#97: SNACKABLES with Rip and Jess - Dressing Up Those Summer Salads
Welcome to Episode Three of our new PLANTSTRONG Snackables podcast series, a bite-sized podcast where host, Rip Esselstyn, and co-host, Jess Hegarty, dish on all things plants!
Jessica leads product innovation for the PlantStrong food line and, together with Rip, will provide a peek behind the curtain on plant-based food headlines, market research, ingredients, and cooking inspiration. Plus, you'll always walk away with a recipe or two to share with your friends and family.
In Episode 3, Rip and Jess challenge you to “think outside the dressing bottle” and offer multiple ways to liven up your summer salads.
They break down the anatomy of the perfect salad dressing - fat, salt, sour and sweet - and provide a list of ingredients you can use to craft your own favorite salad topper. Want that free list to add to your choices and ignite your creativity? Download it HERE!
More Tasty Bites from Today's Episode:
00:00-02:25 Welcome from Rip and Jess
02:-25-04:35 Plant-Based Seafood Company, Good Catch, is making a splash in front of Subway locations
09:50-38:00 Think Outside the Dressing Bottle
Jess and Rip’s Favorite Things: Balsalmic Vinegars
PLANTSTRONG Podcast Interview with Dr. Nathan Bryan
Rip’s Favorite Salad Dressing Combination
1/3 Balsalmic Vinegar, 1/3 Maple Syrup, 1/3 Spicy Brown Mustard
Additional Episode Resources
For all PLANTSTRONG Resources, visit plantstrong.com
Full Transcript
Rip:
Welcome to our spinoff of the PlantStrong podcast that we are affectionately calling Snackables, with me, Rip Esselstyn and my co-host Jessica Pastore, where we dish and literally chew on all things related to food. On today's episode, we talk about how our friends, the Sarno brothers, Chad and Derek, are shaking things up outside of Subway sandwich shops, offering free foot-long alternative tuna subs to promote their new line of plant-based alternative seafood products. Be on the lookout for Good Catch products at grocery retailers near you. We talk about a few of our favorite things with a PlantStrong team member product recommendation that will dress up anything green, leafy, in addition to dressing up your production of nitric oxide. We want those endothelial cells to sing. We provide a tip for a morning energy boost that works better than coffee, and we give you a formula for how to make foolproof oil-free salad dressing at home, and guess what? No measuring required. Now, it's time to dig into this bite -sized episode.
Rip:
Hello everyone. I want to welcome you back to another episode of the Snackables podcast. This is the bite-size podcast where we, Jessica and I, we basically chew and dish on all things related to food. Thank you for being here. Jessica, since our last podcast, you got married.
Jess:
Yep, that was the first episode.
Rip:
Yeah.
Jess:
Yeah.
Rip:
Your last name is now Hegarty.
Jess:
Yeah.
Rip:
Jessica Hegarty.
Jess:
Correct.
Rip:
You have a bun in the oven that actually is coming along very nicely.
Jess:
I'm starting to pop. I'm starting to feel the stretch for sure. But yes, we refer to her as our oil-free, whole food, plant-based, date sweetened, bun in the oven. Yeah.
Rip:
Beautiful.
Jess:
Thanks.
Rip:
Some news before we dive into some food. Recently, Good Catch has just decided to be a major disruptor and as we just talked about, they're trolling-
Jess:
Trolling.
Rip:
Subway.
Jess:
Yes.
Rip:
They have trucks in New York City, London and Austin, Texas of all places. They're parking right outside Subways with a van that says, "Our way."
Jess:
In a very similar font to Subway's logo. There's definitely some similarities.
Rip:
Very intentional.
Jess:
Very intentional.
Rip:
Yeah. The reason is, it came to people's attention that Subway was supposedly using bycatch for their tuna, which contains supposedly no tuna whatsoever. You actually did some digging and you found out what exactly?
Jess:
The results were inconclusive. There were two customers who alleged that there was not tuna in their tuna recipe. There was DNA research done and the results were inconclusive.
