Lucia's Dijon-Maple Vinaigrette / Dressing

When I took over as chef of Lucia's in Uptown Minneapolis there were a few house recipes we kept stocked all the time: granola, and the house dijon-maple vinaigrette. As a lot of my friends are making syrup right now I thought It'd be a good time to walk you through it. It's great with a lot more than leafy greens and store-bought dressings just don't compare.

It's easy to make with a few simple ingredients and comes together in about a minute, but there's a few things to keep in mind. First, forget whisking anything in a bowl here.

Whisking dressings by hand can be ok for some things, but it will never be velvety smooth and creamy as when made in a blender. This also means you'll need to make at least 2 cups at a time.

That's a relatively big batch for home use, but it will last for a long time in the fridge and is useful on more than salad greens. You may be able to scale the recipe down using an immersion blender, but I would adapt the recipe to grams for consistency.

Chef's Tips

• You can be creative with the oil you add here. One of my favorites is Smude's, which gives it a great sunflower flavor and a Midwestern touch.
• Extra virgin olive oil can firm up in the fridge so if I use it I typically only use half of the total volume of oil.
• Walnut oil, or a combination of half walnut oil-half flavorless oil is a nice touch.
• You can use dijon, whole grain dijon or just about any nice mustard you want, just not French's.
• Instead of sweet maple syrup you can use birch syrup for a flavor that's more savory.
• Hard core maple makers might use maple sap vinegar.
• White wine vinegar or apple cider are the best here. Rice wine vinegar lacks zip, and red wine vinegar is out of place.

How to Make It

Put the maple syrup, dijon, a small shallot (cut it up if you don't have a highspeed blender) and apple cider vinegar in the bowl of a blender. Note that I have the top removed from my Vitamix blender for educational purposes only-you don't want this on your ceiling. Turn the blender on and drizzle in the oil in a very thin stream.

It's very important to pour slowly as adding the oil too fast can cause the emulsion to break, making the dressing oily. I love watching the vortex in the middle of the blender get tighter as the oil's absorbed.

Once the oil's been added the mixture should be creamy and smooth. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and store it in a mason jar in the fridge.

Uses

Sharing this recipe wouldn't be complete without a walkthrough of the salad it was typically served with at the restaurant. The farmer's salad at Lucia's changed just about every day depending on what was in season or needed to be used. Besides the maple, I also used my aronia berry vinaigrette regularly.

This is a chunky lunch salad you can add leftovers to. Roasted vegetables, fresh herbs, toasted nuts and seeds, fruit, and cheese usually made an appearance. The house-rotisserie chicken was warmed up and nestled on top as an add-on.

I'd change it up all the time, but here's an example of one template I like. Gently toss the greens with a modest amount of dressing, about one tablespoon for 2-3 ounces of greens. It's important to gently mix the greens so they don't bruise.

Depending on what was in the salad that day, we would add some ingredients to the bowl, and other garnishes might be put down on the plate. Thinly sliced citrus or persimmons were a favorite of mine in winter.

I've never made it the same way twice, but I always add fresh herbs, a protein, cheese and roasted vegetables. The version below I made with roast chicken, basil, chives, candied black walnuts, roasted carrots, blood oranges, and a side of nostalgia.

Besides greens I also use it to dress roasted vegetables as a side dish in the summer when the weather's warm. It's good with roasted vegetables, especially beets and carrots. I used the same ingredients for the famers salad above as an example of what I mean below.

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