Mixed Greens with Roasted Tomato and Thyme Vinaigrette

Brown Sugar Kitchen

This is a simple salad you can make whenever you have leftover cornbread (or even hushpuppies!) sitting around.

I had never considered making croutons out of cornbread, but I will definitely be doing this again! The roasted tomato vinaigrette takes a little more time than throwing vinegar and oil together, but not too much, and it makes a less-acidic salad dressing than some. I used the leftover vinaigrette on a small salad with a runny fried egg one morning for breakfast, and it went perfectly with that!

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today we're going to be
[00:08]: working once again from tonya holland's
[00:10]: brown sugar kitchen and we're going to
[00:11]: be making
[00:12]: mixed greens with roasted tomato and
[00:15]: thyme vinaigrette
[00:17]: and we're making this partially because
[00:19]: it uses the buttermilk cornbread that
[00:21]: we've already made on the channel
[00:24]: it uses about an eighth of the recipe so
[00:26]: if you have some leftover this is a good
[00:28]: recipe to use those those leftovers in
[00:31]: um
[00:32]: but first we need to make the roasted
[00:34]: tomato and thyme vinaigrette
[00:36]: and
[00:37]: um
[00:39]: it seems like a relatively small amount
[00:42]: of vinaigrette
[00:43]: uh you just need one ripe
[00:47]: roma tomato peeled halved and seeded so
[00:50]: i have
[00:53]: put this in
[00:54]: boiling water i sort of
[00:57]: um made a little x on the bottom and put
[01:00]: it in boiling water for
[01:02]: like 20 seconds and then i let it sit
[01:05]: and cool so i'm hoping i'll be able to
[01:08]: get most of the skin off without a
[01:11]: problem and it does seem to be coming
[01:14]: off
[01:14]: pretty okay not in full sheets but
[01:18]: nothing too bad so
[01:22]: i'll just be doing this for a minute
[01:25]: finally peeled i'm going to slice it in
[01:27]: half lengthwise
[01:31]: and of course i did not expose all of
[01:34]: the seeds because
[01:36]: you can't really
[01:37]: figure out where those are
[01:39]: but i'm going to take the seeds out
[01:41]: where i can here
[01:44]: and then i might have to quarter them
[01:46]: although you're supposed to roast you
[01:48]: know them halved i don't think it'll
[01:50]: make a big difference if i quarter them
[01:52]: um i am going to cut out this
[01:55]: stem piece because
[01:58]: i don't know kind of kind of annoys me
[02:00]: so i'm going to go ahead and slice these
[02:02]: in quarters that's not in the recipe and
[02:05]: of course
[02:07]: i hit
[02:10]: the fleshy part again there
[02:13]: anyway
[02:14]: this one is good i've taken all the
[02:16]: seeds out i'm gonna put it in my baking
[02:18]: dish i have the smallest
[02:20]: baking dish that i own
[02:22]: and
[02:24]: that's not skin
[02:26]: and i'm going to put this in the baking
[02:29]: dish my
[02:30]: oven is heated at
[02:32]: 350 degrees because we're going to roast
[02:36]: this tomato
[02:38]: all right i'm just gonna
[02:41]: stick my knife oh there is no other one
[02:43]: in there i wonder if there's there's
[02:45]: gotta be one in here
[02:48]: yeah it's right there
[02:54]: there we go
[02:56]: so i've gotten most of the seeds out
[02:59]: got
[03:00]: my tomato quarters supposed to be a half
[03:03]: it'll be fine let me wash my hands real
[03:05]: quick
[03:07]: just like this we're gonna drizzle it
[03:08]: with some olive oil there are no
[03:10]: mentions of amounts
[03:12]: so i'm just drizzling and then we're
[03:14]: going to season
[03:16]: with
[03:17]: salt and
[03:19]: pepper
[03:23]: and that's it
[03:25]: now this is going to go in the oven like
[03:26]: i said at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes
