Drain the potatoes and refresh under cold water.  Peel and then cut the potatoes into thick slices.   Put them in a bowl and drizzle with some sherry vinegar.

Arrange the salad leaves on a large serving dish, leaving a space in the centre for the potatoes.   Sprinkle with the herbs, spring onions and chives.  Season with salt and drizzle with a bit more sherry vinegar.   Put the potatoes in the centre and arrange the egg quarters around them.

Whisk together the mustard, vinegar and oil for the vinaigrette.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Pour the dressing over the potato salad.   Sprinkle with a few extra herbs and the radish slices and serve.



We seriously made short work of this in no time . . . it was unctuously delicious.   Creamy new potatoes, crisp and peppery radishes, herby salad leaves . . . and a dressing with punch.   Glorious!

Note:   As  a substitute for the ranch dressing mix, combine  2 TBS dry parsley, 1 tsp dried dill weed, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp dried basil and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper in a mortar.   Crush with a pestle until fairly fine. Use as above.  If you want to use it as a salad dressing, combine 1 TBS of the mix with 1/3 cup of mayonnaise and 1/4 cup of milk.

Of course a tasty salad goes well with these.  I like a tossed salad myself . . . but the Toddster is a meat and potatoes kind of a guy . . . so I like to make this creamy garden Potato salad, which meets both of our desires.   He gets to please his meat and potatoes soul . . . and I get part of my daily dose of veg . . . both in a tasty salad.   This dressing is a type of honey mustard, creamy delish!!



*Creamy Garden Potato Salad*
Serves 6 to 8
Printable Recipe

A delicious potato salad with a punchy low fat Honey Dijon mayo dressing.  The green bush beans and radishes add a bit of crunch and colour.

1 pound of small new potatoes
2 TBS Cider Vinegar
4 TBS low fat mayonnaise
2 TBS honey Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 to 4 spring onions, chopped
(white and green parts)
a handful of radishes, trimmed and chunked
a handful of bush green beans, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
1 TBS Dill Weed (or a handful of fresh dill, finely chopped)



Place the potatoes in a pot of lightly salted water to cover.  Bring to the boil and then simmer on medium heat until tender, about 15 minutes.  Add the green beans for the last 5 to 6 minutes of cooking time.

While the potatoes are cooking whisk together the vinegar, mayonnaise, mustard, and cayenne pepper along with salt and pepper to taste.    Set aside.

Drain the potatoes and beans once they are tender.  Leave in the colander and place the colander over the hot pot.  Allow to cool until you can easily handle.  Cut the potatoes into halves or quarters.  Place the warm potatoes and beans into a bowl.  Pour the dressing over top of the warm vegetables.  Add the onion, radishes and dill weed and gently toss together.

Serve at room temperature. 

As you all know, I have been bringing Nigel to bed with me each night this week.  Ever since he fell through my letter box I haven't been able to put him down . . . seriously.  This just may be his best book yet, but then again . . . I say that every time a new one of his comes out.



I love his cookery-books because they read like a great conversation with your bestest foodie friend ever . . . I could just sit and read his prose for hours . . . but then, I get hungry so I have to put him down and high tail it into the kitchen . . . to put some of what I have read into practice you know.

 

He says he not a chef . . . and I guess technically he isn't, but he's one heck of a cook and a pretty good source of inspiration when it comes to cooking and eating. I could just eat his words and be quite happily fed . . . but the glutton in me really wants to eat his food too . . . and so I do.

 

One thing I really love about his style of cooking and his recipes is that they are profoundly inspirational . . . good solid basic skills and backbones, that . . .  with a bit of knowledge about the chemistry of food and the way flavours actually work together . . .  you can grab and run with them . . . flesh them out . . . put your own stamp on them . . .

 

One of his early September recipes is a lovely salad of plums, lentils and coppa, which is a lovely air dried Italian ham . . . (pg 357 in the book).  It sounds fabulously delicious and the picture next to the recipe looks wonderfully scrumptious . . . a plate full of lovely lentils, plums and lentils . . . with a decadent looking dressing which looks steeped in herbs just gilding a corner of it's surface . . . I look at it with longing . . . wondering what the dressing is . . . but alas . . . there is no recipe for it.



