Voo-doo Men-oo

My friends and I gathered for some otherworldly shenanigans, and I challenged myself to come up with an appropriate menu. I decided on a voodoo theme, which (to me) means New Orleans. Okay, okay, kind of a stretch...really I was just looking for a reason to make some olive dressing for some meatless muffalettas.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/megangoodchild/

New Orleans cuisine is not vegetarian friendly. They don’t even pretend. Only the French and Siberians consume less vegetation. I did, however, find a recipe for Creole tomato salad. Though it turns out that the Creole tomato is one that is indigenous to the region. As in, I can’t get it in Nashville. So I created a variation using local Bradley and Pineapple tomatoes--both of which are meaty (not juicy) tomatoes (essential for a good tomato salad).

Voodoo Tomato Salad
2 medium Bradley tomatoes
2 medium Pineapple tomatoes
¼ Vidalia onion, diced
Salt and pepper

Vinaigrette Dressing
2 T olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
1 t hot Chinese mustard
½ t minced garlic

Combine tomatoes and onions in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

To prepare the vinaigrette, combine oil, vinegar, mustard, and garlic in a sealable container. Cover tightly and shake vigorously. Drizzle over the salad and serve at room temperature.

I served this salad with a variation of this couscous salad (changes: fried chickpeas, no red pepper, Italian parsley) and mini meatless muffalettas. I prepared the muffalettas on some hearty rolls and with my own olive dressing. There are hundreds of recipes for olive dressing and no two are alike. So I just dumped some pimiento stuffed green olives, some kalamata olives, a couple of cauliflower florets, shredded carrots, olive oil and some of the olive brine in the food processor and hit “pulse” a few times and that was it. I sliced some rolls, stuffed in some provolone and cheddar cheese, heated them until melted and then topped them with the olive dressing and viola, mini meatless muffalettas.

I was pretty proud of the tomato salad and the muffalettas, but the couscous salad got the most comments. And of course it's from Paula Deen. Damn you Paula Deen! Oh well. It really was good. But so was that tomato salad!