HERBED HONEY LIME SALAD DRESSING, GRILLED CORN CHOPPED SALAD

This is easily the best salad dressing I have ever made! And I've always made salad dressing myself, I never buy it. This dressing truly dresses up a salad, with clean ingredients and bright flavours! Best of all, it's quite a forgiving recipe so you can vary the quantities of ingredients however you prefer.

Although, I wouldn't do anything insane like adding parsley instead of mint or - heaven forbid - herbs like rosemary, sage, tarragon and all that. That would be nothing short of a travesty of this dressing!

If you're making the salad too: roasted corn is important in the salad. It rounds everything out with its smokiness. In corn season I buy a bunch of corn, roast it on my gas burner stove top, shave off the kernels, and freeze for use later. That is of course better than frozen store-bought roasted corn, but really, Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn is quite up to par. So definitely use that if you want or have to.

Herbed Honey-Lime Salad Dressing

Makes: approximately 12 oz.

- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/8 cup fresh juice from navel, tangerine, or mandarin oranges

- 1/8 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 cup fresh cilantro, roughly torn and including tender stems
- 1 cup fresh mint, roughly torn and including tender stems
- 1/2 jalapeño pepper

- 1 garlic clove, peeled

- 1 tsp good quality salt

- 1/4 cup or more water as needed to blend to a smooth, easily pourable, liquid consistency

1. Put everything in a blender or smoothie mixer and blend to a smooth consistency.

2. While still in the blender, taste the dressing and adjust flavours to your taste. Blend again to make sure it's all smooth.

3. Enjoy over salad leaves, roasted vegetables, raw vegetables, rice and raw vegetable salad, or a mixed chopped salad like below...

Grilled Corn Chopped Salad

Makes: a lot, or approximately 10 cups

1. Mix in a bowl small-medium sized dice of:

- 1 cup yellow or red onion

- 1 cup jicama

- 3 Persian cucumbers

- 1 cup capsicum of any colour

- 1 cup carrots

2. Add

- 1 cup celery, sliced not diced

- 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

- 1 cup kernels from grilled corn (or use Trader Joe's frozen grilled corn)

3. Toss with three quarters of the salad dressing, adding more if required.

4. Enjoy on its own or as a salsa with tortilla chips! Or stuffed in a pita, as a soft taco with corn tortillas, with a bit of rice on the side, or filled in endive spears.

DRY-ROASTED CHIPOTLE LIME CASHEWS

 When I learned you are what you eat, I realised I'm nuts!

Dry-roasted Chipotle Lime Cashews

makes: 2 cups

- 2 cups raw cashews (or almonds or skinless peanuts)

- 3 tsp. salt

- 2 tsp. water

- 1-2 tbsp. chile powder

- juice of 1 lemon

1. Put the cashews in a bowl and add 2 tsp. water and 1-1/2 tsp. salt.

2. Mix well and let the mixture marinate for 30 to 60 minutes, mixing every 15 minutes or so so that water doesn't pool in the bowl.
3. Preheat oven to 285 F/140 C.
4. Add the remaining 1-1/2 tsp. salt, chile powder, and lemon juice to the cashews.
5. Mix well and put into a baking tray large enough to hold the cashews in a single layer.
6. Roast for 15 minutes, stir, then roast for another 7-10 minutes.
7. Let the cashews cool completely before trying. Straight out of the oven they will not be crunchy and will taste moist/steamy. Don't put them back in the oven!
8. Refrigerate if not using right away.

NOTES:
1. Salt to taste. The first time I made these I used 2 tsp. Himalayan pink salt (it's what I normally use for everything) and they were not salted enough. Regular iodized salt is finer and may make the nuts over-salted so start with less salt.
2. Use one or more type of chile powders, adjust quantity to taste. I've use all chipotle, and a mix of chipotle, ancho, and cayenne.
3. Smaller nuts cook faster so keep an eye on them after the initial 15 minutes. They can go from done to overdone in minutes!