So . . . I look at his recipe, and it begins to come alive for me . . . I can almost taste the sweetness of those ripe plums against the saltiness of the ham . . . and that nutty bite and meaty texture of the Puy lentils.  It all looks and sounds so good . . . and I am craving it for our tea . . . I think about it for two days . . . and then I decide to do what I can with his recipe.



I had some lovely plums . . . not too ripe,  sweet and still firm, perfect in every way, and quite able to stand up on their own in a salad.  I didn't have any coppa . . .but I did have a nice ham hock sitting in my fridge, just begging to be used.  It may not be most people's choice as they can be a bit fatty . . . but they can also be fabulously tender and flavorful, indeed most succulent  . . . when simmered with a bit of onion, a bay leaf and some cloves . . . just  until the meat falls away from the bone.  If you let the hock cool down in the liquid, it stays all lovely and  moist.

 

I wanted a creamy dressing though . . . something more than the simple herb lemon and oil that Nigel has put into his recipe . . . something that would go well with the ham and the plums . . . and the lentils too.  A dressing that would bring an added depth to the sweetness of the plums . . . calm the saltiness of the ham . . . and really bring those nutty lentils to life.  Something that would go pow in my mouth and dance across my tongue without taking away from anything else in the salad.

 

I decided on a creamy raspberry vinaigrette . . . filled with lovely bits of garlic, basil . . . flat leaf parsley.  Some grainy dijon mustard for texture, a touch of honey for just a hint of sweetness . . . rich extra virgin olive oil, with it's light peppery quality . . . blitzed together to give a creamy emulsified dressing that would be very much at home on this salad . . . yes, it does make far much more than you need . . . but that's not really a problem.

 

I can see this dressing going very well on lots of different salads.  It will keep for about a week in the refrigerator, but I wouldn't keep it longer than that because of the fresh herbs.  You will also want to bring it to room temperature before using after storing it in the fridge.  It would be fabulous on a sweet potato salad . . . with perhaps some cranberries and toasted pecans, spring onions . . . oops . . . there I go again.  I grabbed that ball and started running.

 

In any case do try this salad.  It's not quite Nigel's, but I thank him greatly for the inspiration.  This is the perfect autumn salad . . .a wonderful marriage of color, texture  . . . and flavor.  Hearty enough to be the whole meal.

Quite, quite looking forward to the leftovers for my lunch today. ☺

 

*An Autumn Salad of Fresh Plums, Ham Hock and Lentils*
with an herbed raspberry vinaigrette
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

Loosely based on a recipe from Nigel Slater. I was inspired.

1 ham hock
1 small onion, peeled and cut in half
a few cloves
a bay leaf
2 cups of Puy lentils
3 cups of boiling water
1 cup dry white wine
2 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
a handful of flat leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
1 pound fresh FIRM ripe plums, unpeeled

For the dressing:
75ml of red wine vinegar
2 TBS raspberry vinegar2 TBS chopped fresh basil
1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and minced
1 TBS chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 TBS liquid honey
1 TBS grainy Dijon mustard
375ml of extra virgin olive oil (1 1/4 cups)
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Start early in the day by cooking the ham hock.  Place it into a saucepan along with the onion, cloves and bay leaf.  Cover with boiling water.  Bring back to the boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer.  Cook until the meat is very tender.  Allow to cool completely in the liquid.  Once it is cold, remove, discarding any liquid and peel off the fat.  Tear the ham into large chunks.

Bring the water and white wine to the boil.  Rinse the lentils under cold running water, drain, then tip them into the pot with the wine mixture.  Bring back to the boil, then reduce to a slow simmer and cook for 20 to 25 minutes. They should be tender, but not mushy, with a bit of an almost nutty bite.  Drain them well and then rinse with cold water.  Tip into a bowl, adding about 1 tsp of olive oil, tossing them to coat them with the oil.

