Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Champagne Vinaigrette on Salad with Israeli Couscous

My evil plan has worked! Mwah ha ha ha. Todd revealed to me the other day that he now likes the iced tea I make for him better than the kind in the bottle! I guess it's not that evil, but it is gratifying. I may have mentioned previously that Todd is not a coffee drinker, but instead has a morning iced tea. Well, early on I became a bit concerned about the amount of things he drinks from a bottle given his Nantucket Nectar's Half and Half usage, and the Vitamin Waters he drinks each day. My concern was with the amount of waste in the bottles. Even though we recycle them, it'd be better to not produce the waste at all. Secondly, I wanted to be able to curb the amount, as well as the form of sugar he was taking in. I made several batches to find the right amounts of tea bags, sugar and lemon to suit his taste. I've been using that same concoction for a while, but I (secretly) cut back just a tad on the sugar every few times. My hope is to wean him down to a less sugary mixture. Next up - a Vitamin Water reduction. Please don't tell him though. This is going to be a more difficult intervention, so my moves will have to be subtle.
Speaking of sweet, here is another salad dressing. A while back, Todd had a salad at the Cambridge Commons he enjoyed so I tried to replicate it at home. The more atypical ingredient was the Israeli couscous which makes for a heartier dinner salad. I tried many dressings before I got one that I think is close to the one at the restaurant. From what I remember, it was equally tangy and sweet. It also had chicken on it, so I use a chicken replacement. We should probably go back and have the salad again if it's still on the menu. I may have morphed it into something completely different over time.

The salad:
Greens of your choice (I usually use green leaf or romaine)
Chopped cucumber
A bit of red onion
Some chopped tomato
Cooked Israeli couscous
Goat cheese
Pistachios or some toasted pine nuts(this is an improvisation to the original)
Quorn brand chicken breast

The dressing:
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tblspn dijon mustard
1/4 cup champagne or white wine vinegar
2 tblspns lemon juice
2 tblspns honey
2 or 3 dashes of hot sauce
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 tspn pepper
1/2 cup canola oil

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