Stupid Good Summer School Week 10: Red Onion Vinaigrette

Have you ever looked on the back of a store-bought salad dressing bottle? Sodium. Fat. Sodium. Calories. Not real ingredients that come from the ground. You can save a bunch of money and a bunch of fake chemicals by making your own dressing. This recipe would typically call for diced shallots, but that’s a fancy onion variety that is expensive so red onions work in a similar way. Try your own salad dressing varieties with different acids like lime juice or vinegars! Also, you can sub the olive oil for vegetable or canola oils but I wouldn’t really recommend it.  Check out the video for how to make salad dressing here.

Red Onion Vinaigrette

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bottle or mason jar.
2. Let stand for 5 minutes, to let the harsh bite of the onion mellow out a bit.
3. Cover and shake the bottle right before pouring over fresh greens. Enjoy!

Thanks for a great Stupid Good Summer School! This is the last week in the series, but look out Summer 2015.

 

Stupid Good Summer School Week 8: Gin Mint Lemonade

The idea of being known for a cocktail is pretty cool. I served these at my Stupid Good Tasting Event and people went bonkers. Super fresh, fizzy and clean- you can barely taste the gin, which is dangerous but serves its purpose. This drink is the ideal for the end of summer, even if the weather doesn’t know it yet. Plus, you don’t have to squeeze fresh lemons for this. That is pure nonsense, just get some grocery store lemon juice and call it a night. Check out the video for this cocktail here.

Gin Mint Lemonade

This recipe includes simple syrup, which is essentially equal parts sugar and water, simmered until the sugar dissolves. For awesome flavor, I steep mine with mint leaves overnight in the fridge.

• 1 part simple syrup
• 1 part gin
• 1 part lemon juice
• 1 small handful mint leaves
• Fizzy water of choice
• Ice

1. In your glass, stir together simple syrup, gin and lemon juice.
2. Tear up the mint leaves, put them in the glass and muddle with a wooden spoon. Or if you’re fancy, a muddler. I’m clearly not that fancy.
3. Add ice. Top with fizzy water of choice! Enjoy! A few…

Stay tuned for next week’s Stupid Good Summer School!

School may be out for the summer, but it’s time to get your kitchen game onto the honor roll! ‘Stupid Good Summer School’ features a technique every Tuesday, and a recipe using that technique every Thursday.