Rip:
Right.
Jess:
Still to be determined.
Rip:
Subway said that something about the cooking process-
Jess:
May have affected results.
Rip:
Yeah. We'll see, but whatever, I want to applaud Good Catch, Derek and Chad Sarno and the whole Good Catch team for really getting out there and being a disruptive force. I actually was just texting with Chad, who said that just this morning, they got a cease and desist letter from Subway.
Jess:
Yeah, it sounds like this was a one day thing. They're not continuing through the rest of the week. I was a little bit disappointed. I feel like we should've chased them down if we had known about this a little sooner.
Rip:
I want to chase them down. I want to get a free foot-long Good Catch tuna sandwich.
Jess:
Free foot-long sandwich. That's great deal. It's a great deal. And they were in Austin. Oh, we missed it.
Rip:
Yeah.
Jess:
Oh, well.
Rip:
The ultimate in marketing and publicity.
Jess:
Totally.
Rip:
Today, I think what we should do is, let's think outside the salad dressing bottle and talk about salads and things of that nature.
Jess:
Yeah. I don't know if you notice, I wore my shirt to celebrate the occasion with lots of greens, kale and collard greens, and spinach, turnips, broccoli, cabbage. One of these things is not like the other, and I know you probably know which one of these things stands out as inconsistent from the rest of the bunch.
Rip:
I would say spinach because spinach is not a cruciferous green vegetable.
Jess:
That's right. They're all leafy greens, but spinach is the one that's not. They're all greens, I guess, but spinach is the one that's not cruciferous. Still good for you though.
Rip:
Yeah. Speaking of which, when was the last time you had a salad?
Jess:
Oh my gosh. I had one yesterday and I'll probably have one as soon as we wrap this up, it'll be my lunch.
Rip:
I made, off the post this in the show notes, but I made a salad last night. My youngest daughter Hope and I, we both made our salads. I used a whole bunch of kale that was finely chopped up, two huge handfuls of arugula, and then a mammoth-size handful of spinach. And then with that, I had mango, I had black beans. I had bell pepper, broccoli, grilled tofu, grilled corn off the cob. It was outstanding.
Jess:
That sounds truly gourmet. That sounds wonderful. I was going to ask you, actually, I feel like there are two types of people in the world, those that do fruit with their salads and those who don't. It sounds like you're in the fruit camp.
Rip:
I have a sweet tooth, I always have. I love adding mango or blueberries or strawberries, even grapefruit to my salads. Yeah. What about you?
Jess:
Sounds a little strange with the grapefruit. I love grapefruit. I've been doing a grapefruit today recently, but that sounds a little strange to me. For me my most consistent one is apples. I always put apples in a salad standard, basic. If I'm doing something with kale, like you were talking about with the salad, with the chopped kale, I'll use diced date pieces to really give some sweetness to counteract that bitterness. But with the recent weather, and since it's been so blisteringly hot across the nation, really, I've been doing these fabulous summer salads that have fresh corn and fresh cucumbers and absolutely fresh peaches. That's what I want on my salad these days.
Rip:
Yeah. We just, we just got a ton of nectarines.
Jess:
Oh, thanks.
Rip:
Nectarines are perfect right now.
Jess:
Yes.
Rip:
Absolutely perfect. I go through at least three a day. Date, I never put a date in my salad.
Jess:
I'm telling you.
Rip:
Now I will, especially once went to the [Tiesta 00:07:43]?
Jess:
The Tiesta farm.
Rip:
The Tiesta Farm come back.
Jess:
Once they're back in stock in September, I would definitely recommend putting those in your salad, especially anything with kale, really makes a lot of sense. One of the things that I wanted to share with our listeners today is this incredible balsamic dressing that I've been using on all of my summer salads. AI love Oprah, definitely follow her favorite things list, and I feel like we need to do a PlantStrong team favorites list. This would definitely be on there. Can I talk about this product without judgment? Because you're going to think I'm out of my mind for the money that I spend on a balsamic vinegar.
