Cooking & Packing
Healthy Recipes: Vidalia, the Versatile Onion
By Dana Jacobi for the American Institute for Cancer Research
May 5, 2008 - 11:18:33 AM

Tell the truth: Haven’t you imagined customers grabbing up packages of the peanut butter cookies you bake – the one your friends say are the best ever? Has no one ever insisted that the vinaigrette dressing you make is so special that you should be bottling it?

After I had the good fortune to develop, commercially produce and market a line of sauces to gourmet food stores and supermarkets in the 1980s, I discovered just how many other people share this desire. In fact, many culinary schools and adult education programs offer courses specifically focused on how to help you realize this dream.

I was even involved in helping another’s dream business get on its feet. This gentleman was so persistent and determined that I couldn’t resist offering my services as a consultant and help him bottle and market his 50-year-old family recipe for Vidalia onion salad dressing,

At trade shows, where we both promoted our products, I watched him talk with vendors, wearing a denim shirt, red suspenders and baggy trousers. He was more passionate selling $12.00 cases of salad dressing than he was in his day job, working in real estate and handling homes that cost ten thousand times more. It was inspiring.

It wasn’t long before I met Aunt Lulamae – who had created the family recipe –and her husband Cliff. In the fields on their farm in Vidalia, Georgia, I helped pull their onions out of the dense soil. I ate more than a few while standing out in the sizzling white sun, enjoying their apple-like crispness as sugar-sweet juice dripped down my chin.

Eating impeccable Vidalias at the farm started my love affair with all sweet onions, now available year-round in grocery stores nationwide. This Waldorf salad is a perfect example. When the onions are really fresh, consider including even more than the recipe calls for.

Vidalia Chicken Salad

1/3 cup walnuts
2 cups (8 ounces) roasted chicken breast, diced into 1 inch pieces
1 large Gala apple, cored and diced into 3/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup Vidalia onion, diced into 3/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup raisins
3 Tbsp. reduced-fat (2%) Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp. reduced fat mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp. ground pepper
8 leaves red-leaf lettuce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread walnuts in one layer on a baking sheet and toast in oven until fragrant, 8 to 10 minutes, stirring once after 5 minutes. Set nuts aside to cool.

In a mixing bowl, combine chicken, apple, onion and raisins, separating layers of onion. Coarsely chop walnuts and add to other ingredients.

In a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt and pepper until combined. Add dressing to salad and mix with a fork until the salad is evenly coated.

Line each of four salad plates with 2 lettuce leaves. Mound one-fourth of salad on each plate. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

Per serving: 260 calories, 10 g total fat (1.5 g saturated fat), 25 g carbohydrates, 21 g protein,
3 g dietary fiber, 380 mg sodium.

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Reprinted with permission from AICR.org