Whisk together the red wine vinegar, raspberry vinegar and garlic with a stick blender in a tall beaker.  Tip in the herbs, mustard and honey.  Whisk again.  Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking continuously until completely amalgamated.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place the lentils in a large shallow salad bowl.  Add 1 TBS of the vinaigrette and toss together with the flat leaf parsley and chopped spring onions.  Wash the plums, dry with some paper kitchen toweling and then slice them in half, discarding the stones.  Slice each half into 2 or 3 wedges, depending on the size of the plums.  Gently fold them into the lentils, along with the ham hock chunks.  Add a few TBS more of the dressing, tossing gently to combine.  Sprinkle with a few coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley sprigs and serve, along with a nice crusty loaf (if desired.)

 

I haven't been really able to do a lot of cooking this week during the day, what with all of this work going on in our bathroom, and at night I'm far too tired. You wouldn't think that renovating just one room would create such chaos, but it does . . . happy to say though, things are well  on the way towards being done, and there should only be a few more days of mither.  It's looking great so far!!  Anyways, simple food has been the rule of the day with as little cooking as possible.  You can't really plan much with the power being turned on and off haphazardly . . . it would be terrible to have a cake or a roast in the oven and have the power shut down.

One thing that I really love about having a vegetable box delivered to my home is that I occasionally get to try out vegetables that I would not normally ever see in my local shops and in fact probably wouldn't ever see other than in photos unless I grew them myself.  Lovely vegetables such as beautiful purple carrots, with deep purple skins and brilliantly orange centres . . . and heirloom beetroots, all lovely ruby and white striped . . . 



I really don't know alot about heirloom vegetables, except that they go back to days or yore, before hybrids . . . these are the original vegetable varieties before man tampered with them I assume.  Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.  I just loved their beautiful colours, just like jewels.  I decided to roast them, which I felt would enhance their natural sweetness.  I added some fresh picked regular carrots from out own garden, which did abysmally horribly bad this year . . . and some red onions.  I also added some fresh herbs from my herb garden, which we have finally managed to wrestle back  from the slugs!



 I had once tasted  a salad which I had bought in M & S that I really,  really liked . . . a salad composed of roasted butternut squash, red onions and rocket, along with Israeli Couscous and a spicy vinaigrette.  It was quite delicious.



I thought the pretty jeweled colours of these lovely heirloom vegetables, and the sweetness which came from roasting them would be quite tasty in a salad.  I was not wrong . . . the roasting brought out an incredible amount of flavour  . . . lots of sweetness coming from those caramelized edges and curves . . . and the colours . . . well, they  just beautiful.



I used Israeli couscous because it is robust and I felt it would stand up to the vegetables in this salad, as I wanted to leave them rather chunky . . . and visible.  A smaller couscous would have gotten lost . . .



The dressing was a fabulous lemon and rosemary vinaigrette . . . created by infusing fresh lemon juice with the flavours of garlic and rosemary, and then whisking the infused and strained lemon juice  together with some extra virgin olive oil, a bit of sugar to cut the edge of the lemon juice, and then then seasoned simply with some fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.



Served simply with some grilled marinated poussins, it was a lovely supper . . . much enjoyed by the both of us and something I would definitely repeat.  I am sure it would taste just as fabulous with regular carrots and beetroot . . . but why not use the bejeweled ones if you have them.

Why not indeed . . .



*Roasted Roots Salad with a Lemon & Rosemary Vinaigrette*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

I got some really pretty purple carrots and heirloom beetroots in a recent veggie box.  I wanted to create a salad to show them of at their best.  I think this does the trick.

For the vegetables:
4 heirloom beetroots
4 purple carrots
4 small orange carrots
2 red onions
1 TBS of light  olive oil
1 sprig rosemary
a couple sprigs of fresh marjoram
a pinch each of coarse sea salt, ground black pepper and crushed sumac

For the salad:
150g of giant Israeli couscous
hot vegetable stock
a small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

For the dressing:
1 clove of garlic, peeled and degermed
2 springs of rosemary, stems removed
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
the juice of one lemon
75ml of extra virgin olive oil
1 heaped tsp of golden caster sugar
coarsely ground black pepper to taste