Rip:
I won't, but I do want to know how much you spent it.
Jess:
Nobody would bat an eye for a $40 bottle of wine. In our household we don't drink, we're not buying the filet mignon or the lobster tails or the fancy specialty cheeses rate. So when we do splurge, it's on things like vinegar, and this is one of my favorite products. So it's the Cucina & Amore balsamic vinegar of Modena. It's 35 to $40 a bottle at Whole Foods, which it's expensive, yes. But a little goes a long way. All you need is the finest little drizzle. The reason it's so expensive is because it's really reduced. There are more grapes in this than there is in the average balsamic vinegar. As you can see, when I'm kind of slipping it around.
Rip:
It's like a maple syrup.
Jess:
It's super syrupy. I mean, it's sticking to the side of the bottle and it's absolutely delicious. This is also one of my favorite gift ideas if there's somebody living a PlantStrong diet, living the PlantStrong lifestyle, eating whole food, plant-based. Maybe I don't want to bring them some chocolates. Maybe I don't want to bring them some wine. I'll bring them a really nice bottle of vinegar.
Rip:
Yeah. In our family, we have some different varieties. There's a company called Bema and Pa's, and they've got an assortment of varieties, from fake chocolate, cherry, every flavor you can imagine under the sun.
Jess:
Of balsamic vinegar?
Rip:
Of balsamic vinegar.
Jess:
Interesting.
Rip:
Yeah. It's wild. And then there's Olive Pap as well that my mom is a huge fan of.
Jess:
Yeah. I've heard Jane and Anne talk about the Olive Tap. It's like a specialty store.
Rip:
Yeah.
Jess:
Okay.
Rip:
I believe it's in Cleveland and even though it's called the Olive Tap, these don't have olive oil in them.
Jess:
Oh yeah, good. Yeah. I would say for anybody who's trying to find a balsamic vinegar, I would check for oil, it's not common that it's in there. But sometimes if you're finding glazes or those thicker options, they can have added sugar, so I would be on the lookout for that. But yeah, there's a ton of great options. What's great about using a high quality, super dense balsamic vinegar is you really just need this and a little bit of salt and pepper. You don't need to add anything else to it. So it's great as a standalone.
Rip:
Yeah. And on salads, and I hope we'll get into some salad dressings today.as well. But it is nice that if you're in a hurry and you don't feel like doing a darn thing, you can just whip out that balsamic vinegar, whatever flavor you like and just put it on top of your salad lickety-split.
Jess:
Absolutely. We actually use it on open-face sandwiches as well. It's great on sandwiches. Sometimes I actually have it with breakfast. Can you guess what I might put it on for breakfast?
Rip:
Let me think, breakfast. Do you put it on top of your oatmeal?
Jess:
No. I think Greger has a balsamic cherry BROL Bowl recipe.
Rip:
Brol?
Jess:
BROL bowl. It's like beans, rice. It's got oats. No, it's barley, rice, oats.
Rip:
I can see Dr. Greger, "The BROL bowl."
Jess:
The BROL bowl.
Rip:
Not.
Jess:
Yeah. No, there's an L in that BROL bowl, but yeah, he does a savory or maybe it's sweet, it's got cherries in it too. That's a little too out there for me, I think. But Rip, I actually do it sometimes, again with steamed greens for breakfast. It doesn't matter whatever occasion you're eating your steamed greens, but again, a little bit of this balsamic vinegar on top would be delicious.
Rip:
Well, I'm glad to hear you're doing that. Where did you learn to do that?
Jess:
Yes. I was going to say, this is a habit that I really developed when I attended your immersion in Asheville. I remember for breakfast, you would have this elaborate oatmeal bar, with oatmeal, berries, bananas, all of these toppings, and then a huge area of fresh steamed greens. And so that combination of oatmeal and greens was really something I took from your immersions. When I came home, I continued for a month, very deliberately, greens with breakfast every single morning. I noticed I got such an energy boost. It was better than a cup of coffee. So just having my oatmeal with the greens, with balsamic vinegar, gave me so much energy, it was incredible. I need to bring this back into my daily routine now.
