This salad was inspired from Top Chef. I believe Chef Melissa King said that it was a sad salad. It might have been in a competition setting like that but if you are feeding people and trying to manage their diet it’s a pretty solid idea.
Since we are on the topic, let’s talk about real quick.
Vinaigrettes are a kind of dressing. Usually it’s an emulsion of acid and oil.
Sources of acid can be citrus or tart fruit, or vinegars (a whole lot of them out there.)
In culinary school, I was thought that the ratio to use was 1 part of acid to 3 parts of oil. I always thought that it was way too fatty and it needed some kind of punch. I stuck with it anyway because if I debated it during the test... well I don’t make up the rules in that educational arena.
But later on, especially watching Iron Chef, Michael Symon mentioned that vinaigrettes are supposed to be 1 part of acid to 2 parts oil and that, I can agree with.
What I used to dress this salad was graperfruit juice, caramelized onions which are cooked in fat, butter, and some oil. The butter was used to saute the onions so I just added what I felt would thought was suffice. It wasn’t a 1/2 exactly like I previously mentioned but it tasted good!
Quick vinaigrette recipe: 4 ounces butter 1 cup onion sliced 1 cup grapefruit juice 2 cups oil to taste salt and pepper
Turn burner on high to melt butter and add onions in. Once they start to become fragrant, turn the heat down. Add graprefruit juice an oil. Quickly whisk to emulsify. Season with salt and pepper to finish. The problem with caramelized onions, is that they tend to be clumpy. So if you want to blend that mixture, I would recommend it. That in liquid form will distribute the flavors better versus having random onion chunks in your salad dressing..