Oy Veh, a Vegan Salad [Recipe]

While I am away travelling I want to make sure you all eat!

The last thing a cook wants to hear when she walks into a party that she has been preparing for for three days is that someone, the party-host’s brother no less, is a vegan. Had I known I would have made some of the eggplant parmigiana bites and radicchio arancini without cheese, and the cobbler with extra virgin coconut oil instead of butter. I had spent days preparing for this six course tasters/wine pairing event and had mapped out the menu to the “t” with the hostess. We knew there would be a couple vegetarians, but no one said a word about a vegan.

Ucch, damn vegans.

I actually am part vegan myself, except I eat meat. For the most part I stay away from dairy and eggs for allergy reasons and since I don’t eat animal at every meal or every day, I am a good percentage vegan, statistically speaking. I slander the vegans because they kind of deserve it for being so perfectly clean and healthy and correct about the well-being of the planet at large. So annoying.

Anyway, no one mentioned Kevin’s vegan-ness because his own planet-hating carnivore family thinks it’s a phase that, if ignored, will go away.

Well it didn’t go away in time for the party and I was left scavenging an empty fridge for something that this guy could eat. There is no way anyone will go home hungry from one of my parties!

Two lovely inventions manifested themselves from this challenge and one of them is this salad. I think it might be my favorite salad ever and I use it as a side dish all the time with everything from frittatas to fish.

In their cupboard I found rosemary infused balsamic vinegar which might not be too hard to find. I thought it would be a nice touch to make our own.

Ingredients:

for 4 people as a side dish.

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar (you will have leftover.)

• 2 sprigs

  about ⅓ cup ” target=”_blank”>Meal and a Spiel on Olive Oil)

• salt to taste

• 8 oz. or 8 handfuls mixed mesclun greens (that has

  2 handfuls coarsely chopped herbs choosing from: ” target=”_blank”>parsley, ” target=”_blank”>basil and/or

  hot house

  Fresh ground pepper