Rip:
You also probably didn't have the option of getting coffee at the immersion or maybe it was-
Jess:
It was half caff.
Rip:
Hal caff.
Jess:
Yes, half-caff. Yes. It's a good coffee substitute for sure. It's surprisingly good. And the other thing I noticed when I was eating greens for breakfast, it felt like my complexion changed for the better. My cheeks were a little bit rosier. So there was something about that greens and vinegar combination that was just really working for my body.
Rip:
Yeah, well, that makes sense on a lot of levels. One of the reasons... Let me just get into this from a physiologic point of view. And so in rice vinegar and balsamic vinegar, you have something called acetic acid. Acetic acid is a substance that actually enhances the production of something called nitric oxide synthase enzyme, that's within all of our endothelial cells. If you'll remember, our 65,000 miles of vessels are lined, the innermost lining is with these endothelial cells. As my father likes to say, the life jacket of our vessels. What happens is, as we age these nitric oxide synthase enzyme, actually, it decreases by about 10% every decade. So by the time you're 50 you're nitric oxide synthase enzyme is 50%. It's working at 50% of what it was when you were younger. When you're 75, it's working at 25%. There's also a lot of things that also disrupt this from happening. It's smoking cigarettes, it's an inflammatory heavy meat and dairy based diet. It's a lot of processed foods. All these things disrupt your ability for your endothelial cells to pump out nitric oxide.
Rip:
So that being the case, and especially with my father's patients that have severe heart disease, his protocol and ours in the seven-day rescue program is, we want you to eat four to six servings of green leafy vegetables a day. We want to you to drizzle, or as my father likes to say, anoint, them with balsamic vinegar to help enhance the production of the nitric oxide. Now, the reason why we want to eat it. There's two pathways that produce nitric oxide. The first is what I talked about, where your body just naturally is pumping out nitric oxide because of the nitric oxide synthase enzyme that's within ourselves. But as we age that decreases.
Rip:
There's another backup redundant source, and that is through the foods we eat. And that's why we like to do the green leafys four to six times a day. Anoint them with the balsamic vinegar. One of the things that I discovered when I had a gentleman named Nathan Bryan on the podcast in season two, is that it is so crucial that we chew our green leafys because of the oral bacteria that are in our mouths, they're responsible for basically breaking down the nitrates that are in those green leafys, turning them into nitrites, and then those nitrites downstream get turned into nitric oxide.
Rip:
Now here's a little something that's very, very important. Almost 200 million Americans are doing one of three or four things daily that is acting as a nitric oxide disruptor. If you're using anti acids that affects the oral bacteria in your mouth, and also in your gastrointestinal track. If you're using toothpaste with fluoride, that also will disrupt it. If you are taking antibiotics, that also disrupts it. And then lastly is, an antiseptic mouthwash. So any one of those four things, and close to 200 million Americans are doing any one of these every single day. Anyway, I got off there, but-
Jess:
No, Rip, that was such helpful information. And so one of the things that I'm thinking about is increasing my blood flow. I want to make sure that I have good blood flow. If you're somebody who's struggling with high blood pressure, you're an athlete preparing for an event, these are all things to take into consideration. So no anti acids.
Rip:
Right.
Jess:
No mouthwash.
Rip:
Antiseptic mouthwash.
Jess:
No antiseptic mouthwash. Okay. And then -
Rip:
Fluoride toothpaste, use a fluoride-free toothpaste.
Jess:
Yes.
Rip:
And then let's be really judicious about the antibiotics that systemically basically kill off the good, healthy bacteria that are in your mouth and your gastrointestinal tract.
Jess:
That's great. Okay. Well, I'll remember to chew my greens a little bit better.
Rip:
Yeah.
