Knowledge Base > Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, December 03, 2024 at 2:00 pm Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to cou… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

What are the best plant-based sauces to serve on vegetables and salads?

— Leslie Mullen Fields

Answer:

So automatically, I'm going to say, to go to the Rouxbe unit on no oil salad dressings because in my opinion, they are really, really delicious and you can do different things with them. So today I just put together a basic basic salad. It's sort of like a 3, 2, 1 where you have, uh, vinegar, mustard and a, a little sweetener. And what I used for my sweetener today is I was, uh, moistening some fresh, some dried, um, dates, and I saved the liquid and it was the perfect addition for the sweet for this. But what I did is I added chia seeds and flax seeds so that it would get a little bit thicker. The reality is that some of your friends or family might not want to have, uh, flaxseed meal in their salad. So I strained it with a double mesh strainer. Everybody should have a double mesh strainer and have them also in multiple sizes. And then I created this dressing that has a nice texture to it. It's not totally liquidy, but it will adhere. I let it soak for about two or three hours, and this is what the dressing would look like if you were going to serve it as it is. And I'll just pour it out for you and you can kind of see that it's little bit more viscous. And if you like seeing little flex of things in your food, then I think it's absolutely perfect. My own preference is to have it the second way because I enjoy seeing how hard the chia seeds have worked to make a beautifully textured, uh, or a, a salad dressing of an excellent consistency. So for that, find a salad dressing that you like on the Rouxbe pages. If not, if you find a salad dressing that is plant-based and it calls for oil, just leave the oil out and throw in about a tablespoon of flaxseed meal or chia seeds and then let it put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and you'll get a beautiful, beautiful, um, salad dressing that you, like I say, experiment with different spices, with different herbs and other things like that. And I, uh, let's see. I found at the grocery store I we're having trouble with the sun here in Philadelphia. So, uh, pardon any, uh, if it looks like I'm sitting in the middle of a, a lightning storm, I'm not. I reassure you. But, um, Mrs. Dash, everybody loves Mrs. Dash, Mrs. Mrs. Dash is a go-to herb for many people who follow a whole food plant-based diet. Mrs. Dash just came out with marinades and salad dressings all over the label. It says, no high fructose corn syrup. And I'm like, yes, a win, no salt. I'm like, Mrs. Dash, you are the answer to a prayer. And then I noticed that she didn't say no sugar. And when I flipped over the label, the ingredient list was about this long and sugar was the second ingredient. So what I say is, if you enjoy the Mrs dash herbs, they're also very good for adding different kinds of flavor. But do not buy the Mrs dash marinade because it's filled with sugar. It had zero fat and zero salt, but I think there were about two teaspoons of sugar in one serving of the dressing. So, um, she gets one of those red circles with a line through it for me. So keep experimenting, keep having fun. Do not buy the dressings that say oil free, because they're usually loaded with sugar. So you'll save your time from reading every label in the grocery store and make your own. My favorite of our dressings is the, uh, Dijon vinaigrette, which I absolutely love. And I also think that the Avocado ranch dressing is also another delicious dressing to work with. And the nice thing about the avocado ranch is that you can make it into a dressing or add less liquid and make it into a beautiful dip. So what could be better with holidays coming? You might want to be the bell of the ball and take along, um, a beautiful, uh, vegetable platter with that dressing, and everybody will be totally pleased. So, very good question. One of the ones that I always never tire from seeing, because I think that, uh, eating plant-based is easy and you want all of those greens and salads to taste absolutely delicious.
Char Nolan

Char Nolan

Chef Instructor

@char_nolan