[03:31]: until the tomato is roasted and the
[03:33]: juices are slightly caramelized so we're
[03:35]: not looking for blackened just sort of
[03:37]: lightly caramelized so
[03:39]: 15 to 20 minutes
[03:41]: be back with this but we have another
[03:43]: step that requires the oven so we'll go
[03:45]: ahead and get that going at the same
[03:47]: time
[03:48]: so now we're ready to make the
[03:51]: cornbread croutons which is where we're
[03:53]: using the
[03:54]: leftover
[03:56]: cornbread here so i've got the amount
[03:59]: pre-measured i weighed it and they are
[04:02]: cut into
[04:04]: um approximately one inch cubes
[04:08]: so i'm just going to spread them out in
[04:10]: a single layer here
[04:12]: i put down some parchment she doesn't
[04:13]: say to do that but it will not hurt
[04:15]: anything and again we're just going to
[04:18]: drizzle them with oil
[04:20]: so
[04:21]: i'm just kind of going to make sure i
[04:24]: hit all of them
[04:27]: hold at least a little bit
[04:30]: there we go and we're going to sprinkle
[04:32]: it with salt
[04:38]: all right so these also go in the oven
[04:40]: same heat same everything and it's a
[04:43]: relatively small pan so they'll fit on
[04:44]: the same shelf no problem
[04:47]: and
[04:48]: uh we need to turn them over once or
[04:50]: twice until they're
[04:52]: slightly browned 15 minutes so about the
[04:55]: same amount of time so might as well do
[04:57]: them all at once
[04:58]: so that's what i'm going to do now
[04:60]: our tomatoes roasted for about 20
[05:02]: minutes before i decided they were done
[05:04]: and now they've been cooling so these
[05:06]: are supposed to be at room temperature
[05:08]: and we need either a blender or a food
[05:11]: processor and it's such a small amount i
[05:13]: decided i was going to use sort of my
[05:15]: smoothie cup for this
[05:17]: we'll see how that goes
[05:19]: um
[05:20]: this is
[05:21]: easy to handle not not too hot um so
[05:24]: this is what i decided was done where
[05:26]: it's uh
[05:28]: there's a little bit of caramelization
[05:29]: but they're not super well roasted but
[05:32]: we're gonna put these
[05:34]: in
[05:36]: the blender cup here and i'm just going
[05:38]: to put
[05:40]: as much of the oil as will come out in
[05:42]: with it
[05:45]: and so the rest of the things that we
[05:47]: need for our vinaigrette let's see um
[05:51]: we're just going to put everything in
[05:53]: here at once so i've got some just plain
[05:56]: red wine vinegar
[05:59]: not a whole lot like i said this is a
[06:01]: really small
[06:04]: batch
[06:05]: i would have preferred i think like a
[06:07]: double batch but we decided to go ahead
[06:09]: and make it
[06:10]: as written the first time
[06:13]: we slash i decided to do that
[06:19]: okay um and then we have some more olive
[06:23]: oil
[06:25]: quite a bit of that
[06:31]: and again the tomatoes will provide some
[06:33]: more you know acidity
[06:34]: for the vinaigrette
[06:36]: and definitely some more liquid
[06:38]: there we go
[06:41]: now the other ingredients we have um
[06:43]: some minced shallots this is way more
[06:46]: mint shallots than we need
[06:48]: but i just minced up
[06:49]: a small part like a half of a large one
[06:52]: where they kind of separate because that
[06:54]: was easiest and i can always find
[06:56]: something else to do with shallots
[07:00]: so i'll just stick them in the
[07:01]: refrigerator when we're done or use them
[07:04]: for dinner tonight we'll see
[07:06]: there we go
[07:09]: and
[07:12]: oh that was the wrong one
[07:16]: i need more
[07:18]: because i used the wrong
[07:21]: measuring spoon
[07:25]: there we go
[07:27]: that's what we're supposed to have of