Preheat your oven to 200*C/400*f/ gas mark 5.  Line a large baking sheet with some heavy duty foil. Peel your beetroots and cut into one inch wedges.  Place in a bowl.   Don't peel your carrots unless you have to.  Cut them into bite size pieces, first cutting them in half lengthwise and then into about 2 inch lengths. Place them into the bowl with the beetroots.  Peel your onions and cut into bite size wedges.  Add them to the bowl as well.  Pull the leaves off the rosemark and the marjoram.  Toss them into the bowl along with the seasalt, pepper and sumac.  Add the olive oil and toss to coat.  (You may need more oil, but don't overdo it.)  spread the coated vegetables out onto the baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes in the heated oven.  Remove and flip them over and stir them around.  Return to the oven and roast for a further 10 minutes.  Rrepeat the tossing and stirring.  Repeat this several more times, about 4 in all, roasting them for about 40 minutes, until they are knife tender and caramelized in spots.

While the vegetables are roasting cook your Israeli couscous.  Bring the vegetable stock to the boil and then drop in the couscous.   Boil for 6 to 8 minutes, until tender.  Drain well and rinse.  Place into a bowl.  Add the roasted vegetables and give them all a good stir together.  Set aside.

Place the garlic, roasemary leaves and sea salt into the bowl of a pestle and mortar.  Bash really well with the pestle until you have a pasty mixture.  The rosemary will not break down too much, but that's ok.  Add the lemon juice.  allow to sit and infuse for about 15 minutes.  Strain the mixture into a bowl, discarding the solids.  Whisk in the olive oil and sugar.  Season to taste with some black pepper.    Pour this mixture over the vegetables and couscous.  Toss to mix and coat all with the dressing.  Stir in the chopped parsley and serve.

In my quest to keep things light around here most of the time, (I can't manage it all of the time, I'm only human you know . . . ) I made myself a chicken salad for my tea tonight, whilst Todd chowed down on a Pork Pie . . . with English Mustard. (There's no accounting for taste, lol)



Mind you . . . the Toddster probably thought the same thing when he saw my salad . . . he's not that big a fan of salad, although he does admit I don't make a bad one.



I adapted this recipe from one I found in CookingLight, August 2006. I love Cooking Light Recipes. I have never had a bad one yet. Perhaps I am just lucky. The only problem I have usually is getting the same ingredients . . . so oftimes my results are not quite as low in calories as theirs are . . . but I figure I am still winning the calorie battle anyways.



This is a delicious salad, made zesty with the smoky flavour of chipolte chili in the dressing, filled with lots of fabulous flavours and textures . . . creamy avocado, meaty black beans, sweet corn, crisp lettuce . . .



Of course the cheese and added crunch of the tortilla chips are my own addition . . . but a gal needs a little bit of indulgence I think, don't you??



*A Lighter Chicken Taco Salad *
Serves four
Printable Recipe

Zesty and flavourful and pretty healthy too! I love this.

For the Dressing:
a handful of chopped fresh coriander (about 1/3 cup)
145g light sour cream (2/3 cup)
1 TBS minced chipolte chile in adobe sauce
1 tsp ground cumin (toasted first in a hot skillet)
1 tsp chili powder (toasted first in a hot skillet)
4 tsp fresh lime juice
pinch salt

For the Salad:
4 cups of shredded romaine lettuce
2 cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped
2 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/2 of a medium red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small avocado, peeled and diced
1 425g tin of cooked black beans, drained and rinsed (15 ounce)
1 small tin of salad corn, drained and rinsed (qb out 1 cup)

To Garnish: (optional)
a handful of crushed tortilla chips
a handful of grated medium cheddar cheese or Jack cheese

Whisk together all of the dressing ingredients, making sure they are well combined. Set aside and chill.

Combine all of the salad ingredients in a bowl, with the exception of the tortilla chips and the cheese. Add the dressing and toss together. Divide amongst four chilled plates. Top with the corn chips and cheese. Serve immediately.

Most people don't really need a recipe to make a salad . . . salads are generally quite easy to throw together. What we do need though are ideas on how to put salads together. Salads can be very boring, or they can be fabulous. The choice is up to you really!

