All-Purpose Salad-ish Dressing

In my efforts to veganize my friends and family, I've found several things almost everyone wants and that kick start their process. One is vegan dessert. But when I look at my Facebook "Scrumptious Vegan Fare" album, it looks like all I eat is dessert.

And pizza with Daiya vegan cheese.

In fact, an old friend asked for recipes with veggies and I realized I didn't have any photos of veggies! So here's a recipe with veggies that also includes something many omnis enjoy: Vegenaise.

I never liked animal-based mayonnaise or Miracle Whip. But I do enjoy vegenaise. Meanwhile, my omnivorous friends and family tell me it tastes just like mayonnaise and that's why they like it. Go figure.

I mix Vegenaise with:

• Whatever mustard I have lying around
• Sweet relish
• Dill, or not
• Pepper, or not
• Red Star nutritional yeast

I use equal parts of vegenaise, mustard and relish, but I've seen
several recipes where vegenaise is the main ingredient. It all depends
on what you like, and I've made this dressing a dozen times, never the
same way, and it's great every time.

The salad part is usually:

• Carrots
• Celery
• Zucchini
• Yellow Squash
• Cucumber
• Red onion
• Green leaf or romaine lettuce
• Black olives
• Whatever else is lying around that's good in a salad.

If I want to give the salad chunks of something other than veggies, and add more protein, I toss in mashed garbanzo beans, chopped Gardein, tofu, seitan or tempeh. Not necessary, but fun.

Whether over a bed of lettuce or in a pita or a sprouted grain wrap, it's perfect for lunch or dinner, low fat (as long as you don't heap in the vegenaise, and they do have a low-fat version), high fiber, great protein and very filling.

Here's lunch from today. The orange tinge is due to my love of nutritional yeast. I used one can of garbanzos and one tablespoon each of vegenaise, mustard and relish, and probably 4 tablespoons of nutritional yeast. This is one quarter of the total bowl of vegan goodness.

Delectable!