In Praise of Freshly Made Vinaigrette

Food Snob wants to know:  Do you have bottled salad dressing in your refrigerator?  THROW IT OUT!  There is nothing more delicious than a freshly-made vinaigrette to dress your salads, enhance steamed or blanched vegetables, or sauce a favorite entree.

Food Snob often evaluates a restaurant based on the quality of the vinaigrettes used to dress the salads on the menu.  Have you ever had the perfect salad - expertly coated with just the right amount of vinaigrette -  not too much, not too little - with herbs and seasonings carefully selected to enhance the salad greens and other accompaniments?  When I find a delicious, perfectly-made salad when I eat out, I come back!

Learning to make and use vinaigrette in your cooking is key to a healthy, delicious diet.  The oils in vinaigrette, in contrast to thick or creamy dressings, are much lower in saturated fat, which all of us need to avoid.  Additionally, vinaigrette, with its slippery texture, stretches farther than a creamy dressing or sauce when coating a salad, vegetable, or entree.  Therefore, much less vinaigrette is needed, further reducing the calories and fat consumed.

The ingredients for a basic vinaigrette are simple:  a good quality oil (such as extra virgin olive oil), acid (for example, vinegar or fresh-squeezed lemon juice), salt, and pepper.  Most recipes recommend a proportion of at least two parts oil to one part acid, and if you follow that proportion, the results will be delicious.  However, the two-to-one proportion of oil and acid contains too much fat for my diet.  So, I have learned to make delicious vinaigrette using equal proportions of oil and acid.  I'll show you how below.

In Denver, we are fortunate to have a local gem:  John Broening, the executive chef at Duo and Olivea restaurants and special food writer for the Denver Post.  A few weeks ago, John's column included a recipe for Trout with Farro, Beets, and Walnut Vinaigrette.   The walnut vinaigrette is used to dress the fresh beet salad and to sauce the fish.  John, in his column, suggested that if the reader lacked time, he or she should at least try the walnut vinaigrette.  I made the recipe as written and John was right - the walnut vinaigrette was delicious - on the trout that night, and next day on my lunch salad.

John's recipe takes a bit of time to prepare (more than Food Snob's standard of one hour or less) so I've made some adjustments to simplify and shorten the preparation while reducing quite a bit of the fat.  I've reduced the butter and oil used in the recipes, and replaced the farro (an ancient, wheat-like grain) with a buckwheat pilaf.  I paid over $12 a pound for the farro at Whole Foods, and it took over an hour to cook it to al dente.   Buckwheat is inexpensive and buckwheat pilaf takes about 20 minutes to prepare.  I replaced the beet salad with a simple salad made with baby salad greens, scallions, and sliced radishes.  Equally delicious!!!

I usually make this recipe with steelhead trout, which is absolutely wonderful, but since the grocery store was out of steelhead trout tonight, I substituted a good quality wild-caught cod.  Any firm white fish can be used in this recipe, and the results will be fabulous.  Here is the recipe, which takes less than 45 minutes to prepare from start to finish.  Use the leftover vinaigrette for your salad, fish, or chicken tomorrow!

Trout or Firm White Fish with Buckwheat Pilaf, Salad, and Walnut Vinaigrette (serves 4)

Start by making sage oil.  You will need a little of this for the Walnut Vinaigrette and will have leftovers to use again.  If you decide you don't have the ingredients or time, you can omit the sage oil and the vinaigrette will still be delicious - definitely better than anything in a bottle of purchased at the store!  To make the sage oil, combine the following ingredients and heat over low heat until it simmers:

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
a half-handful of fresh sage leaves
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed (place the peeled garlic on your cutting board, place the flat of a large knife over the garlic, and hit the side of the knife with your fist - easy!)

Set sage oil aside to cool.  Strain later.  Meanwhile, prepare buckwheat pilaf.  Spray a medium saucepan with cooking spray, add a few drops of olive oil, and heat the pan over medium low heat.  Dice:

1/2 small yellow onion


Add to the saucepan and "sweat" the diced onion under parchment paper for about 5 minutes, until soft.  Stir occasionally.  (To learn how to "sweat" vegetables, see Food Snob's blog dated 1/5/2012).  Remove parchment paper and add:

1 cup organic buckwheat

Stir and cook for about a minute.  Then add:

1 can low-sodium, low-fat chicken broth with enough water added to make two cups of liquid


Stir and cover tightly; reduce to heat to low and allow pilaf to simmer until al dente, about 20 minutes.
While buckwheat pilaf simmers, prepare the walnut vinaigrette.  Combine in a jar with a tight lid:

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and then chopped
4 Tablespoons sherry vinegar (if you don't have sherry vinegar, try red wine vinegar)
1 Tablespoon honey
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 Tablespoons sage oil
 seasalt and freshly ground pepper to taste (try about 1/4 teaspoon salt and then add more if needed)

Shake vinaigrette and set aside while preparing fish.  Spray a large, non-stick skillet with cooking spray and add about a 1/2 teaspoon olive oil.  Heat over medium high heat until very hot and smoking.  While skillet is heating, thoroughly dry with paper towels:

4 four-ounce steelhead trout fillets with skin (or substitute a firm white fish)


Sprinkle fish with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper; press the seasonings into the fish.  Add fish to hot skillet, skin-side down, and allow fish to brown and skin to crisp, about 3 - 5 minutes for trout, about 2 - 3 minutes for white fish, depending on thickness.  Flip the fish and add to the pan:

1 teaspoon of butter

Swirl the butter and squeeze on top of the fish:

1/2 lemon


Allow the fish to baste in the butter and lemon for about 2 more minutes, until done.  While fish is cooking, prepare the salad.  In a large salad bowl, combine:

One 5-ounce package of fresh baby salad greens
3 scallions, sliced
3 to 4 radishes, washed and sliced


Toss salad with just enough walnut vinaigrette to barely coat leaves.  Taste - you can always add a little more vinaigrette if you don't have enough.  To plate and serve, start by spooning pilaf onto the plate (you will have leftovers) and top with on trout fillet.  Drizzle walnut vinaigrette on top of the trout, garnish with parsley or chives.  Serve the salad on the side.  Prepare for culinary ecstasy!