First, look at the types of fresh ingredients you have in the refrigerator in the way of vegetable matter. For instance on this particular day I had a Black Radish that I was wanting to use . . . a handful of fresh garden peas, some fresh broccoli, baby gem lettuces, fresh baby corn cobs, courgettes (zucchini) and red onions. Together they made a very delicious looking and quite colourful mixture. It may be that you have other options. Most vegetables will together very well in a salad. What you are looking for is interest in terms of colour, texture and crunch. Your ingredients should be as pleasing to the eye as they are to the palate.



A mix of lettuces is usually quite nice. I like to mix my own, but there are some very nice combinations available pre-washed and bagged at the shops. I love the mild flavours of spinach and mache, especially when combined with a more robust lettuce such as a rocket and peppery watercress. Just remember to use the more assertive flavours in a way that they won't completely overpower the salad, and ruin the balance. Radicchio is especially nice in colour and texture . . .but again it's quite assertive, so do try to balance it with flavours that are just as robust, or and equally assertive (red onions, blue cheese, toasted walnuts, roasted vegetables, etc.) or use it only in small quanitities. The one rule to hold to is that if you are using only delicate lettuces . . . you will not want to use assertive or heavy ingredients as well.

Cabbage and carrot can give a wonderful crunch and texture. They are both vegetables which have quite a bite however, so do be sure to cut them into smaller pieces that are more manageable to eat and to spear. Crunch can also be provided with the use of fresh radishes, chopped celery, diced peppers, chopped cucumber, chopped courgettes, etc. These also provide great colour, and there's that word again . . . texture!!!



Remember no one ingredient in a salad should be larger in size than that which you can easily fit into your mouth comfortably. Tear your lettuces and cut your vegetables into bite sized pieces. I am always annoyed when I order a salad in a restaurant and the leaves in it are left almost whole, especially if I haven't been given the option of a knife along with my salad fork!! It is really difficult, if not impossible, to try to maneuver large pieces of lettuce into your mouth and manage to look delicate and polite at the same time. Also make sure all of your lettuces and salad ingredients are clean, dry and perfectly chilled. (I have a fabulous Salad spinner that I swear by. A good Salad spinner is a wise investment.)

Olives, cornichons, marinated artichoke hearts, Sun dried tomatoes, and capers add an interesting element to most salads. They add some salt and a bit of tang. I quite like them myself, but they can be hated by some people, so I would only add them to salads which I am serving to people that I am familiar with.

I generally like to have some form of onion in my salads. This can be in the shape of thinly sliced red onions, or chopped spring onions. Chives are also a fabulous addition. I don't really like to use cooking onions as they can be very strong in flavour, unless they are of a sweet variety, such as a vidalia. I often will add minced shallots to my salad dressings.

Raw mushrooms go very well in salads. Just be sure they are clean, and once again . . . thinly sliced.



Protein! Protein is always a nice addition and can take an ordinary vegetable salad from being a light lunch to being a delicious main meal salad. Chopped ham, chicken or egg are fabulous additions. Cooked fish (tuna, salmon, smoked fishes, mackerel, shrimps, lobster, etc.) are also very good, as are cooked legumes and beans. Cooked chickpeas, canellini beans, kidney beans, black beans . . . they are all tasty protein additions to a salad. Drain and rinse them before adding. Cooked sweetcorn is also nice.

Think cheese . . . cubed feta is fab in a Greek Salad, and a vegetable salad. I love cubed strong cheddar, crumbled blue cheese, slivered emmenthal, shaved Parmesan, crumbled goats cheese. When you are adding cheese, you want to use one with an assertive flavour.

Nuts and seeds go down well in a whole meal salad. Almonds, cashews, pecans, pistachios, peanuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, all make fab additions, but do toast or roast them first. They add fabulous crunch, lovely flavour and of course, that texture interest I keep talking about!



Cooked vegetables are lovely in a salad . . . roasted or steamed . . . potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beetroot, parsnips, peas and corn, string beans, turnips (or swede), asparagus, fennel, courgettes, mushrooms, cauliflower and broccoli, cherry tomatoes. All are fabulous.

