Ethereal End-of-Summer Salad with Maple-Caper Vinaigrette

Cripes. Even BreastCancer.org is turning into a food blog.

Here is a recipe from that site by a woman, name of Dynise Balcavage. That’s got to be a pen name. Apparently, she's the author of a cookbook called Celebrate Vegan: 200 Life-Affirming Recipes for Occasions Big and Small. I’m generally not big on life affirming recipes (they’re hard to swallow and give me a pain) but I do love cucumber salads.

Salad:
2 large cucumbers, sliced thinly with a mandoline
1/4 small Vidalia onion, sliced thinly with a mandoline
1/4 small red onion, sliced thinly with a mandoline
4 or 5 large strawberries, thinly sliced [Don't use your mandoline for these; it will destroy them!]
About 1/4 cup Italian parsley leaves, roughly chopped
Sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper, to taste

Dressing:
1 T best-quality balsamic vinegar
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T maple syrup [Agave nectar also works]
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 T capers, rinsed and chopped
About 5 large basil leaves, finely chopped
Sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper, to taste

 Assemble your salad on plates or in a large bowl. To make dressing, whisk first 4 ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth. Stir in the garlic, capers and basil, adjust seasonings. Add to salad, to taste.

Serves 4

Editorial Note: If you don’t have a mandoline, which by the way is not a stringed musical instrument but rather, a French kitchen gadget, then simply use a very sharp knife to cut the vegetables as thinly as possible.

If you have a mandolin, then by all means, strum away. 

Also, I left the garlic out of the dressing since I’m not a fan of raw garlic and frankly don’t like the idea of combining maple syrup, garlic, basil and capers, no matter how life affirming that combo may be.