Leaf Salad Dressings

In response to Raina's desperate requests for salads (whenever I eat leaf salads, I always wonder, when I'm shoving the uncooked greens into my mouth, how I could've reduced myself to that level...), here goes:

This first dressing is my standard if I serve leaf salad:

Whole Grain Mustard Dressing

1 cup balsamic or fruit-flavored vinegar (I like raspberry)
2 T whole grain mustard
1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
1 t salt
1 t freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

-Blend everything (except olive oil)in a bowl, add olive oil in a trickle and whisk well. Keep in fridge.
-Toss with greens and root veg such as carrots, jicama (sengkuang), tomatoes or whatever you've got. In the pic I have oranges slices, lettuce and home-grown rocket (yes, they grow very well in Malaysia, alongwith basil and parsley) and black olives. You can add pine nuts and canned anchovies to give it a Mediteranean flavor.

The next one is from a book called Top Secret Restaurant Recipes. I was ecstatic when I first tried this because when I was a little girl, my mom's best friend's hubby was the area manager of Malaysian Singapore Airlines and he used to bring home gourmet food (in those times western food was rare and a big treat) and one of them, turkey sandwiches, had a dressing that I love and have always wanted to taste again, and this was it!

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup honey
2 T Grey Poupon Dijon mustard

-whisk together; drizzle on before eating.

Some tips:

1. Do use a salad spinner to dry the greens.
2. Always toss dressing and greens when about to eat unless you are doing coleslaw and potato salads which will taste better if you mix in the dressing earlier.
3. Be creative. However, remember to be careful. Not all veg can be eaten raw because some veg are actually poisonous in their raw state. So I think the Chinese are smart to stir-fry their veg (so tasty too) and you also don't get E.coli poisoning like what they had in the US last year with spinach.