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Tasty And Healthful Salad

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 14, 2009

There can be so much more to a salad than opening a bag of gourmet greens and tossing them with a store-bought dressing.

The best way to dress those delicate greens is with a vinaigrette. Making your own is more economical than buying bottled dressing. It costs less than $1 to make a pint of vinaigrette compared with $2 to $4 for a bottle at the supermarket.

Also, according to the Canned Food Alliance, 2 tablespoons of a bottled vinaigrette contains 150 calories, 16 grams of fat and 150 milligrams of sodium. A homemade lemon vinaigrette has 25 calories, 2.4 grams of fat and 93 milligrams of sodium in 2 tablespoons.

The base is simple. It's a mixture of wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh green herbs in season. Even simpler is a vinaigrette that is one part juice to one part oil, seasoned with salt and pepper.

To take the recipe to a higher level, use a different oil or vinegar, but always good quality. Extra-virgin olive oil is the first choice for most vinaigrettes.

Vinegar also comes in an array of flavors: red wine, white wine, cider, rice, gourmet and balsamic. The proper way to blend the vinegar and oil is to use a whisk and a rubber-bottomed bowl, although a pint jar with a screw lid works well. You'll need both hands - one to pour in the oil and the other to whisk.

To begin, dissolve a little bit of salt in the vinegar. Some cooks like to add a small amount of Dijon mustard, which acts as an emulsifying agent.

Whisk in the mustard until well combined, then slowly pour the oil in a steady stream, whisking constantly, until the oil is worked in and does not separate from other ingredients.

McClatchy Newspapers

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