12 Steps to Whole Foods

Dressing Up Your Salads
Money- and Time-Saving Tips
• Because many good dressings call for citrus juice, to save
time, I juice a bunch of lemons, limes, or oranges at a time
when they are on sale or when a friend in Arizona, California,
or Florida gives me a bag- or boxful. I use a $10-$20 electric
citrus juicer, which you can get from such stores as Target or
Wal-Mart. It is worth the money because you can get double
the amount of juice compared to squeezing by hand. Then I
freeze 2 Tbsp. portions in ice cube trays and save the cubes in
a plastic freezer bag for easy use over a few months. I like to
have a bag each of frozen orange, lemon, and lime juice
always on hand.
• I cut up and freeze the lemon rinds in fourths, too, rather than
throwing them away! (You could also use orange or lime rinds
as well.) I put one-fourth of a lemon rind in a blenderful of
green smoothie. The rind adds a nice lemon flavor as well as
powerful flavanoid compounds that have been documented to
prevent and eliminate skin cancers (if you spent your
adolescence in the sun getting burned like I did, you’ll
especially want to use lemon rind).
• I keep several heads of romaine and standard salad vegetables
(tomatoes, red onions, peppers, and cucumbers) on hand every day, week, and month of the year. That
way, if I stop at the store, I don’t need an ingredient list or recipe to be able to grab items to make a big
salad several days in a row. I often just drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar or lemon juice on a basic
salad when I’m in a hurry and don’t have a fancier dressing made up (I also sprinkle the salad with
basil, kelp, or Trocomare).
• After dinner, I pour vinegar and oil from the salad bowl into a
pint jar. After a few days, I have enough salad dressing for
another salad. (Drain your lettuce well when making the salad,
or you’ll have watery salad dressing and unusable “leftovers.”
I love my $15 salad spinner.) Call me cheap, but somehow the
Depression-era frugal/conserving “make do” attitude lasted
three generations in my family.
• Make big batches of dressing and freeze some for later.
Dressings will last only as long as the perishable ingredients
in them, such as onions or sprouts.
• Use any of the homemade salad dressings for your leftovers.
My neighbor Kris says any of the 18 dressings in this chapter
go well with quinoa (which takes 10 minutes to cook) and any
steamed or raw veggies for a quick, nutritious, light meal.
78 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw