Okay, this is the first time I whipped up a salad from scratch, without relying on dressing-from-the-bottle. Give it a try and see if you get the runs...*evil laughter*
Heh, will let you know if I can manage to poison myself this time...
Anyway...
Ingredients for Salad (makes for 1 big-eater or 2 decent servings):
- Cherry Tomatoes (one box, which makes about 2 cups, I think)
- 1 Veal Bratwurst (as in one fat German sausage, otherwise canned cocktail sausages should be fine, though probably much saltier. You may want to use picnic ham, or maybe broiled chicken breast...vegans can use tofu...it really depends on what you think will work and what you like.)
- One Small Apple (get the super crunchy kind)
- Sweet Corn Kernals (about one to 2 cups depending on your appetite. I like Wattie's Super Sweet, the frozen kind)
- Cashews/Walnuts/Sunflower Seeds (these are optional, but about half a cup will perfect the salad, absolutely.)
Ingredients for Dressing:
- 1 Orange
- 5 teaspoons vinegar (erm, I used white vinegar, though I think apple cider vinegar should taste better)
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of sugar
- Pinch of pepper
- Soft Cheese (I used one segment of The Laughing Cow Cheese, though I think Philly would do as well)
For the Salad:
Chop Everything bigger than the Corn Kernals into similar bite-sized chunks. (If you really want to measure the chunks, they should range from 1 to 2 cm square. As in small enough to fit comfortably inside your mouth. Whatever the size of your mouth...errr...what nonsense am I going into???)
To prevent the Apple Chunks from going brown, give them a salt-water dip. (Just a generous pinch of salt dissolved in a bowl of water.) I know, it kills the vitamins and all, but oxidised apple pieces are kind of unsightly in your dish. Unless, of course, you like oxidised apple.
Because the Veal Bratwurst and Corn Kernals were frozen food, I had to defrost and cook them beforehand. And because I didn't plan this whole recipe beforehand, (rather, it just struck me when I was, erm, in the shower/loo) I had no time to wait for them to cool down. So after I removed them from the microwave (awww, what a convenience, ain't it?), all hot and steamy, I dunked them into icy water to immediately cool them down. Which may be cheating or unhealthy, I'm not sure. But it sure hurts your fingers. (Yeeaaahhhooowwwccchhh!!!) So be careful if you like using your hands to do stuff like mixing food in the kitchen. (Nice clean hands, of course...please don't like pick your nose beforehand and not wash up before cooking. o_O)
The point is, try not to mix the very hot food and the cool food together immediately. If you dunk all the hot and steamy sausage and corn bits into the nice and cool cherry tomato and apple mix, you'll end up cooking the nice crunchy tomatoes and apple bits, and they'll end up kinda disappointing in the end. (I'm not sure about you, but I like crunchy bits in my salad. If you prefer a softer chewing experience, feel free to cook everything beforehand. Or mix hot and cold, or whatever.)
When Everything is about the same temperature, toss them all together. They'll look really nice mixed up.
For the Dressing:
Cut up the orange and squeeze all the juice out into a bowl, then tear up the remaining pulp and dump it all in too. (You may not want the pulp in, but I like the additional fibre.)
Mix in the vinegar, salt, sugar, pepper, and cheese. Stir well.
Then just toss the Dressing into the Salad and do one final toss to mix everything up properly. (Because the pulpy orange bits tend to clump together, you need to mix well to make sure the dressing is evenly distributed. Otherwise it's just not fair for the poor salad bits who have no chance to get in touch with the dressing, you know?
Then refrigerate until ready to serve. Try to consume within the next, err...day? Unless it's kept in the fridge (i.e. constant cool temperature) all the time, food like this tends to go bad pretty quick. (I dumped mine in the chiller compartment overnight, though, for tomorrow's brunch.)
Add the nuts and give another toss before you chow down.
Enjoy and pray you don't get the runs! XP