Jess:
Anoint them with some sort of vinegar. Again, what's happening there, the acetic acid unlocks or contributes-
Rip:
I would say it enhances.
Jess:
Enhances. Okay.
Rip:
It enhances the... Again, you can't hear this enough. It enhances the nitric oxide synthase enzyme that is within, that is located within the endothelial cells and then allows the endothelial cells to produce that much more nitric oxide. Now, another thing that I learned that was very interesting in my conversation with Dr. Nathan Bryan, was that the shelf life of nitric oxide is basically one second. So it's this magic molecule and it's alive for one second. So, I mean, it's constantly being died and reborn, died and reborn. That's one of the reasons why we want to do four to six servings a day, so that we're constantly just having a supply of nitric oxide flowing through our system.
Jess:
That makes total sense. Even if you're a college student who's preparing for an exam and wants to increase their mental agility or whatever you're preparing for something, I would probably recommend the same thing for them, right?
Rip:
Yeah, absolutely. An interesting point that I also learned when I was interviewing Nathan Bryan, who was one of the foremost authorities on the planet on nitric oxide, was that he has encountered twelve-year-olds that because of the diet that they have, the lifestyle they have, have the vascular system of a 60 or 70-year-old. And then here's the good news. Conversely, he's found 75, 80, 85-year-olds that have the vascular system of a 20, 30-year-old.
Jess:
Amazing.
Rip:
Right? So this really does work.
Jess:
Well, that's something I'll definitely take into consideration as the weeks tick on and as I get into the late part of my third trimester. I'm going to do this. Four to six times a week, handful of steamed leafy greens covered in vinegar. I'm going to do it for the blood flow. I'm going to do it.
Rip:
Absolutely.
Jess:
Wonderful. Thinking about vinegars, of course, that's a great thing to put on any salad and we want to incorporate that as we can. But the last thing I want to talk about today since we're talking about salads and greens, is how ridiculously easy it is to make an incredible salad dressing at home. It's so hard or darn near impossible to find oil-free, sugar-free dressings in grocery stores. You really have to create them.
Rip:
And fat-free.
Jess:
And fat-free yeah. It's a huge challenge. There are some out there, but I promise they're not going to be as good as what you can whip up in your house. So what I've got for our listeners today, we're calling it the anatomy of a salad dressing. It's a foolproof structure for making homemade PlantStrong salad dressings. Before we get into it, I just want to say, listeners, I want to give you a pep-talk. I feel like I should have dressed like Rosie the Riveter today. Dressings and sauces are so easy. I want you to have the confidence in the kitchen. I want you to feel empowered to create these dressings and sauces at home. You can do it. It's easier than you think I promise.
Rip:
Well, and the thing here, and I'm so glad that you gave that little pep talk, because sauces and dressings are really what dress up and make this lifestyle so dynamic. We already have an embarrassment of riches with this lifestyle, and this just takes it over the top. So, anyway what do you have for us?
Jess:
It's a strangely overwhelming world of recipes for people. Homemade dressings don't have to feel like this big hurdle. It's one of the fastest things you can whip up at home. Again, I want people to have confidence. You do not need to measure. I'm going to repeat that. With homemade salad dressings, you do not need to measure, you can do everything to taste so you don't have to worry or obsess about remembering ratios. You don't have to look things up, you don't have to dirty a bunch of measuring spoons. I'm going to talk you through the structure of a good dressing and from there I want to challenge our listeners to try to come up with something customized to their taste buds.
Jess:
What any chef or food scientist or product developer will tell you about a good dressing or sauce, is that it has four key elements, fat, salt, sour, and sweet. And so all you're trying to do is really light up all of those different taste receptors on your tongue. And so we've put together a little inspiration document that has four quadrants with suggestions for specific ingredients for each of these four elements. Rip, I'm going to show you my screen here.
