By Erin Walgamuth

My family and I went to my sister’s house for Mother’s Day as has been our tradition for many years. She asked me to bring a salad and dressing. I purchased mixed greens, red onion, tomato, cucumber, a nicely ripened avocado and raw sliced almonds on Saturday.

That evening as I watched Avatar with my daughter I realized that I had forgotten to buy salad dressing. I had the ingredients for balsamic vinaigrette, but that didn’t sound good.  I had a bowl full of oranges…citrus vinaigrette? That definitely sounded good!

Here is the recipe I came up with.

Makes 1 cup of vinaigrette

Orange Cilantro Vinaigrette

½ cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, about 1 large orange
¼ cup of Canola Oil or Olive Oil
¼ cup of Rice Vinegar
1 teaspoon of Toasted Sesame Oil
Small pinch of salt or to taste
½ teaspoon of honey
1 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh cilantro

Whisk all ingredients in a glass measuring cup or place in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and shake well to blend

This recipe will generously cover 8 cups of greens. You can make it the day before you wish to use it and keep in the refrigerator until ready to dress the salad.

Add-in suggestions for the salad:

Fresh orange sections
Mandarin oranges
Toasted sesame seeds
Grilled chicken strips
Shrimp

[view:node_ad=5]Feel free to add more or less of the dressing ingredients to customize your salad. Have fun and enjoy!

Erin Walgamuth has been an assistant Food Stylist for television and print for the past 26 years and writes this column using her own recipes. Check out her other creations in our Hometown Recipe section.