) and some water. I blended it up in the Vita-Mix [aff. link, but free shipping!], and it was a bit gritty but tasted better after I added some ice and blended it for a few minutes (without the ice the Vita-Mix turns smoothies into warm soup, and I prefer a cold drink.)
I didn’t measure the water I put in, but while it didn’t seem like a lot I ended up with 3 pints of smoothie, which was pretty filling by itself, plus I remixed the last pint with a scoop of protein powder (I used Absolute Vegetarian Protein, which is 26g of soy, rice, and pea protein per scoop at the lowest overall price I’ve found) which I found helped with the overall texture, smoothing things out a lot. Which is probably desirable for a smoothie.
From the mails I’m getting, a lot of people add several different fruits to their green smoothies, including strawberries and kiwi, but the core ingredients seem to be a banana and some kind of leafy green, such as kale, lettuce, chard, etc.
I’m getting tired of the bland countertop photos, so I took this one by the window:
As you can see, it was pretty foamy, but that’s after a minute or two of separation (the version with protein powder was a bit more homogenous.) Depending on your tastes, you can either drink it right away or let it sit for 5-10 minutes for a different texture.
As you can tell, I’m still working on finding ways to add juices and smoothies to my everyday routine, but at the moment I’m pegging green smoothies as a good 2PM pick me up – it’s obviously easier to do when you’re home at that time, but something like a Magic Bullet might work in an office environment – it’s something we talked about at my last workplace but never got around to trying. Is anyone doing that? Let me know in the comments!
As you can see, it was pretty foamy, but that’s after a minute or two of separation (the version with protein powder was a bit more homogenous.) Depending on your tastes, you can either drink it right away or let it sit for 5-10 minutes for a different texture.