Jess:
Under the fat quadrant, we're suggesting blended nuts of any kind or nut butters, of course, walnuts, pecans, almonds. You can use a peanut butter. Blended seeds, a tahini or a sunflower nut dressing. You could use pumpkin seeds, get that extra zinc in there. If you're looking for a nut-free option, but still provide that fatty mouth feel, that creaminess, avocado. And if you're somebody who's actively fighting against heart disease, who's really trying to monitor their fat, really trying to keep that low, of course, you could use beans of any kind. You could use a hummus with just a little bit of tahini or no tahini. You could use silken tofu. Any of those would make a great base for a salad dressing,
Rip:
Let me chime in here and say that, as you said, for those that have had, or have heart disease, for those that are pre-diabetic, have insulin resistance, for those that had a shot across the bow with cancer, highly recommend that you're very judicious with the amount of fat that you use here. But if not, if you're young, if you're athletic, if you don't have any of these, then a little bit of fat in the form of nuts or seeds or avocado, it absolutely should be okay.
Jess:
Yeah. I'm envisioning like a huge salad bowl full of all these fresh vegetables, and then the 25% of calories that come from fat could come from these nuts and seeds.
Rip:
Yep.
Jess:
That was our fat quadrant. In the salt quadrant, we have miso, which is a great option. It's a bean and a sodium. Really, the beans almost offset the nutritional hindrances of the sodium. Ume vinegar, we talked about this on the last episode. Our friend, Brenda, who was just here, our chef for the immersions, was talking about how it's her secret weapon in everything. I was like, "That's what I said, it's my secret weapon and everything." So ume vinegar. You could also use-
Rip:
Give me an example how you use an ume vinegar, like with what?
Jess:
I would use it in place of any salt. Anytime I want to salt my dishes, I would just use ume vinegar instead. In soups, in casseroles, in dressings. Brenda was talking about how she just uses ume vinegar as salad dressing and nothing else or greens. It's just got such a great rich flavor.
Rip:
Do you have it right here?
Jess:
I do. I have it over there on that side. Again, it's this beautiful pink color. Let's add this to our favorite list of products.
Rip:
I just want to take a quick little.
Jess:
It's very salty, oh.
Rip:
No. That's okay.
Jess:
It's okay?
Rip:
No, it is salty, but yeah.
Jess:
It's rich. It's got that umami taste, almost like a mushroom. Really, really good. One of my favorite products. And then of course we could use a low sodium soy sauce. And then for the sour category, of course, lemons or limes, and then any type of vinegar, like we've just been talking about. And then if you want to, you can add some sweetness, light up those receptors, dates or blended dates or date syrup. You talked about fresh fruits. I've heard lots of good dressing recipes with a blended mango or a blended blackberry. That's a way to add sweetness. And then of course-
Rip:
I want to say with those blended up fruits, it doesn't have to be fresh, it can be frozen. Frozen works absolutely well.
Jess:
Absolutely. Maple syrup would be another great option. Or if you've just got an orange hanging around, cut it open, squeeze a little fresh orange juice in there. It's a great option. So you pull one or two more things from each of those four quadrants, mix it together, thin to a desired consistency with water, or if you want a little bit more creaminess, you can use an unsweetened almond milk or a soy milk. And then if you want to, you can enhance with some additional flavors. You could throw in some fresh dill or some parsley or chives or black pepper. You could add your favorite hot sauce, but again, it's not necessary. You just need one thing from each of those four quadrants. So Rip, if I asked you to build a salad dressing, what item from each category would you pick to build one? Let's just play a game.
Rip:
Well, Okay. For this first one-
Jess:
For the fat?
Rip:
For the fat I'm actually going to go with a bean.
Jess:
Yeah, okay, bean.
Rip:
I'm going to go with a white bean.
Jess:
Oh, that's great. Like a creamy cannellini or something?
Rip:
Yeah.
Jess:
That would be delicious. Okay. And then for the salt?
Rip:
For the salt I'm going to go with the ume vinegar.
Jess:
Absolutely. Always a good choice. And then for the sour, what do you think would go there?
