FLAVOURED BALSAMIC VINEGARS

I must admit, I have gone overboard with a recent love.  This summer I stopped in at a specialty store that only sells olive oil, balsamic vinegar, tapenade, and olives.  The store is located in another city not far from where we live.  I had heard about this store but had not had the opportunity to visit it.  When I walked in and saw the variety of oils and vinegars I thought this experience was going to be much better than a store that sells chocolate or kitchen gadgets.  Their feature of buy five bottles and get the sixth one free was also a very good selling point.  And did I buy.  This store called Oliv has since opened at location close to where we live.  Using flavoured vinegars and oils has replaced any thought of using store bought salad dressings.

I have been using the vinegars and oils on much than just salads.  I only photographed four of the balsamic flavours that I use.  Besides garlic, cilantro, coconut, chocolate raspberry and maple, I have developed relationships with sesame ginger, cherry and grapefruit balsamic vinegar.

To give you some examples of what is possible with these vinegars consider this:
-toss cooked green beans with sesame ginger vinegar
-add sesame ginger vinegar to stir fries
-add sesame ginger vinegar to cooked vermicelli noodles
-marinate uncooked steel head trout or salmon with maple vinegar
-toss shrimp with coconut vinegar while sautéing the shrimp
-drizzle maple walnut or caramel ice cream with maple vinegar
-thaw frozen fruit and drizzle it with chocolate raspberry vinegar
-use chocolate raspberry vinegar in place of chocolate sauce
-add garlic cilantro vinegar to beef marinade
-drizzle any of your favourite vinegars on popcorn

I especially like drizzling fruit with chocolate raspberry vinegar.  It helps with the chocolate craving.  You can also add a tablespoon of some of the fruit flavoured vinegars to smoothies.  I am sure that there are many other foods that would go well with flavoured vinegars.

TAHINI CHICKPEA DRESSING

Based on the reviews of this tahini chickpea dressing, I thought it would great as a dressing for salads and vegetables.  What is interesting about it is that it includes chickpeas.  It reminds me of hummus but it also includes ginger and nutritional yeast which is not found in typical hummus recipes.

In making this recipe, I used 1/2 tsp of store bought minced ginger.  I have bought several items from this company including minced ginger and sushi ginger.  I like using minced ginger because of the convenience.  I also used ground flaxseed instead of chia seed.  Because chia seed becomes more gelatinous after it sits in liquid I think it would be a better ingredient to use in the dressing as it would help make the dressing more thicker than ground flaxseed.  One to two cloves of garlic can be added to the dressing.  I used one clove as the cloves were not small and I didn't want to make the dressing overly strong with garlic.  The dressing lasts for several days in the fridge.  I will definitely make this dressing again.   I really enjoyed the taste.

A great condiment to have in your fridge

The dressing is ready to be stored in the fridge.

The dressing is added to a vegetable salad.

Tahini-Chickpea Dressing

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup chickpeas

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp tahini

1/2 tbsp gluten-free tamari or soy sauce

1 tbsp chia seed or ground flaxseeds

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 – 2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp ginger-root, minced

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Place all ingredients into blender and process on high speed until thoroughly blended.  Refrigerate until well chilled. Dressing will continue to thicken while chilling.  Add extra water by the teaspoon if dressing is too thick.

Yield: 1 1/4 cups

Adapted from http://blog.fatfreevegan.com

ORANGE CASHEW DRESSING

I have come across several recipes that use cashews to create a dressing or dip for salads, vegetables, beans and grains.  Using cashews in a dip reminds me of the times I have used tahini which is ground sesame seeds.  I really liked this orange cashew dressing and I used it on salads, with quinoa and as a dip for vegetables.  I soaked the cashews for an hour beforehand in water.  There are different schools of thought in soaking raw nuts before you blend them or roast them. What makes this recipe also great is that is only requires four ingredients.  In a future post I will provide another salad dressing that is more of a ranch style dressing and includes cashews as one of the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup raw cashews
3 oranges, peeled
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar, use orange balsamic vinegar if you have it

DIRECTIONS:

1. Soak cashew nuts for an hour or two in water.  Drain.
2. Add all of the ingredients to a blender and blend until completely smooth.
3. Adjust taste if you want to add more lemon juice and or vinegar.

Serves at least 6 servings.  Store in a jar with a lid.  Keeps for at least a week in the fridge.

TAHINI LEMON SALAD DRESSING

I use both store bought salad dressings and ones that I make myself.  I do like tahini and the jar does last a long time in the fridge.  Tahini can be used in a variety of ways including as part of a marinade and for making hummus.  If you don't have tahini, you can substitute it with almond butter.

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp oil - olive oil or canola
4 tbsp tahini
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup water
1 to 2 tbsp tamari sauce (use soy sauce if you don't have tamari)
1 tbsp red onion or green onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp maple syrup

DIRECTIONS:

Combine all of the ingredients in a jar with a tight lid and shake well OR use a small food processor and mix the ingredients in the food processor.  Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before using.  You can adjust the recipe by adding more tahini, lemon juice, tamari or water.  Store in the fridge.

Adapted from food.com