The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
3 dressings for your spring salads
Yes, spring is coming, and there are going to be so many lovely, tender greens at the market. Time for salad!
Carolina peach pecan dressing
Stono Market is a farmers market near Charleston, South Carolina. You can stop there for produce, or enjoy lunch or dinner in their Tomato Shed Cafe. Most of the produce at the market comes from the Ambrose Family Farm on Wadmalaw Island. The Ambrose family runs the market and the farm, and they are shrimpers, so they offer South Carolina shrimp as well. You can pick up prepared foods, like shrimp paste and tomato pie, local honey, sauces and a wide range of salad dressings like summer tomato and creamy vidalia onion. We tried the Carolina peach pecan dressing. It’s got plenty of peach flavor, and little bits of pecan to add texture. There’s also a little vinegar and mustard tang. This would be perfect on a spinach and strawberry salad, in place of the traditional poppy seed dressing.
$5.59 per 12-ounce bottle. Available at Stono Market, 842 Main Road, Johns Island, South Carolina. Call 1-843-559-9999 to order any of their products for shipping. stonomarket.com.
Vegan Bleu Cheese dressing
Follow Your Heart has been around since the 1970s. The owners, Bob Goldberg and Paul Lewin, created Vegenaise, the beloved vegan sandwich spread that’s taken the place of mayonnaise for more folks that just vegans and vegetarians. They didn’t stop there, and have lots of vegan products now, including a line of seven salad dressings. We tried the blue cheese version. It uses Vegenaise as a base and adds lemon juice and spices to reproduce the taste of blue cheese. It also includes hemp seed oil and flaxseed oil, so the dressing is high in Omega-3. We dipped our celery sticks in it, and we used it to dress a big wedge of iceberg lettuce. It’s flavorful and rich, and it’s healthier than a dairy-filled dressing.
$2.99 per 8-ounce bottle. Available in the refrigerated salad dressing section of Publix. followyourheart.com.
Yohana Solomon’s salad dressing
Yohana Solomon wears several foodrelated hats. She was one of the organizers of the Atlanta Underground Market, a monthly pop-up that served as an incubator for many small food-related businesses; she’s a founder of Chow Club, a monthly dinner series featuring immigrant chefs; and she’s the owner of Kushina Catering, serving the specialties of her native Ethiopia. Because her customers asked, she also bottles and sells her delicious salad dressing. It’s a combination of olive oil and fresh lemon juice, with oregano and sumac and lots of garlic. It’s exactly the salad dressing you’d make at home if you wanted to chop all that garlic. It’s perfect on a green salad, delicious with tomatoes and cucumbers, and even good as a marinade for grilled chicken.
$10 per 8-ounce bottle. Order by sending an email to kushinacatering@gmail.com. hkushinacatering.com.