An excellent Italian cook sent me a recipe recently for a
Marinated Vegetable Medley. I love
recipes and enjoy reading them to see what creative twist of ingredients it
contains. Salivating is a good sign the
recipe may be worth trying.
I read the Marinated Vegetable Medley and my mouth did not
water. Canned veggies dominated the
recipe. The dressing was simply
vegetable oil, wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Nothing special there. I would ordinarily have tucked the recipe
into the salad section of my collected recipes binder except for one
thing: my daughter had testified to the
wonderfulness of this recipe, going so far as to say she ate it for lunch five
days in a row. That’s a strong
testimony.
I re-read the recipe and confirmed the boring listing of
veggies and dressing and decided to give it a try despite its ordinary
appearance, banking mostly on the strength of my daughter’s favorable review. It was put together in about the time it
takes to open 8 cans. The dressing cooks
quickly. I placed it in the fridge to
marinate overnight.
One taste, and I called the recipe sender immediately. It was incredible! Once again, I learn the lesson never to judge
something upon appearances alone. The
second lesson: one favorable testimony has
the power to change one’s action and direction for the good.
Marinated Vegetable Medley
1 16 oz. can early garden peas
1 12 oz. can shoepeg corn
2 1 lb. cans French green beans
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 1 lb. can Lima beans (baby preferred)
1 2 oz. jar chopped pimento
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup wine vinegar
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
cayenne pepper to taste.
Drain canned vegetables.
In a large bowl, mix drained vegetables with onion, celery and
pimento. In a saucepan, combine oil,
wine vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper and bring to a boil. Pour dressing over vegetables and marinate in
refrigerator overnight.
Marinated vegetables will keep in refrigerator for up to 2
weeks.
Notes: I prepared this recipe with Splenda instead of sugar, and once with black beans instead of Lima beans. I usually double the amount of pimento.
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