Healthy salad dressings
I am tired of my lemon, olive oil emulsion dressing... Any good salad dressings I can make a week ahead & take to work in a jar?
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I am tired of my lemon, olive oil emulsion dressing... Any good salad dressings I can make a week ahead & take to work in a jar?
14 Comments
and Oils..There are a vast array of vinegars to play with (including Sherry, Raspberry, Rice, Tarragon, any herb or fruit...) and wines (port, madeira, white and red wine, verjus). Oils incl. walnut, hazelnut, sesame.... And then there are the flavorings like ginger, garlic, assorted mustards, shallots, chives, soy sauce.....As usual, google is your best friend. Just putting in a search for "sherry vinegar and salad dressing" will start the torrents flowing!
Voted the Best Reply!
Put it all in a blender. 1/3 cup rice or other vinegar + 1/4 cup lime + 2 tbsp honey + 1 tsp garlic + 1/2 tsp kosher salt (remember kosher is less salty than table salt) + 3/4 cup canola oil + 1 cup cilantro.
I keep a jar of homemade dressing at work as well. It's usually balsamic vinegar + olive oil, a little mustard to emulsify. That's almost as healthy as yours. People tend to use more of thicker dressings (to coat the greens), so you should consider avoiding those.
Of course, the best practice for health is portion control of the dressing itself. Just use less dressing. If you are having problems with the coverage on the greens, you might consider adding a bit of water to your dressing, but for sure, you aren't going to get any healthier than lemon juice and olive oil.
Good luck.
When I make a jar to take to work, I just leave it out at room temperature; it's usually consumed in a week or two. By sticking with a simple dressing, I avoid the need to refrigerate (more of a convenience thing for me than anything else since there is a fridge at my office).
Of course, you can also mix up the oil as well. There are myriad varieties of olive oil and each harvest is different. You can change the flavor profile of your dressing simply by selecting a different olive oil. Some stores will let you taste olive oils, so it's really up to you to investigate this more fully.
I've made my own infused vinegars (tarragon, lemon peel, etc.) before, that's always a change of pace too.