Soup and salad

Tomato French Dressing
A Campbell Cookbook Most-For-The-Money Main Dishes Copyright 1975

1 can ( 10 ¾ ounces) condensed tomato soup
¼ cup vinegar
½ cup salad oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

In a covered jar or shaker, combine ingredients. Shake well before using. Serve on crisp salad greens.

Makes about 2 cups.

I acquired this cookbook more as a novelty than anything else. I don't have a problem using canned soups in recipes but there is something about seeing recipe after recipe using canned soup that is quite unappealing. Most of the recipes probably aren't that bad, but after reading through a few of them, I usually lose interest in this cookbook, and food in general.

However, I recently purchased more cans of tomato soup than I needed. I don't know why I thought I needed even one can, but I'm sure a sale price had something to do with it. I'm getting a bit tired of dodging falling soup cans every time I open the cupboard. So, I had a vague recollection of a french dressing recipe using tomato soup and I had a bag of salad in the refrigerator and that's how I arrived at this recipe. I knew right where to find a salad dressing recipe that used canned soup - if it wasn't in this book it didn't exist. I'm actually strangely thrilled to have made a recipe from this cookbook, one I thought might be a challenge.

And you know what? I really like this stuff. I've always had a soft spot for the 'red' dressings, Catalina being one of the earliest dressings I remember enjoying on a salad. I liked this stuff a bit too much - I found myself dipping a cracker into it, everytime I came into the kitchen.