Yesterday, I cooked a boneless turkey breast on the grill. I wanted to use the leftovers today in a salad, and I thought that cranberry vinaigrette sounded like a nice dressing for it. Sadly, I didn’t have cranberry vinaigrette on hand. Is that a staple in anyone’s pantry?
I looked up some recipes online, but they all called for a bag of cranberries, which was another thing I didn’t have. I find that most new recipes arise out of laziness. Or maybe it’s agoraphobia. All I know is that I wanted cranberry vinaigrette, but I did not want to go to the store. I wanted to use the can of cranberry sauce that I had bought at Thanksgiving but forgot to serve. Was
that so wrong?
It turned out surprisingly delicious. I’m always surprised when I make up recipes and they taste good. They don’t always, I swear. But I’ll probably never tell you about the ones that don’t because I want you to keep coming back to this blog, and I don’t think you will if I post recipes for inedible food.
Cranberry Vinaigrette
1 can of whole berry cranberry sauce, whole berries set aside
½ cup of olive oil
¼ cup of red wine vinegar
¼ cup of water
1 t. Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
Garlic Croutons
Adding to the deliciousness of the salad were homemade garlic croutons. O…M…G! They were so easy, too! I pressed three cloves of garlic through the garlic press into a small bowl and then poured about a quarter-cup of olive oil over it. Let that sit for about 20-30 minutes, then pour it over a sieve into another bowl. The oil becomes infused with garlic flavor. Toss with cubed bread and bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, flipping once.The hardest part about the croutons was cutting the bread into little chunks. It required delicacy, and I’ve never been the delicate type.
Salad
I lined the plate with a bed of salad greens, added sugar snap peas, green onions, the turkey, croutons, and reserved whole cranberries. I used bleu cheese, but if you don’t like bleu cheese, then romano or parmesan would be good, too. Drizzle with the vinaigrette.
Let me know what you think! Would you change anything if you tried the recipe? This recipe and many others will be available as printable PDFs on my website, www.susanmallery.com, as soon as we finish the redesign.
I love cranberries. I need to try this!
ReplyDeleteSounds amazing. isn't it fun to experiment? I'm definitely going to try this recipe. You adding to the Fools Gold page?
ReplyDeleteA Cobb Salad would also be great with the left over turkey, bacon, eggs, avacado,tomatoes onions, etc. plus of course blue cheese crumbles, balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
Homemade croutons so worth it!
Is that Marie, my cheerleader?! I think the Cheerleader page is going up on the Fool's Gold website this week. Can't wait to see the whole squad in one place.
ReplyDelete(For anyone else who happens to be reading this, on my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/susanmallery, we were recently looking for my biggest cheerleaders. My assistant drew cartoon cheerleader pictures of the whole squad, and we're going to post them on the Fool's Gold website, www.foolsgoldca.com. They'll make you laugh, I promise!)
Marilyn, Thanks! It is fun. I might just do a Cobb salad today. I have all the ingredients except turkey and bacon, but I do have ham. So I could be lazy again today, avoid the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteWe're going to create a recipes page on susanmallery.com. But maybe next year, we'll add to the free Fool's Gold Family Recipes cookbook. Great idea!
I would recommend that you use day old bread it will cut up better
ReplyDelete