A medley of vegetables: Salad is full of crunch

PEMBERVILLE – It’s the dressing that makes Sue Gerke’s Vegetable Salad so delicious.

She doesn’t remember where she got the recipe, but she estimated she’s had it for 20 years and makes it a lot in the summer.

“It’s a very simple recipe,” Gerke said.

The dressing is different in that it isn’t a true vinaigrette. It needs to be cooked on the stovetop first, then cooled.

“It’s not hard to do, either,” she said.

Use dark or light kidney beans. Fresh vegetables can be substituted for the frozen variety.

The vegetables, although cooked, have a crunch to them from the refrigeration. The sugar in the dressing adds a sweetness to the finished product.

Gerke said she has a garden but has not used her own produce in this recipe.

“I do other things with my garden,” she said with a laugh.

Gerke grows radishes, beets, onions, tomatoes, rhubarb, zucchini, potatoes, squash and a lot of peppers.

“My husband loves peppers,” she said.

She has lived in Pemberville for 52 years with husband Don.

Her go-to recipe for him is peppers and tomatoes.

“He could live on salad like that all summer,” Gerke said. “I put a lot of them in the freezer, too.”

She said she usually makes a big meal in order to have leftovers, since it’s just her and Don.

Her two children, Krista and Lynnee, are Eastwood High School graduates. One lives in Minnesota, the other in Dayton.

Gerke makes everything from scratch – except cake. She likes box caked mixes.

“My mom used boxed cake mix as she was growing up,” she said.

Gerke said she is mostly a self-taught cook.

“I just learned as I went.”

Gerke said she’s prefers baking because she likes to try different things, although she does the standard cookies, cakes and pies.

She’ll go through cookbooks once in a while for inspiration for a meal because she gets tired of fixing the same thing. She has a couple church cookbooks she recently went through, looking for something different to make.

Gerke will make this Vegetable Salad for the potlucks at the Quilting Eagles gatherings. She is a founding member of the quilting group.

Gerke taught at Eastwood elementaries from 1977-2002, first at Lemoyne and then Luckey.

From the time she was little, she always wanted to be a teacher.

“My four little sisters had to be my students for a long time,” Gerke said.

She attended Webster Elementary as a child and graduated from the high school in 1963 as Sue Hasel.

Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

1 20-ounce package frozen mixed vegetables

3-4 stalks celery, diced

1/4-1/2 onion, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced

1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Directions

Cook frozen vegetables about 3 minutes in a microwave. Drain if necessary.

Cool and add the rest of the vegetables.

Dressing

Ingredients

2 tablespoons flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon salad mustard

Directions

Cook in sauce pan until thick.

Cool and add to vegetables. Stir to coat well.

Make the night before and store in refrigerator so flavor goes through all.

This keeps well in the refrigerator.

Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

1 20-ounce package frozen mixed vegetables

3-4 stalks celery, diced

1/4-1/2 onion, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced

1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Directions

Cook frozen vegetables about 3 minutes in a microwave. Drain if necessary.

Cool and add the rest of the vegetables.

Dressing

Ingredients

2 tablespoons flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon salad mustard

Directions

Cook in sauce pan until thick.

Cool and add to vegetables. Stir to coat well.

Make the night before and store in refrigerator so flavor goes through all.

This keeps well in the refrigerator.