Tracy’s Sesame Seed Dressing

This dressing was created/inspired-by a beautiful and kind woman I met in Los Angeles, Tracy. She was kind enough to invite me into her home and share her dinner with me – of course, her friend that I was visiting was her equally generous and kind brother.. but nonetheless.. inviting anyone into your home and sharing something as special as a meal, let alone allowing me to assist in the preparation is indeed a generosity not to be taken lightly (at least in my eyes). She created this sesame seed dressing to top our salads – which were served alongside Basic Roasted Veg. She found the recipe through Bon Appetit..but in true awesome cooking fashion, we improved upon it! She didn’t have all the exact ingredients, so improvisation was required.. which I feel made it better than had we followed the recipe verbatim. In this version, I made a few additions myself..so here is the inspired recipe, with full credit going to Tracy for such inspiration! The recipe makes about 1/3 C of dressing.. and a little goes a long way! The salad in the photo filled a standard dinner plate.. I topped with 2 TBSP of dressing..and it was a bit overdressed for my liking. I tend to like a salad dressed as casual as I, not one that’s dressed to the nine’s. I hope you enjoy! I know I did…

Ingredients:

Dressing

2 tsp sesame seeds (a blend of black and white, or all white)

1 tsp whole coriander seeds

2 TBSP fresh lime juice (I used the juice of a small lime..which was a smidge or two more than 2 TBSP)

1/3 C extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil *optional

1/2 tsp shoyu sauce

Salad

Raw Kale, washed and roughly chopped

Raw Red Leaf lettuce, washed and roughly chopped

Mixed Veg – julienned

*Carrots

*Red Bell Pepper

*Cucumber

Fresh green beans – ends trimmed

Fresh green onions

Fresh cilantro

4 TBSP dried golden raisins (per salad) soaked in some white wine

Directions:

Preparation

1. Place as many dried golden raisins as salads your planning on (4 TBSP per salad), cover with white wine. Let sit while you prepare the dressing.

2. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, lightly brown the sesame seeds and coriander seeds in a bit of the oil. It doesn’t matter how much..enough to saute – perhaps a couple TBSPs. Keep an eye on it… this can take a few minutes. While it was going, I was pulling the other veg, laying out my ingredients.

3. Once seeds are lightly browned, pull off the heat. Set aside.

4. Julienne the bell pepper, carrots, cucumber, and any other veg that tickles your fancy. Trim the ends of the green beans. Toss all veg in a bowl, set aside.

5. Chop the green onions and cilantro, set aside.

6. Roughly chop the kale and red leaf, and any other greens you may choose to use.

7. Whisk together remaining olive oil, sesame oil (if using), shoyu (if using), lime juice, and gently cooled oil/seeds mixture.

Assembly

8. You have two options here. (1) Plate out individual salads or (2) Toss all greens in a bowl to serve “family style.” **Note: If you serve family style, it should be served/eaten immediately. If you opt for choice 1, you have a little more flexibility with the left-overs.

9. If serving individually, top greens with mixed veg, green onions, and cilantro. Sprinkle about 3-4 TBSP soaked golden raisins around the edge of the salad. Drizzle about 1 TBSP dressing onto salad. You can add black pepper, but I wouldn’t recommend adding salt if you used the shoyu. If you’re opting for “family style,” add all greens, veg, and raisins to a bowl. Drizzle with a few TBSP dressing (more can always be added, but you can’t take away..once you hit black tie and stilettos, you can’t go back to jeans and flip-flops..at least when it comes to dressing a salad. 🙂 Serve up the tossed greens and veg, then sprinkle each with green onions, cilantro.

Other nice additions would be:
-Fresh arugula and/or baby spinach
-Other colored bell peppers
-Raw red onions, slivered
-Lightly roasted walnuts, pine nuts, or slivered almonds
-Dried cranberries
-Garbanzo or White Beans
-Apple, cubed

Happy Chopping!

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