Orange Miso Dressing

I was flipping through this month's Bon Appetit magazine and came across a recipe for orange miso dressing.  I thought about what I had in my fridge and was excited because I had all the ingredients at home!  I made two  adaptations to this recipe. First, I used vegetable oil instead of safflower oil.  Although I suppose you could use any oil that doesn't have an overpowering flavor. Second, I used a blood orange instead of a regular orange, from the zest to the juice, I went blood. I also added splenda and rice vinegar.  In my salad I mixed romaine, dried cherries, carrots, cabbage, mango, cilantro, blood orange segments, tomatoes and cucumbers. Any and all ingredients you desire would work just fine, be creative! Enjoy!

Orange Miso Dressing
(enough for 1 entree-size salad)
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons white miso paste
1 tablespoon safflower oil
1 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1 packet splenda
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice (Use the orange you just zested!)
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine ingredients in a container or jar with a lid, and shake, shake, shake! Drizzle over your salad and enjoy!

I can't get enough!

It's like a drug, I just can't get enough of it! All day yesterday I was thinking to myself that I couldn't wait to get home so I can make more quinoa salads...today I made a copycat version of a quinoa dish I get at this restuarant called Hummus Kitchen, on the Upper East Side. They call it the "Super-Healthy Salad." And they aren't lying either. I wouldn't call it quite a salad because there's no variety of lettuce in it.

It might be hard to tell what's in this salad based on my photo, sorry I'm not the photographer in the family. I probably should have used the white quinoa so it's a more pretty "salad" in the end, but since I had leftover red quinoa I used up what I had. If you want to go for the pretty effect I'd use white quinoa as opposed to the red variety. If you don't care about that sort of stuff, then GO BIG RED!

Super-Healthy Non-Salad

(serves about 4 as a side dish)

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup dried apricots chopped

1 cup roasted sweet potato* (about 2 yams or sweet potatoes cubed)

1/2 cup walnuts or slivered almonds (I used a mixture)

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1. In a pot bring 2 cups of water and 1 cup of the quinoa to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and then cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes. Pour cooked quinoa in a sieve and then rinse quinoa with cold water to cool off. Drain and place in serving bowl.

2. Add cranberries, chopped apricots, roasted sweet potatoes*, and walnuts to the bowl.

3. In a small bowl combine the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and whisk to combine. Pour dressing over salad just before serving.

*If you don't know how to roast a sweet potato read on to get step by step directions.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Pour about 1/4 cup olive oil on the cubed potatoes and mix to coat then lay the sweet potatoes out in a single layer on a roasting tray. Roast for 30-40 minutes in oven or until tender.