Garden Greens with an Alberta Vinaigrette – from Food Artisans of Alberta

So often in Canada, we use imported ingredients for our daily cooking. This recipe takes a different approach. It uses a classic, imported French technique for a vinaigrette and and highlights some of Alberta’s signature ingredients to make our local – over global – flavours shine.

Now that the greens are flourishing in the garden, it seemed the perfect time to share and celebrate both this recipe AND the fact that Food Artisans of Alberta: Your Trail Guide to the Best of Our Locally Crafted Fare just turned one year old.

It’s been a great year with the book receiving the World Gourmand Cookbook Award for best Culinary/Food Travel writing (Canada). It was also recently short-listed for a Taste Canada award for Best Culinary Narrative.

I hope you’ll dig in your garden or farmers’ market for ingredients, dig into this dish and then dig into our book for more recipes and inspiration to explore Alberta, one food artisan at a time. The recipe follows.

Garden Greens with an Alberta Vinaigrette

• Time: 5 minutes
• Yield: 2 servings – may be multiplied as needed
  
• Pinch salt
• 1 Tablespoon vinegar (champagne, apple cider, or rice wine)
• 1 teaspoon Alberta honey
• 1 teaspoon Alberta mustard – grainy or paste
• 3 Tablespoons organic Alberta canola oil
• Pepper to taste
• 2 – 3 cups washed and dried mesclun greens, butter lettuce or other greens
• 1 cup chopped cucumbers
• ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 carrot, peeled and ribboned

1. Dissolve the salt in the vinegar in a medium bowl.
2. Add the honey and mustard to the bowl and whisk it to a smooth pate. 
3. Drizzle the canola oil in slowly while still whisking.
4. Taste the dressing and season with pepper. Add more salt if necessary.
5. Pour the dressing onto the mesclun greens or lettuce leaves in another bowl and using your hands gradually toss to coat evenly with the dressing. 
6. Arrange the lettuce on a plate and top with the chopped cucumbers, tomatoes and carrot ribbons. Micro greens, pepitas or crispy bits of roasted root vegetables are other nice toppings.