We made it to the last, and my favorite, dish of the ill-fated picnic: the marinated veggie salad.
My mom always told me that pasta salads were the best thing to bring to a pot luck–you can throw pretty much whatever you have into them, you can make them the day before, and at least you’ll know you’ll have something somewhat healthy to munch on in a sea of chips and dips and fried things. See mom? I do listen sometimes. :)
While this is not technically a pasta salad, this veggie salad takes it’s flavors and dressing from a traditional pasta salad, so, close enough in my book. But since we already had so many carbs with our giant sandwiches, I decided to omit the pasta and focus solely on the veggies. Plus, like usual, I had a few veggies from our CSA box that needed to be used and this was the perfect excuse.
Marinated salads, be it pasta or just plain veggie, really need to be made the day before in order for the vinaigrette to really work its flavor into all of the ingredients and just as importantly, so everything is nice and cold. Because who likes warm pasta/veggie salad? Not me!
I made a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, peach vinegar, lime, dill, and salt and pepper as the dressing for this, but bottled dressings work just as well if you choose a good one. My go-to pick is always from Annie’s organics: the shiitake & sesame vinaigrette is to die for!
On a side note, today’s the last day to enter Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale Can contest to get a free t-shirt. I’ll share my photo tomorrow!
Marinated Veggie Salad Recipe
Serves 4
Ingredients:
3/4 cup English peas
1 15oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed well
2 large carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 small spring onions, sliced (red part only)
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
For the vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons peach vinegar
2 limes, juiced
1/4 teaspoon dill seed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Steps:
Combine all ingredients (except those for the vinaigrette) in a large bowl and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine all vinaigrette ingredients, adjusting seasonings to taste.
Pour vinaigrette onto the veggies and mix well.
Cover, and refrigerate, at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
Enjoy!
Time: 10 minutes (up to 24 hours of chill time)
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Your mom likes this post!! ;)