Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club- Mixed Greens with Blueberry Vinaigrette with homemade Blueberry Vinegar

Jerry picked our theme- 100 Miles of Flavor-for this month's Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club.
We were each to choose a recipe that showcased a local ingredient, something that could be found within 100 miles of where we live.
Here is how the menu turned out- the local ingredients are in parentheses.

Sandi - Peas and Orzo with Pesto - (peas, basil and Southern pecans )

For my local ingredients I decided to use blueberries and honey. I found this great recipe for blueberry vinegar that is used in a fabulous vinaigrette and it was the perfect fit.

I decided to use blueberries that I picked from my husband's grandmother bush last summer, that I had frozen to make the blueberry vinegar. (She lives about 7 minutes from us, so that is pretty local). I read the reviews on the recipe and someone else had mentioned that they used frozen blueberries to make the vinegar and it worked out fine.

Making the blueberry vinegar was really easy. I just combined a couple of ingredients on the stovetop and let the mixture sit, and then strained the vinegar. I let the vinegar sit overnight and then made the salad and vinaigrette the next day.

The salad is very simple. Baby arugula-I also threw in some spinach, red onion, blueberries and then a quick vinaigrette, which contains the blueberry vinegar, a little honey, dijon mustard, and olive oil. So simple and so delicious.
I had leftover blueberry vinegar and we have been drizzling it on all sorts of things. The other night we had salmon, quinoa, broccoli and cauliflower and I thought we could drizzle the vinegar over the salmon. My daughter liked it so much that she drizzled blueberry vinegar over everything on her plate. The rest of the family followed suit.

This was a great salad and it was really fun to learn how easy it is to make flavored vinegar.
Check out the rest of this great local menu above.


Here is the recipe for Blueberry Vinegar

Here is the recipe for Mixed Greens with Blueberry Vinaigrette
* I added baby spinach to the salad
*I omitted the frisee because I couldn't find it anywhere


6 comments:

  1. It really does sound delicious Mary Ann and kudos for making your own bluberry vinegar. You have taken the 100 mile theme to a new level! Thanks for sharing this great dish with the Virtual Supper Club!

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  2. What a delicious salad with a homemade vinegar.

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  3. Making your own vinegar was perfect. This salad looks so fresh~ I could use a bite right now.
    My blogger is all messed up. I couldn't fix the spacing to save my life... so I gave up :-)
    After this busy week I'm just glad to be at our virtual supper!

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  4. This looks wonderful. I also freeze blueberries (although the wild variety from Northern Ontario) so I could whip some of this up this weekend if I get organized. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. What a beautifully delicious salad MA!!

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  6. I love how you made your own vinegar. The salad looks like something I would love.

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Thank you for taking the time to make a comment on my blog! I appreciate you checking out my creations and leaving your thoughts. I will try to get back to you, through comments here or by visiting your blog. Thanks again!
Mary Ann