As a kid, I treated salad as a vehicle for dressing.
Many times my mom prepared huge chef salads for our dinner. To cope with the assault of green healthy stuff, I compensated with gobs of gooey dressing. With enough thick and creamy blue cheese dressing holding things together, I was able to still enjoy the tactile crunch of the sliced carrots and radishes without fear of ever really tasting them. When I learned that Russian dressing was really just mayonnaise and ketchup mixed together, my admiration for the product soared and it became a new favorite.
Sometime during college I had my eyes opened to the wonders of a light vinaigrette. After developing a serious taste for fresh tomatoes, I began to ease up on the dressing some, learning to enjoy the way a light basting of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper could bring out the savory juiciness of the alluring nightshades.
Increasingly, the vegetables became more important than the condiments, and I got to the point that a splash of this and that was all I put on my salads. This was until a friend returned from a weekend retreat at the Omega Institute with a recipe for the Elixir.
Its proper name is Hollyhock Dressing, but my wife and I have come to revere the concoction and feel the more elevated name is a better fit. While it may not cure every ill or restore one’s youth, this salad Elixir actually does what all the store brand dressings promise. Like the effect of a pinch of salt on a fried egg or a naked stalk of celery, the Elixir enhances the flavor of a salad’s ingredients without masking them.
Neither too sweet nor too salty, the mixture seems to work well with the moisture in the vegetables, and it also works its magic on meats, adding a certain succulence to the juices of grilled steak and chicken.
Nutritional yeast flakes appear to be the key to the sauce’s success. The powdery substance is popular amongst vegans for the slightly cheesy taste it adds to dishes, and consequently, your best bet in finding the stuff is at a grocer who specializes in health foods.
Though it has a light, oily consistency like a vinaigrette, the light brown liquid appears thick in the bottle, like a creamier sauce. But unlike with other dressings, it seems nearly impossible to use too much of the stuff—even if there’s a puddle left on your plate after all the olives and cheese chunks have been plucked up, it’s delightful to sop up the pool with a hunk of crusty bread. On more than one occasion, I’ve caught guests—when they thought no one was looking—with their tongues pressed to their plates as the table was being cleared.
Like all the best elixirs, this one has a deceptively simple recipe, which my wife could produce from memory:
Hollyhock Dressing
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup water
1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 cup olive oil
Emulsify in food processor for approximately 30 seconds.