Showing posts with label dressing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dressing. Show all posts

6/20/13

Broccoli Salad Recipe with Baked Vidalia Onion Dressing

Hola Amigos! Another installment of the Deli Salad Series here for your consideration. Today I'm sharing with you my version of a very pretty salad but to be honest, sometimes you can't have more than the first bite. Again Thank Goodness for those little samples!!! Broccoli Salad! The problem (at least to me for health reasons) uncooked broccoli, too dry, too soggy and the worstof them all....smells like broccoli..you know, that smell...can't even describe it, but if you've had them before, you know what I'm talking about.
In my version of this salad I quickly steamed and  blanched the broccoli and instead of mayo for dressing I used a sweet, creamy but light Baked Vidalia Onion Dressing, easy to make and in my humble opinion,  not as packed with calories and sugar as the ones sold on stores or even the ones you can find online since there is no oil and very little to no sugar at all. Here is the recipe

Broccoli Salad with Baked Vidalia Onion Dressing

1 Head of Broccoli
1 Medium Carrot, Shredded
1 Small Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1 Small Green Bell Pepper, chopped
1/2 Cup Craisins 
4 oz Prosciutto 
4 oz Smoked Gouda, shredded
2 oz Natural Almond Slivers 
a Large Bowl with Ice and Water

Wash your broccoli thoroughly with running cold water to get rid of any dirt or bugs. Break it into pieces that would fit into a steam pot. I season my steam water with salt,  garlic powder, lemon pepper and a slice of lemon. Steam for 5 minutes and quickly remove the broccoli from the heat and submerge it into a bowl of  iced water to stop the cooking. At this point the broccoli will be bright green but crunchy. Once they are cool, let them drain or pat dry with a kitchen towel and they will be perfect and ready for your salad.

In a large salad bowl add the broccoli, carrot, chopped bell peppers, craisins and prosciutto. Mix.
Add as much of the Baked Vidalia Onion Dressing as you wish, mix to coat all the vegetables. Top your salad with the shredded cheese and the slivered almonds.

Listo

Baked  Vidalia Onion Dressing

1 Large Vidalia Onion
1/2 Low Fat Buttermilk
1 tsps Balsmic Vinegar
1 1/2 tsps Mustard
1/4 tsps Celery Salt
a Pinch of Sugar (optional)
salt, pepper, cayanne pepper to taste
aluminum foil

Heat your oven at 450 degrees. Prepare your onion by peeling it and cutting both ends of it (to get rid of the little heads) Drizzle a little of olive oil if you want and wrap it tightly with heavy duty double aluminum foil.
Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool until is easy to handle.
Once it's cool enough place the onion and it's cooking juices trapped in the foil into a blender, add buttermilk vinegar, mustard and the rest of the seasonings, Blend on high until smooth. Adjust seasoning, if not sweet enough to your taste, add a little sugar until you are satisfied with the results.

Serve over salad.

The secret to the sweetness of this dressing is baking the onion to get the sugar in it to an almost point of caramel.

This Salad is a custom designs! The broccoli is cooked but crunchy, it's creamy with a natural touch of sweetness and sprinkled with little bites of saltines from the prosciutto.

And if this wasn't enough the Smoked Gouda and the almonds add a final note of deep flavor and texture!

I think I will stay away from the Salad Deli Counter for a while, I don't know why I never tried this before, but "Everything Under Heaven has it's Time"....this was mine.

Thank You so much for your visit today, I hope you are enjoying this series so far. 2 More to go...do you have a favorite you wish to try? Let me know...the more salads, the merrier! And remember friends, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,
Lizy

Sharing some Green Goodness at these Fabulous Parties:
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6/19/13

Chicken Pecan and Pear Salad Recipe with Yogurt Dressing

Chicken Pecan and Pear Salad Recipe, refreshing, crispy and light, just the thing you need for lunch or a light nutritious summer meal!
Hola Amigos! How is your week going so far? I hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods and you're starting to feel the summer breeze on your face. Today I'm bringing you another deli favorite of mine, Chicken Salad with nuts! By now you all know that I'm trying to lower the calories a bit, I really don't know if I'm cutting enough of them, but it sure feels like it and I know the one I can find at my favorite deli is loaded with mayo, a big no no, right?
Here is my humble version for your consideration.

Chicken Pecan and Pear Salad with Yogurt Dressing

2 Grilled Chicken Breast, diced
1 green pear, diced
3/4 Cup Celery, diced
1 1/2 Cup Green Seedless Grapes, halved
1 1/2 oz Pecans, chopped
1 1/2 oz Walnuts, chopped
Mix all these ingredients and set aside while preparing  the dressing.

Yogurt Dressing

1 Cup Greek Plain Yogurt
1 TBSP Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic finely minced
4 oz Neufchatel Cheese
1 Cucumber peeled, seeded and cubed
1 tsps Fresh Dill
1/4 tsps Lemon Juice
salt, white pepper, onion powder
1TBSP BBQ Sauce (hubs suggestion)
pinch of sugar (to neutralize the acidity of the Yogurt)

Combine all these ingredients, adjust seasoning to taste and refrigerate for 1 hour before mixing it with the chicken portion of your salad.
When ready, mix with the diced chicken, nuts and fruit and serve on spinach tortillas like a wrap.
Listo,

Well, all I can say is I'm not buying chicken salad at the deli anymore! This one is light (I think) and has the right balance of sweetness, crunch and mainly Chicken!

I recognize it's somewhat similar to the one wrap sold at a popular fast food restaurant, but at least I'm not paying for the 638 calories!!! oh yeah,,,in case you didn't know...638 making 342 of them, fat!
You do the math!

You can adjust the seasoning to your taste, my hubs cheated a little and added a touch, just a touch of BBQ sauce to his...but he adds BBQ sauce even to his coffee so it didn't surprise me lol.

There are one thousand versions of chicken salads out there, I'm just throwing mine in the hat and let you try a slight different lighter version.

Thank You so much for visiting, this healthy thing is not as bad as I thought, I don't know if I'm going to be sticking to it for the long run, but so far so good. Thank you for joining me through this journey.

Remember my friends, even if you've had something a million times, it will always tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,
Lizy

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