Cooking Through “The Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook” – Jane’s Favorite 3, 2, 1 Dressing

Jane’s Favorite 3, 2, 1 Dressing from page 174

This is a wonderful, basic salad dressing. Use this as a starting point to all kinds of delicious salads. I tried several different variations and they were all fantastic.

The basic 3, 2, 1 dressing is all over the internet. Here is one place I found it. The difference in this one is that it calls for the addition of some lemon juice.

The first one I tried was the exact recipe from the book with plain balsamic vinegar. This is my favorite balsamic.

This was delicious, but I wanted to try different variations. Not one was a disappointment. Most of the time I used them on green salad, but it was also great in a quinoa salad with veggies.

Here are some of the combinations I tried.

Plain balsamic, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, lemon juice

Blood orange balsamic, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, lemon juice

Fig balsamic, spicy brown mustard, honey, lemon juice (this was my favorite)

Pomegranate balsamic, spicy brown mustard, honey, lemon juice

I found that I liked the dressing better with honey instead of maple syrup. It added a more subtle sweetness and a depth of flavor that was lacking with the maple syrup.

The recipe says that it makes 1/3 cup. The lemon I had was very large, so I ended up doubling the rest of the ingredients. When I did that, I got 2/3 cup, so it was pretty much on target.

Instead of whisking, I blended everything in my NutriBullet.

This had a wonderful mouth feel.  You don’t even realize that you are eating dressing made without oil.  You can even use a lot of dressing and not feel guilty.

The lemon made the dressing a little on the tart side for my taste, so I cut it down a little.

NOTES:

• Try adding different fresh herbs. Dill, parsley, basil, oregano, tarragon….these are all wonderful in a salad dressing.
• Try different mustards. Spicy brown, Dijon, yellow…they all work perfectly. Use your favorite.
• Try different flavored balsamic vinegars. Napa Valley Naturals has flavors like blood orange, fig, black cherry…they are all delicious.
• Use lime juice instead of lemon juice.
• Adjust ingredients to your taste.

Cooking Through “The Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook” – The Ultimate: Lemon and Kale Open-Faced Sandwich

The Ultimate: Lemon and Kale Open-Faced Sandwich from page 62

Boy that was a mouthful! This is another open-face sandwich (there are a few of them in the cookbook).

This particular one calls for Mestemacher or Feldkamp bread. I did find this at Fairway near the rice cakes. It actually looks like a brick and is quite hefty for bread. I really, really liked it. If you are used to eating Ezekiel bread, you will like this one. Try to find it if you can. If you are used to regular old white or wheat bread, this may be a little too much for you.

This is pretty much the recipe here – Kale, Lemon and Cilantro Sandwich

The hummus that I already had prepared was the green onion hummus here.

The sandwich, being open-faced, was a little on the messy side to eat. This mean…not for company, kids.  Eat this one alone or with your loved one.  Definitely not with someone that you are looking to impress.

First bite, I really wasn’t sure about it yet. The bread was tasty, the hummus was creamy and perfect, and we all know how much I love kale…oh, but that lemon slice! Wowzers! That was a little too much for my taste buds to handle. I had to take the lemon slice off to finish the rest of the sandwich. Lesson learned! No more lemon slices for me!

If you do try the lemon slices, try a piece on a small section of the sandwich instead of making a mess like I did to decompose the sandwich and remove the lemon.

NOTES:

• The lemon slices were way too strong. Better off using just the lemon juice and maybe a little zest. The pith was too, too bitter.
• The recipe has tomato in the ingredients as optional…I did not use.
• Would be great with two slices of rye bread and grilled on the Panini press.
• The recipe called for cilantro or parsley.  Guess which one I used (hint: I hate cilantro).