Meatless Monday: Five Simple Summer Salad Dressings—Share Your Recipes!
The days are growing longer, and with summer weather comes one of my favorite ways to eat more veggies: salad! Sure, you may eat salad all year long, some greens playing sideshow to something warm and yummy. But when temperatures rise, and local veggies are in season, a great salad can become a show stealer.
If there’s one thing that kills me—and I’m sorry if this sounds snotty—it’s when someone pulls out a bottle of store-bought dressing. I get the convenience, but a delicious homemade salad dressing can be so easy that it feels wrong to douse fresh veggies with the often high-sodium and sugary processed stuff.
I also happen to consider salads my culinary strength. But I’m always looking for new tricks, so pleasepleaseplease share your favorite recipes in the comments!
In my humble opinion, the key to a great dressing is the right hit of salt—though trust, even if you salt yours heavily it won’t add up to the sodium found in the processed ones—and balancing the acid (vinegar, lemon, lime etc) with the fat (olive oil, vegenaise, mayo etc). I tend to enjoy a one-to-one, or one-and-a-half-to-one, fat to acid.
These four recipes are sooooo simple, and clearly a variation on a theme (one that always starts with olive oil), so you can totally play around and find the fat-to-acid ratio that most pleases you.
Simple Italian Classic
The recipe: 1 tablespoon olive oil, juice of a lemon, 1 crushed garlic clove, salt and pepper to taste
Use this on: Just about anything, from a simple green salad to a veggie-loaded, tomato, cucumber, artichoke heart, and chickpea bonanza. Add Italian parsley for extra freshness.
Creamy Vegan Cesear
The recipe: 1-2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp vegenaise, 1 tsp dijon, 1 tsp juice from capers (this counts as the salt), capers (if you like them), juice of 1/2 a juicy lemon
Use it on: Romaine or leafy greens, feel free to add parmesan, nutritional yeast, croutons, bacon or facon bits, and pretty much anything else you fancy.
Asian Inspiration
The recipe: 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar (get the light one for less sodium and sugar), chopped green onion (optional), pepper to taste
Use it on: Greens, raw kale, cucumbers. It’s also yummy with a touch of of tamari/soy sauce and a 1/2 tsp of roasted sesame oil.
Mexican Twist
The recipe: 1-2 tbsp olive oil, juice of 1 juicy lime, thinly sliced fresh jalapeno pepper, tsp red wine vinegar, crushed clove of garlic, chopped green onion, salt and pepper to taste
Use it on: The type of salad pictured above: cukes, tomatoes, greens, peppers if you like them, mushrooms same, and add some chopped cilantro if you’re not opposed to it.
Best Greek Ever
The recipe: Start with finely chopped red onions and let them sit in salted lemon juice of 1 juicy lemon, after 20 minutes add 1-2 tbs olive oil and pepper to taste
Use it on: Greek-style salad, greens or none, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives if you like them, and feta if you’re not vegan.
love salads!
here’s something i made this weekend and it was really delicious, particularly the thyme-mustard dressing
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/bestof/toprecipes/bestsaladrecipes/recipes/food/views/Farmers-Market-Salad-with-Spiced-Goat-Cheese-Rounds-239065
another great ingredient for dressings is maple syrup, so so yummy…
looking forward to reading your favourite recipes
any good ones for dips? just bought a new blender and i’m eager to put it to work:)
OH! This is so appropriate!! Last night I made a deeelicious citrus salad and have been wanting to share!
Citrus mint salad ingredients:
a few different types of citrus (we used grapefruit, cara cara, and navel)
avocado
mint
feta
pistachios
white wine vinegar
honey
olive oil
salt
Cut off the peels and piths of the cirtus and slice into rounds, saving the excess juice in a bowl. Slice up avocado. Lay citrus and avocado out in an even, pretty display on a tray with edges.
Dressing: whisk up honey, white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt in the bowl with the excess citrus juice. The ratio is really up to you but the dressing should be sweet with a little vinegar zing. Drizzle over cirtus and avocado.
Garnish salad with chopped mint, chopped pistachios, and crumbled feta.
I also think that dressing would be great on a light salad with butter lettuce and other fruits :)
Enjoy!
My favourite salad dressing is a French vinaigrette that my French-raised mum makes. It’s delicious, but not for the faint of heart. We don’t measure when making the dressing, so just use your usual proportions of oil-to-fat (the recipes above are a good guide).
Good extra virgin olive oil
White wine vinegar (if you don’t have WWV, your basic, plain white vinegar will do, though use less as it’s quite acidic. ACV would also do in a pinch)
1 Crushed garlic clove (or two if you are a garlic freak like me or making a large serving)
Hot mustard (I am talking European-style. A good bet is Coleman’s English mustard) – you want to add enough to make a creamy-ish dressing. Usually about 1 or 2 heaping teaspoons, but really you should use to taste, just as long as the dressing doesn’t end up being too liquidy.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Wisk together until a creamy emulsion is formed.
This dressing is highly flavourful, so it is best used on simple salads made with crispy lettuces like romaine (ripped into pieces), iceberg or green leaf. I tend to like it with lettuce alone, but cherry tomatoes are a nice addition and provide a nice colour and flavour contrast.
Ooh, one more: another one of my mum’s. This is not a salad dressing: my mum uses it as a dipping sauce for fresh, steamed artichokes, but I think it can be used on any robust veggies (would be lovely on grilled eggplant, I think).
