Quickie Salad for the hungry

Quickie Salad

So I was real hungry and I wanted something to eat quick. I've made this quick salad with dressing before. I usually don't like dressings I find in recipe books; they're too sour for my taste. I just made this from scratch one day and it turned out fantastic. I added mustard to this one which I don't usually use but it gave the dressing a very appealing color, at least to me. So if you're in the mood for a quick healthy snack this one is for you. I had mine with a cup of tea. 

Salad dressings are not a normal occurrence in Trinidad cooking unless you count potato salad. We in Trinidad usually put only salt, black pepper and probably some hot congo pepper in our salad. Otherwise we take fruits such as mango, add a lot of pepper and call it 'chow', but that's another post. I was at a bank in Trinidad recently where a TV was showing the Food Network. A chef was making a garbanzo (channa) and beans salad with a salad dressing and the old Trinidadian lady sitting next to me commented that "Ah goh never eat that, how dah goh taste!" All joke aside I'm sure you'll enjoy this salad whether you're Trinidadian or otherwise.

Cuisine: Foreign

Type: Savory snack 

Time: Less 30mins
Serves: 2

Skill:Easy

Kid Participation: Some

Ingredients

 Dressing
1 tb          apple cider vinegar

3 tb          extra virgin olive oil

1 clove    garlic minced

1/2 tsp     hot congo or bird pepper chopped fine 

                 or chilli powder

1 tsp        sugar or honey (put to taste)

1 tb          fresh or dried basil or parsley or other green herb chopped fine

1 tsp        capers (optional)

1/4 tsp     mustard (optional)

salt and black pepper to taste

Salad

1        apple cut in chunks

1        cucumber cut in chunks             

1/2     onion cut in slices

4        slices cheddar cheese broken (optional)

           any other vegetable you prefer such as tomato or lettuce

4         bread slices toasted

 Procedure

• Chop up garlic, congo pepper and herbs
• Pour vinegar into bowl and whisk in olive oil slowly until incorporated.
• Add rest of ingredients and mix. This is the dressing.

• Cut up vegetables and put into a suitably large bowl
• Toss with salad dressing. 
• Spoon some over the bread and Enjoy!

Tips

• You can vary the amount of vinegar. I do not like mu dressing sour but if you do you can add more vinegar and omit the sugar or honey. 

• You can add salt to the dressing or you can omit it if you have people whose diet requires less salt and put salt in the vegetables instead. 

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