Sweet and Sour Ginger Dressing

Here is a fast and flavorful dressing for when you are in a hurry.

Ingredients:

• Sesame Oil (4 tbs) (Hard to find in raw form)
• Apple Cider Vinegar (3 tbs)
• Soy Sauce (2 tbs, Braggs, Nama Shoyu, Tamari etc)
• Agave Nectar (2 tbs)
• Lemon Juice (1/2 lemon squeezed))
• Ginger (2 tbs grated)

Combine all ingredients in a cup and stir. Pour over salad and toss. A Chopin "Prelude" playing in the background helps. This can cover 4 side salads. A little of this goes a long way. You do not want too much. The secret is a light coating of the greens and vegetables. This works very well in a salad that has cubes of rutabaga, beets, carrots, cauliflower, brocolli and other crunchy vegetables. You want to be able to taste the flavor of each fresh vegetable and green leaf while it has a slight ginger tang to it. I have seen variations of this on the net with much more lemon juice, also with lime or orange or pineapple juice. This is also a “fit the ingredient amount to your taste “ dressing. Play around. If you have a great fresh local Apple Cider Vinegar (“Sea Cider” cider vinegar from Saanich, BC for example!) then you may want to add a few more tablespoons of it. Also vary the amount of agave and lemon juice to suit the mood you want to achieve for your salad.

I find a ginger grater to be indispensable. It is not easy to chop ginger. For years I baulked at buying a gadget that only grated ginger, lemon rind and nutmeg. Now that I have partaken in hand grating and learned how healthy and tasty these three foods are when prepared fresh, I cannot live without my grater.