Recipe for a Healthy Salad Dressing
I like salad dressing. My favorite type of salad is a whole pile of iceberg lettuce, tomato, celery, cucumber, capsicum (or bell pepper), radish, sprouts, avocado and palm hearts. On top of this I like to add my family’s trademark salad dressing. No salad quite tastes the same without it! I even like coleslaws with this dressing. To be honest, these are really the best two salads in the world. Caesar salad is good – but any salad that has ingredients other than vegetables aren’t really salads in my opinion!
Salad dressings can either make or break a salad. Lather a crunchy coleslaw in creamy mayonnaise and it tastes great – but too much can be sickening and spoil the waistline. And then with mayo, you have to be so careful! The off-the-shelf supermarket varieties are loaded with so much unnecessary ’stuff’ that its not exactly mayonnaise anymore. I’m really fussy with my mayonnaise. Too sweet and I will refuse to eat it. The same goes for all those bottled dressings at the supermarket. There are a few goodies there – but anything that is ‘Lite’ or ‘97.9% fat free’ is a waste of time. As are the ones that include things like canola oil or ‘oil’ or too many numbers, colours and flavors. Don’t go there – they are the ones that will break your salad from a nutrient point of view!
The best ingredients for a salad dressing are: pure olive oil, balsamic or any other kind of vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, herbs, mustard, lemon juice and basil pesto.
I don’t always have every single one of those ingredients on hand, so there are a few things you can do without. However, the main are the first 6, or 5 at a pinch. Start with olive oil. Maybe pour half an inch into a glass. Then add the vinegar. Its quite nice to mix it up a bit – some cider, some white, some balsamic. It should be about 1 part oil to 3 parts vinegar. Most recipes would say the other way around, but I like this balance! Alternatively, do 1 part oil to 2 parts vinegar, and add the juice of a lemon for that extra zing. Then crush a clove or two of garlic, depending on your tastes and medicinal needs! Add a pinch of salt and pepper, a dash of dried or fresh finely chopped basil or other herbs, the end of a teaspoon of mustard and a tiny bit of basil pesto if you haven’t already added some. For another kick, add some pepper sauce or chilli powder.
Since there is no sugar in this recipe, the dressing will not emulsify. So before pouring it onto the salad, you’ll need to stir it briskly with a fork or spoon and then pour it quickly. Toss the salad so the whole thing is covered in the dressing. It perhaps is an acquired taste, but it is a very zingy dressing that is incredibly refreshing. The kind of recipe that lasts for years! If you want to make bulk, then perhaps you need to add either sugar or a bit of liquid honey to help emulsify the oil and vinegar. And add a strainer to the top of the bottle to prevent one salad getting all the chunks!
Hope you enjoy this healthy tasty dressing. I don’t plan on changing!
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Comment by MizFit
10 September 2008
my one FOOD GIFT is that I cant stand salad dressing
or mayo.
it’s a texture thing.
now the CREME in the center of the oreo?
I LOVE THAT JUST FINE
Miz.