Saturday, July 25, 2009

The amazing Aerogarden Herb and Serve for salad dressings and marinade

I admit, I'm kind of an Aerogarden junkie. You can see in the blog that I bought three Aerogarden units, I bought the shelves, I bought the soft ties, I bought the replacement pumps, the replacement bulbs, half a dozen different seed kits, and even the AeroGarden Master Chef Herb Cookbook !

Herb 'n Serve from Aerogarden is something new I decided to try. Now, I have every kitchen gadget known to man, from a George Foreman grill to a rotisserie hot dog cooker to a Keurig coffee maker. But this one is one of my new favorites. If you are looking to make vinigrette or marinade, you'll love it too.

The Herb 'n Serve looks a lot like a salad dressing bottle with a cap. The difference is, there's a powerful, battery-run blender on the bottom, as well as convenient lines on the carafe that lets you measure perfect proportions of oil and vinegar.

I decided to make a herb vinigrette. It started with a "handful" of fresh herbs from my Aerogarden (the parsley is from the parsley plants I transplanted into pots, which are thriving)

I opened the box of the Herb and Serve. It consisted of four parts: a carafe and a bottom (already assembled), a plastic twisting cap...


...and six AA batteries to power the thing.


I followed the instructions step-by-step. Step one was adding Balsamic Vinegar to the vinegar line.


I threw in my bunch of herbs...

Then, I flicked the switch to "on". The whole thing started blending.

Once the whole thing was blended, I just added some salt, pepper, mustard...

...and olive oil.
The result was a perfectly delicious vinigrette which would go well with any salad. So the next step was to find a salad. I went to my top Aerogarden unit and started harvesting mesclun leaves. This is what I got.


I poured the vinigrette on just like it came in a bottle.


And voila--there's a delicious salad prepared 100% using the amazing Aerogarden. The mesclun tasted like mesclun, and the vinigrette added a great burst of flavor.

I am looking forward to trying the marinade maker capabilities of this thing. Stay tuned!

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