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Crunchy Veggie salad with a thousand island dressing



A salad is one such dish which consists of small pieces of food mixed with a sauce. It may contain virtually any type of ready to eat food.

What I like about salads is that we can be so creative with the ingredients which is based around a wide variety of foods like vegetables, fruits, cooked meat, eggs, nuts and leafy greens. Garden salads use a base of leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, kale or spinach; they are common enough that the word salad alone often refers specifically to garden salads. 

Other types include Mexican bean salad, tuna salad, Lebanese fattoush, Greek salad, Thai Raw Papaya Salad and Japanese somen salad (a noodle-based salad). The sauce used to flavor a salad is commonly called a salad dressing; well-known types include Ranch, Thousand Island, Caesar and French vinaigrette. Salads can be served at any point during a meal such as an appetiser or side dish or as a main course. 

Food historians tell us salads (generally defined as mixed greens with dressing) were enjoyed by ancient Romans and Greeks. As time progressed, salads became more complicated. Recipes varied according to place and time.

The key ingredient of salad, and the reason for its getting its name, is the dressing. The Romans were enthusiastic eaters of salads; a simple selection of raw vegetables and they always used a dressing of some sort: oil, vinegar, and often brine.  

I particularly love the thousand island dressing. It has two main ingredients - mayonnaise and tomato ketchup. Sometimes hard boiled egg is mashed and mixed into the dressing to add depth and thickness, but you can omit it if you don't want eggs.

The salad I make is colourful. It's crunchy in every bite along with my version of the thousand island dressing. Plus it's a great way to get kids to eat veggies too. 
That's how our Miss J started liking broccoli.

It's simple, quick and easy.
So here's the recipe. 

For the dressing:
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise 
4 Tbsp Tomato sauce
2 tsp Vinegar
2 tsp Sugar
1 Onion (finely chopped)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Mustard sauce( if you like more pungent)

Vegetables:
Iceberg lettuce
Red capsicum
Yellow capsicum
Sweet corn
Cherry tomatoes
Broccoli (blanch it first)
Black olives

Cut the veggies. Tear the lettuce leaves. Combine the ingredients for the dressing. And finally, mix all of them together just before you serve. 

Don't mix it before hand, else the veggies, especially the lettuce, will become soggy and lose it's crunch.

You could add these as well:
Green capsicum
Onions
Tomatoes
Carrots
Green lettuce
Purple lettuce
Cucumber
Croutons (for that extra crunch)
Small chunks of cooked chicken or sausages or salami ( for those who like some meat)

Do you know why it's called the thousand island dressing?
I had Googled to find out myself. Turns out the name presumably comes from the Thousand Islands between the United States and Canada in the St. Lawrence River. In the Thousand Islands area, one common version of the dressing’s origins says that a fishing guide’s wife, Sophia LaLonde, in the early 1900s made the condiment as part of her husband George’s shore dinner.

Go ahead and try it yourself. You can use this dressing on any of your favourite salads or even in a sandwich. It adds so much flavour.

It's yumm!!

Enjoy :-)





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