[07:28]: those in there
[07:32]: and we need
[07:34]: this is um
[07:37]: just time leaves fresh thyme leaves
[07:38]: picked off of the stems
[07:40]: i was not super
[07:44]: picky about the little stems just
[07:46]: because i knew we were going to
[07:48]: put this in the
[07:51]: blender so
[07:52]: some of them will get word up it'll be
[07:54]: fine and salt and pepper she says to
[07:56]: blend it up together first and then
[07:58]: season with salt and pepper i'm just
[07:59]: gonna
[08:01]: add some salt and pepper now just
[08:03]: because it's easier
[08:06]: [Applause]
[08:10]: there we go
[08:12]: and that's it so i'm gonna put
[08:15]: my blade on and
[08:17]: we're supposed to um process this until
[08:20]: blended but still slightly chunky
[08:23]: so we'll see how well i do
[08:25]: with that
[08:27]: i'm going to pulse it
[08:29]: with this and keep my fingers crossed
[08:33]: [Applause]
[08:39]: that might be good
[08:45]: i think that's probably pretty good
[08:47]: um definitely still slightly chunky
[08:52]: trying to decide if i think i need
[08:53]: another pulse or two just
[08:56]: not quite so chunky
[08:58]: i'm sure this is entirely up to you how
[08:60]: you like it
[09:02]: okay so
[09:04]: i looked at the last minute and realized
[09:06]: that this calls for
[09:08]: way more mixed greens so we need like
[09:11]: mixed greens like baby romaine frise
[09:14]: oak leaf baby spinach arugula whatever
[09:17]: torn into bite size pieces
[09:19]: i'm supposed to tear this into bite-size
[09:21]: pieces i think they're already
[09:23]: bite-sized pieces so i'm not gonna do
[09:25]: too much there
[09:27]: but i realized that
[09:28]: it calls for more than one of these bags
[09:32]: um so i just have a spring mix here
[09:35]: but uh
[09:37]: one of these bags is more than enough
[09:40]: for one salad for my family for one meal
[09:43]: um unless we're going for like
[09:46]: that is your meal
[09:47]: um
[09:48]: i'm gonna just
[09:51]: i'm gonna use about a bag i had a little
[09:52]: bit of a previous bag left
[09:56]: i don't think that's good
[09:58]: i don't think that one's good
[10:01]: so yeah i'm gonna go with about
[10:03]: a bag which is a little less than half
[10:06]: of what she calls for
[10:08]: um
[10:09]: however i am not going to have the bacon
[10:13]: so it's not very much bacon and we like
[10:15]: bacon so
[10:17]: it's going to be fine
[10:19]: and then the dressing
[10:23]: i'm going to start with half of what she
[10:25]: says but i'm going to go ahead and
[10:27]: measure out
[10:29]: the whole amount that she says and see
[10:32]: how we go because we do like our salads
[10:36]: a little bit more heavily dressed than
[10:38]: some people
[10:40]: so i'm just gonna
[10:41]: pour about half of this in here and then
[10:49]: mix it up
[10:52]: i usually use two spoons and this also
[10:54]: will be probably loud so you won't see
[10:57]: me mixing it but we'll see how it goes
[11:05]: definitely need
[11:06]: more
[11:08]: dressing for us so i'm just going to use
[11:10]: the rest
[11:15]: there we go
[11:22]: and i'm being very messy as usual i
[11:25]: think that's probably dressed more to
[11:27]: our preference
[11:30]: and now i'm going to toss in
[11:32]: our croutons they baked for about the
[11:35]: same amount of time as our um
[11:38]: tomato
[11:40]: and i'm not going to have those either
[11:42]: this is gonna be perfectly fine for us
[11:46]: i'm just gonna toss it up a little bit
[11:49]: and then we're gonna serve it
[11:57]: on this episode of cooking the books
[11:59]: with heather we made mixed greens with
[12:01]: roasted tomato and thyme vinaigrette
[12:03]: from tonya holland's brown sugar kitchen
[12:06]: cookbook
