Gorgonzola & Sweet Onion Salad

One the greatest things about low carbing is being able to use full fat, delicious salad dressings. And with spring and summer just around the corner, I'm sure many of us will begin eating more and more of them and sometimes, even make them a meal.

I have a couple of favorite bottled salad dressings but sometimes, I'm in the mood for something a little more special.

This salad was a favorite of mine at a local Italian cafe and after having it many, many times, I decided it was time to go home and perfect my own version. This dressing recipe, and the salad that follows was the result.

Gorgonzola Dressing

• 1/2 C mayonnaise
• 1/2 C sour cream
• 1/2 C heavy cream
• 1/4 lb gorgonzola (or bleu or roquefort)
• 1 Tablespoon vinegar (I generally use white wine or plain white but balsamic works too, it's just lends a stronger flavor)
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 1/2 small shallot
• 1 clove garlic
• Kosher or sea salt (amount will depend on your taste and the saltiness of the cheese you use)
• Freshly ground black pepper (also depends on your taste!)
• Pinch of nutmeg (freshly grated is best!)

Crumble 1/2 of the gorgonzola and set aside.

Put garlic and shallot in food processor (or blender but I think the FP works better if you have one) and pulse for a few seconds until they are chopped finely. Add in all the rest of the ingredients and the other 1/2 of the gorgonzola and process on high for about 1 minute. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper seasoning to your palate, pour into a container and refrigerate.

While that is chilling, saute some sliced onions until they are golden brown, dark brown.

Once complete, spread on a plate in a thin layer so they will cool quicker.

Next, shred some hearts of romaine and dice some roma tomatoes.

Also, have on hand some pine nuts (pinola nuts) and get ready to assemble once the onions have cooled.

I have two ways I serve this. One is the "mid week, we just gotta eat way" and the other is the "let's be fancy!" way. Either one will taste great.

For the simple way, just place a handful of shredded romaine on a paper plate and top with sauted onions, chopped tomatoes, crumbled gorgonzola, pine nuts and the dressing.

If you're serving company, you can cut the romaine into a wedge shape or fan the leaves out on the plate and cluster all the toppings to one side. If you do it this way, be sure you give everyone a knife!

You can add extra dimension to the salad by using balsamic vinegar in the dressing in place of regular and by toasting the pine nuts. It's not necessary though so if you don't want to take the time, don't worry about it.

The entire dressing recipe has about 12 carbs and should serve 6 people. Naturally, all the other ingredients will add carbs to the salad so be sure you add everything up.

Considering the sauted onions, this is NOT an induction salad but a wonderful treat for those on OWL and maintenance.

I often double this recipe so I have dressing for use throughout the week. If you store extra dressing for use later, it may thicken up on you since it doesn't contain all those "extras" that store-bought dressings do. If that happens, just use a tablespoon or so of cream mixed in with the amount you want to use to thin it out for drizzling.

One other side note, you can use the new Carb Countdown whole milk in place of the cream and you'll knock 3 carbs off the total recipe down to only 9.

Bon Appetit!