1 cup Plain low-fat or fat free yogurt
1 crushed garlic clove (or two for extra heat/garlicky kick)
Finely chopped chives, parsley and dill (you can add or omit herbs as you prefer, but chives and parsley should, ideally, both be in there)
Salt and pepper to taste
Just mix all the ingredients together and enjoy. If you wanted to make it a bit more tatziki/raita-like, I think you could add some shredded cucumber.
One of my favorite salad dressings is from the book-The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon umeboshi plum vinegar
1/2 teaspoon shoyu
juice of 1/2 orange
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Place in small jar, shake and enjoy! So good.
I love salad:
Arugula and/or Baby Kale
Avocado
Radishes
Green Apple
Walnuts
Carrots
Cucumber
Squeeze of Lemon and Grapefruit juice and dash of Chia, Hemp or Olive Oil
Voila
Nicole <3
Anyone know of a good sesame salad dressing? I am addicted to a Thai Sesame dressing I found about a year ago… tastes fantastic. I also really love ranch, is there an easy way to make a ranch dressing?
i like using unpasteurized apple cider vinegar and olive oil as a base and then i add spices/herbs/salts/lemon juice.. whatever sounds good that day.
the citrus salad Anne posted sounds delicious! that would be a great way to use up some of my grapefruit and my massive mint plant!
this might sound totally weird, but I hate the taste of vinegar even in salad dressing, and I’m also not a huge fan of the mustards and mayos either…. so I tend to mix up random asian inspired dressings to put on my salads. my most recent one that sounds gross but was actually delicious in my opinion, was mixing some braggs liquid aminos, a dash of tamari, a glob of miso, a bit of water just to thin it out, ginger, a pinch of garlic, and a tiny bit of honey. I usually throw chunks of orange in my salads which go nicely with the ginger/miso thing, as well as some walnuts and red cabbage.
Here’s a slaw thingie lots of people ask me to bring when I’m invited out. I don’t really do measurements but rather throw stuff together, so here’s my best shot at a “recipe.”
-cabbage mix – regular green, red, savoy, whatever (in amount appropriate for number of servings you want)
-enough vegenaise to coat however much cabbage you are using (I prefer the grapeseed oil kind)
-mix into the vegenaise Bragg’s aminos or something similar like coconut aminos or wheat-free tamari
-you are aiming to get a light brown dressing that’s not too thick or too watery
-add fresh ground pepper or citrus pepper if you like, or cayenne or other hot sauce if you like it spicy, mix it all well (if you use the aminos you will NOT need salt)
-I like to mix the dressing in a big bowl that will easily contain the final product and allow for mixing of all ingredients
-throw the cabbage in the dressing and toss until coated
-add raw cashews
-top with chia seeds (these will soak up moisture and become squishy so add that right before serving, floss highly recommended after eating)
I also love chickpea miso with almond milk or vegenaise or olive oil, plus coconut aminos or Braggs. Make it thick or thin (even thick as a dip) according to preference. I love this over cucumber, fennel and mint.
I totally agree with you on the store bought dressing.
One of my favorites is champagne vinaigrette:
1/3 c champagne vinegar
2 tbsp honey ( I use raw honey.)
1 small shallot, minced
1/4 -1/3 c olive oil ( I like more vinegar-y dressing; adjust to your taste.)
salt and pepper to taste
-Whisk together the first 3 ingredients.
-In a slow steady stream, whisk in the olive oil until it emulsifies.
-Add salt and pepper.
-Chill overnight to allow the full flavor to develop.
-Bring to room temperature before serving if the olive oil solidifies.
-Keeps about a week in the fridge.
This is “Meatless Monday” related but not specifically salad related. I just received the June issue of Vegetarian Times magazine and it’s a special Mediterranean issue. There are so many good recipes if your into this type of food.
Currently, my favorite salad dressing involves pouring the following into a wide-mouth mason jar and blending with an immersion blender (creamiest, most beautifully emulsified salad dressing ever) –
a couple of chunks of preserved lemon
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup good quality evoo
a couple cloves of garlic
generous pinch smoked paprika
a T or so of honey
a handful of fresh mint leaves
I love this stuff so much that I want to lick my salad plate sometimes. I’ve been meaning to blog about it for weeks, but I just haven’t yet. I think the key is the immersion blender and the right ratio of oil to acid, as I’ve tried lots of different combinations and as long as those two variables stay the same I’m never disappointed.
Oh, and a glob of dijon mustard! I knew I was forgetting something :)
My favorite is ranch:)
Plain mayo (the kind you use probably doesn’t matter)
Yogurt
Milk
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder (not fresh garlic)
Onion powder (not fresh onion either!)
Dried parsley
Dill
Mix the above in reasonable quantities (taste it as you go!) and it’s the most amazing dressing ever. It can stay in the fridge (in a bottle or jar) for a quite a while and everyone around here just lovessss it!
Amazing. I’ve always wondered about homemade ranch — my husband is from Utah and loves it on pizza, and I have to admit it tastes pretty amazing.
Easy Vinaigrette
Equal Parts:
Vinegar of choice (I like Red Wine Vinegar)
Oil of choice (I like Olive Oil)
Citrus Juice of choice (I like Grapefruit Juice)
1/2 Part:
Stone Ground Mustard or Mulled Fruit (Smashed up Raspberries or Strawberries)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Mix in a bowl & toss into salad.