[12:07]: and we enjoyed the salad it was pretty
[12:10]: good um
[12:12]: i didn't think it was anything super
[12:13]: special but that was just me
[12:16]: and
[12:17]: i do think that there was a little bit
[12:19]: of a proportion issue
[12:22]: in this recipe so we used
[12:25]: less greens than she suggests in the
[12:28]: recipe for our salad
[12:30]: but did use the same amount of dressing
[12:33]: and in fact i think i might have added
[12:34]: even a little bit more we do like our
[12:36]: salad dress pretty well but
[12:39]: it was not
[12:40]: i didn't feel like it was dressed
[12:41]: correctly with that amount of
[12:44]: dressing
[12:46]: and the the even about the half of the
[12:48]: greens that we used so i think there's a
[12:50]: little bit of a
[12:51]: of an issue there we used
[12:55]: about half of the greens the same amount
[12:57]: of bacon the same amount of croutons
[12:60]: so
[13:01]: i think you should could definitely go
[13:03]: down on the mixed greens there because
[13:05]: it seemed like a good amount of croutons
[13:07]: and a good amount of bacon any less
[13:09]: would have felt like it was hardly there
[13:11]: that's my opinion that's our opinion we
[13:13]: felt it needed more dressing but at
[13:15]: least the recipe did make plenty of
[13:16]: dressing so
[13:18]: that was good um
[13:21]: it was really easy to make i mean it
[13:23]: does
[13:25]: caramelizing the
[13:27]: tomato and making the vinaigrette that's
[13:29]: a little bit of an extra step than the
[13:31]: usual vinaigrette that you kind of just
[13:32]: throw some stuff in a jar or in a bowl
[13:34]: and whisk it up and it's pretty much
[13:36]: done
[13:37]: it requires a food processor or a
[13:40]: blender
[13:41]: you can use like a smoothie blender
[13:43]: that's what i used
[13:44]: and it worked just fine
[13:47]: and the croutons were easy to make if
[13:49]: you've already made
[13:50]: um the buttermilk cornbread in here
[13:52]: which we had previously made and i'll
[13:54]: link that above um you know we had
[13:57]: leftovers and it was easy to make it it
[13:59]: was about a quarter of that recipe just
[14:01]: you know for your information
[14:03]: um
[14:05]: a quarter maybe an eighth of that recipe
[14:07]: yeah
[14:08]: because i think two both recipes we did
[14:10]: ended up being a quarter anyway i think
[14:12]: i said something about that beginning
[14:14]: but i forgot now
[14:15]: anyway it didn't use all that much
[14:18]: but you could make more
[14:19]: you may want to
[14:22]: cook them a little bit longer if you
[14:23]: plan to keep them to dry them out a
[14:25]: little bit more because these didn't get
[14:28]: entirely crispy and dried out like most
[14:31]: croutons but that's good because
[14:33]: um it's it's a fresher crouton than you
[14:36]: buy at the grocery store
[14:39]: but all in all it was it was pretty easy
[14:41]: it was a little bit more difficult than
[14:42]: the usual vinaigrette um you may have to
[14:45]: adjust the levels of
[14:48]: bacon
[14:49]: croutons and dressing to your tastes but
[14:53]: you know that's really easy to do
[14:55]: so
[14:56]: it was an interesting salad and uh
[14:59]: she says that you could add a poached or
[15:01]: soft-boiled egg to this as a salad for
[15:04]: brunch and that sounds actually
[15:05]: delicious
[15:07]: um and i would
[15:10]: i would certainly do that so i'll have
[15:12]: to try that
[15:14]: with some of the leftover dressing that
[15:15]: we have in the refrigerator so
[15:17]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[15:19]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[15:20]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[15:22]: me make something else next week