Rip:
Yep. Sour, well, I really want to pump up my nitric oxide synthase enzyme, so I'm going to go with a balsamic vinegar.
Jess:
The balsamic vinegar there. Excellent. And then for a sweetness?
Rip:
Sweet, I'm going to go with a squeeze of an orange.
Jess:
That sounds great. An orange, a creamy orange balsamic vinegar dressing, that absolutely amazing. I think I would do-
Rip:
Yeah, what about you?
Jess:
I think I would do... The ones that popped out to me. I know walnuts, I love them for their omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. Of course, I'm going to go with the ume vinegar for my salt. So walnut, salt, lemon, because everybody has lemon or lemon juice in their kitchen, and then something sweet, you know I'm going to go with that date syrup. All day, every day, that's my favorite.
Rip:
It's so empowering when you can actually look at just the four quadrants and then you're given different choices and then you can put it together. It's almost like an infinite number of possibilities.
Jess:
Infinite number of possibilities. What I like about this, is it's a great way to bring kids into the kitchen as well. So you're letting them select, you're giving them some autonomy. You really can't go wrong. And then they helped make the dressing that they're going to eat over salads and greens. That's wonderful.
Rip:
There's a dressing that I made actually just last night for the salad that I talked about at the top of the show. It's a variation on the 3-2-1 salad dressing that I got. Can we just say something?
Jess:
Oh, we can say, we'll post it in the show notes.
Rip:
Yeah.
Jess:
Yeah.
Rip:
That is really an invention of my sister Jane. Instead of doing 3-2-1, I just do a third, a third, a third. So it's a third maple syrup, a third balsamic vinegar and a third... Oh wait.
Jess:
Mustard?
Rip:
[laughter] Totally. But because it wasn't on the quadrant, I was like, wait, what? Yeah, it's a spicy brown mustard. So spicy brown mustard, maple syrup and balsamic vinegar. Those are the three. This way, dressing, it doesn't have to be a chore. It doesn't have to be a pain. And then I just, like you said, I'll whip it up. I'll make more than I want. I'll shake it up actually like it a little bit thinner and then I can keep it in the fridge for three, four or five days.
Jess:
Absolutely. It's wildly easy, wildly easy. You can walk into any kitchen if you're visiting your family, if you're visiting friends and you want to help out with dinner? Just go see what they have in the fridge.
Rip:
And when you say, "Oh, let me just whip up a dressing, a salad dressing for this. A dressing for the greens." Their jaws are going to hit the ground, and you're just going to go through their fridge and say, "Oh, perfect. Here's the sweet, here's the sour, here's the fat, and here's the..." What am I missing?
Jess:
Sour.
Rip:
The sour
Jess:
Salty.
Rip:
Salty.
Jess:
Salty, sour, fat and sweet. You don't even need the sweet really. I don't know that you need it. But yes, it's very empowering. You're going to feel like a total gourmet in their kitchen for sure, and really impress folks. So again, please feel confident, do everything to taste. And like my art teacher used to you, you haven't ruined it yet. So if you sample it and it's a little too salty, add a little more sour, thin it out a little bit.
Rip:
Yeah. Those are good words of advice. I look at my daughters and my son, and they're just, get reckless, get a little reckless in the kitchen and it's okay. It's okay to make mistakes. That's what life is about. If you're not making mistakes, you're not living large.
Jess:
Totally. You're going to develop a really good intuition. When I'm making these dressings, I don't even have to sample it before I serve. I know it's going to be great. You very quickly get a mental understanding.
Rip:
Well, if I remember correctly, during snow getting here in Austin, Texas, when you and Evan came and lived with us for, I think it was two nights and three days, you made some of the most outstanding dressings.
Jess:
Thanks.
Rip:
You put together the slugs on the boat and you guys treated us to dinner, but it was fun. If you're visiting somebody, if you can contribute a little bit just with like making a dressing or some sort of a dish, it goes a long way.
