Amongst my peers, I'm that rare individual that can get excited about a salad. Not only does freshness matter but so do textures, pairings and cut sizes. Buoyant healthy appearance, firm juicy textures, diversity in flavors to create a well-rounded bowl and uniformity in size to create ease while eating are all keys to a wonderful salad. I've come a long way from iceberg lettuce, tomatoes quarters and skinless cucumber rounds slathered in Zesty Italian dressing. I've also come to be annoyed with the afterthought that salad usually goes through in the planning of a family get-togther. This vegan guy knows the importance of a salad for his survival socially (and biologically) especially at a non-vegan function. For that reason alone is why I have to be that discerning and choosy salad snoot.
I love a salad filled with stuff to where each tong-full could produce another verdant hidden leaf or ingredient. When I make a salad, my greens, my peppers, my root veggies, my fruits, my legumes and my seasonals all have to be in good condition. The unifying agent is almost always my dressing. I usually like to introduce a new, but complimentary, element into my salad experience through my choice of dressing. This is exactly why when I came across Dress It Up™ during the last Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City, I was quite intrigued. When I look into the ingredients of my dressing I don't want to have to consult Google to understand 'mono-this' and 'poly-that'. Created in 2012 by Sophia Maroon, Dress It Up is a fresh and sophisticated line of salad dressings that uses clean, simple and organic ingredients to create enhancement rather than confusion in your salads.
What Dress It Up does so savvily is that it keeps it simple and special. The cute bottling and the easy to understand labeling are just cherries on top of the flavorful dressings with their perfect pairings of each special ingredient to make amazing toppers and tossers for salads, crudités and sandwiches. The three vinaigrettes highlighted here are testament. The Champagne Vinaigrette features the slight aged sweetness from the champagne together with the tart acidity of the vinegar and mustard notes. The Apple Cider Vinaigrette offers up that fresh pop of apple essence that showcases the nice roundness of apple cider vinegar with the depth of mustard and garlic. Then the Red Wine Vinaigrette delivers a good-bodied fermented loveliness from the grape that plays nicely up against the other distinct ingredients for a mash up of red wine & vinegar and oil & vinegar. All three are nice bases to complement the subtle flavors and textures of a well-done salad but can also serve as wonderful accompaniments to go on top of a sandwich in lieu of creamier mayos and condiments or as great dairy-free dunkers for an Italian antipasti spread.
Your salad must be suave just as your dressing be chic. With Dress It Up, it appears that the infamous Coco Chanel adage of "less is more" seems both a style lesson and successful ingredient instruction. For more information on all the dressings from Dress It Up and to peruse their e-store, head over to their website here.
www.DressItUpDressing.com
