versatile meatless meal idea: walnut sauce

A week ago, I winged a walnut sauce. In an effort to detoxify a bit from too many rounds of snack bar food and too many fruity, summer cocktails I vowed to spend my week eating only "whole foods". (My definition: I had to know the ingredients in what I was popping down the hatch, and recognize all of them). The base for that week's meals was this walnut sauce I whipped up and then stored in the fridge. I didn't want to feel deprived, since it is summer vacation after all. This versatile sauce hit the spot.

Walnut Sauce

walnuts
walnut oil
your choice of vinegar
water (optional)
herbs (optional)

In a blender, combine walnuts, walnut oil and a splash of your favorite vinegar. Pulse until thick and creamy. Taste, and add more vinegar or oil to get to your desired level of tanginess or creaminess. Add water if you'd like to thin the sauce to make a dressing. Add fresh or frozen herbs, if you'd like, and blend until smooth.

I divided the sauce in half, leaving the first half as is (walnuts + walnut oil + a splash of both champagne vinegar and sherry vinegar). Then I added a fresh batch of cilantro to the second half. I just stored them in their thick glory in the fridge. Then during the week, I used them a bunch of different ways, in addition to thinning them and using them as salad dressings:

The plain walnut one was the dressing in a batch of roasted beet & barley salad...

The walnut-cilantro one was smothered over a piece of sea bass for dinner one night...

and I popped a dollop of the walnut one in the center of portabello mushrooms + diced tomatoes + a sprinkling of Parmesan and roasted them at 350, alongside some zucchini from the farmer's market

for a meatless feast. Delicious.