Jess:
Good point. And you're encouraging more vegetable eating, or you can do it over a grain ball. I actually brought some stuff today. I know the Academy House doesn't have a full pantry, it doesn't have a whole lot going on. So I brought over some ingredients to just do a quick demo. Do you want to get started?
Rip:
Do you want to hand it over? What do you want to do?
Jess:
Sure. Yeah. If we can do it now, that sounds great.
Rip:
Let's do it.
Jess:
All right?
Rip:
All right. And we're back.
Jess:
It was that fast. I'm going to pretend like I just rummage through your pantry and kitchen and I found some almond butter.
Rip:
Okay.
Jess:
Standard. I found that lemon juice that everyone's got in their kitchen. I always pack the ume plum vinegar with me. So I just happened to have this in my car, wink. And then I found some blended dates, which is just again, dates and water, always a staple in our fridge.
Rip:
So you actually just make that yourself, you don't buy a date syrup?
Jess:
No, but you could absolutely use a date syrup.
Rip:
That sounds really nice.
Jess:
So easy. Just dates and water. No measuring.
Rip:
Show this to folks.
Jess:
Just do it to consistency. Yep.
Rip:
Just dates and water.
Jess:
Just dates and water. Just blend it up. And again, you're getting that whole fiber.
Rip:
Let me get you a bowl to make this.
Jess:
No, because you can see, I've just got a little bit of almond butter left here in the bottom. It's like-
Rip:
Maybe-
Jess:
Quarter of the way full.
Rip:
Maybe three tablespoons.
Jess:
Yeah. There's like maybe half a cup, I would say. I would say half a cup left here in the bottom of this almond butter jar. So I'm going to start with my ume. And I'm not measuring here. I'm going to say it's about one and a half tablespoons maybe, maybe two. And then I'm going to add a slightly smaller splash of lemon. Beep.
Rip:
Beep.
Jess:
And then you don't have to do it, but if you want to just put in a little bit of date syrup, just to really hit that sweet note. And then-
Rip:
Put the lid on shake.
Jess:
Put the lid on and shake. And it's going to need some water. It's going to be too thick with just the almond butter here, but we'll shake it up a little bit.
Rip:
Hold on. You're spraying me a little bit.
Jess:
Oh.
Rip:
I don't think it's...
Jess:
Sorry. We really get that on there. There we go. It's not raining inside you're good. Okay. All right. This is really thick we're definitely going to want to thin that out.
Rip:
Let me go thin it out.
Jess:
Yeah, thin it out to whatever consistency you prefer your dressings to be. Splash of water. Again, there's no measuring here.
Rip:
Let me shake this time.
Jess:
I want to reiterate. All right, go ahead. Put that lid on tight.
Rip:
Let me shake and go in your general direction.
Jess:
Thanks you. It's okay. You're going to smell like ume and lemon juice. It's going to be great.
Rip:
That is fun.
Jess:
This is fun.
Rip:
Oh, my gosh.
Jess:
Doesn't that look great? It does not look great. Okay. I'm going to give you some to put on the back of your hand. That's a good way to sample.
Rip:
Okay. I think we need some steamed [Luciana 00:37:00] kale right here.
Jess:
Totally. There you go. Give that a shot.
Rip:
Oh yeah. That's outstanding.
Jess:
Great. Yeah. It's got the saltiness, it's got the sour, it's got that fatty mouth feel. And then again, over broccoli, over greens, it's going to taste great.
Rip:
I just can't emphasize enough how empowering it can be. Utilize this quadrant that we're going to share in the show notes. And then experiment with your sweet, your sour, your salty, and your fat. Man, this has been... is there anything else?
Jess:
I think that's it. Yeah. So fun, I'm going to go make a huge salad for lunch.
Rip:
Yeah, me too. But thanks for joining us today on this episode of Snackables, where we really thought outside the salad dressing bottle. Jess.
Jess:
Always a pleasure Rip. Thank you.
Rip:
PlantStrong.
Jess:
Keep it PlantStrong.
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