Raw vegetables which are nice include tomatoes, bell peppers, baby corns, radishes, onions, cucumbers, mushrooms, spring onions, fennel, bean sprouts.

Frozen vegetables which can be used, and simply thawed . . . corn, lima beans, soya beans, baby peas.

Fruits are fab additions, although I would not add them along with vegetables, unless we are talking celery and possibly mild onions. (The one salad which immediately comes to mind here is a Waldorf type with celery, apples and toasted walnuts.) Some fab choices are sliced apple, strawberries, blueberries, sliced nectarines and peaches, sliced pears, quartered figs, sectioned oranges and grapefruits, mango, pineapple, blackberries, raspberriesm pomegranate seeds and most dried fruits (think cranberries, blueberries, sour cherries, sultanas etc.)

Crunchy toppings . . . to do . . . or not to do. I, personally, like a bit of crunch on top. Good quality croutons, either store bought or homemade. Crumbled melba toasts, pita crisps, bagel crisps, tortilla chips, goldfish crackers, crunchy chinese noodles. All are very good. I also like those crunchy salad onions, that come in a plastic tub. (In America they are called Durkee's French Fried Onions. Over here they call them Onion Salad Crispies.)



I like to use fresh herbs as well . . . either as additional salad leaves such as flat leaf parsley, chervil and mint. Soft herbs can also be chopped. Think dill, basil, tarragon, coriander, parsley, mint or oregano. All but basil, coriander and parsley should be used judiciously as too much can be somewhat overpowering and unless you are making a Tabbouleh where you want a lot of mint or parsley, I wouldn't use more than a few TBS. Edible flowers also can make a very tasty and pretty touch. (Nasturtiums, Violas, Violets, Pansies . . . pesticide free of course.)

Of course the crowning glory of any good salad lies in the dressing. Now that you will want a recipe for and I have a few very good ones, that I am quite happy to share.



*A Variety of Quick and Easy Salad Dressings*

*Light Blue Cheese*
Makes about 8 servings
(any leftovers can be refrigerated for later use during the week, or as a dip for raw vegetables)

1/3 cup low fat buttermilk
1/3 cup low fat sour cream
1/3 cup low fat mayonnaise
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients, mashing some of the blue cheese into the dressing with a fork, and leaving some chunky. This will keep for several days refrigerated.

*Caesar Dressing*
enough for one 4 serving sized salad

2 TBS fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 TBS light mayonnaise
1 medium clove of garlic, peeled and minced to a paste
1/4 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
5 TBS extra virgin Olive oil
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan Cheese

Whisk the lemon juice, mayonnaise, garlic, Worcestershire, a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper together in a small bowl. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking continuously until the mixture becomes nice and creamy. Stir in the cheese.

*Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing*
Serves 4

1 large clove of garlic, peeled and minced
1/3 cup of good quality Balsamic Vinegar
2 TBS Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup of extra virgin Olive oil (Approximately. You may need more.)

Whisk the garlic, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper together in a glass measuring cup. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking continously until you reach a 1 cup measure altogether.

*Lemon, Feta and Dill Vinaigrette*
Serves 4

2 TBS Dijon mustard
2 TBS freshly squeezed Lemon juice
1 TBS rice wine vinegar
1 large shallot, peeled and minced
3 TBS finely chopped fresh dillweed
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup crumbled Greek feta cheese

Whisk the mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, shallot, dill, a bit pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper together in a glass beaker. Slowly whisk in the olive oil, whisking continously to make a thick vinaigrette. Whisk in the feta cheese.

*My Favourite Vinaigrette*
Makes about 3/4 cup

1/4 cup of vinegar (sherry, balsamic, white wine, red wine, or cider)
1 TBS fine fruit sugar
1 tsp of Dijon mustard, smooth or grainy (its up to you)
1 TBS low fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup of filtered water
1/4 cup of salad oil
1 tsp dried dillweed
1 TBS finely minced shallots
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Put all of the ingredients into a glass jar with a lid that fits snugly. Shake until well combined. This keeps for about a week in the fridge.