Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Four Homemade Salad Dressings



This time of year we eat a lot of salad. It is wonderful to be eating fresh produce out of our garden again.

Salad dressings are so easy to make yourself. A few ingredients, a whisk or blender, are all you need. Making your own salad dressings allows you control over the ingredients. I can avoid the vegetable oils and high fructose corn syrup that are found in most dressings.

Like granola recipes, we go through various "favorite" salad dressings. Here are four recipes that have been in our fridge this spring.

These dressings that are pictured above are listed below beginning from the left.

Caesar Dressing 
From Amy

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
2 T water
2 T olive oil
1/2 T lemon juice
1-2 garlic cloves (minced)
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp parsley

 Blend together with whisk, blender, or food processor.
This dressing is wonderful on a baked potato!


Catalina French Dressing

2/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup honey
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 minced garlic clove (or 1 tsp garlic powder)
2 T minced onion

Blend together with whisk, blender, or food processor.


Italian Dressing

1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp paprika

Blend together with whisk, blender, or food processor.
This dressing make a great marinade too!

Honey-Mustard Dressing

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1/8 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup honey
1/4 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp salt

Blend together with whisk, blender, or food processor.
This is the dressing my children always ask for.

Do you have a favorite homemade dressing? I'd love to try your recipe! 

11 comments :

  1. Love homemade dressings.. Thanks for the lovely recipes..

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was thankful to find a ranch dressing that we love:
    Ranch
    1 c. dried parsley
    1/2 c. dried minced onion
    1/2 c. garlic salt
    1/2 c. onion salt
    1/4 c. garlic powder
    1/4 c. onion powder
    2 T. dill weed
    Yield: 3 c. dry mix. To serve: Mix 2 T. dry powder with 1 c. mayo and 1 c. buttermilk or kefir. For a veg. dip, mix 2 T. into 2 c. sour cream.

    Another favorite:
    Sweet Onion Poppyseed
    1/2 sweet onion
    1 T. brown mustard
    1 t. salt
    1/4 to 1/3 c. honey or equivalent stevia
    3/4 c. olive oil
    1 T. poppyseeds
    In a blender or food processor, combine the onion, mustard, salt, and vinegar. Blend until smooth. Add the olive oil and blend until just combined. Pour into a mason jar and stir in the poppyseeds.
    We like this dressing with a plain salad of lettuce and sliced sweet onion, and maybe Havarti cheese.


    I'll be trying your recipes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Wendy! I've been wanting to try to find a good Ranch dressing recipe!
      Gina

      Delete
  3. I am excited to try these recipes---thanks for sharing! I am growing lettuce for the first time ever, and am loving it. I thought it would be hard but it's so easy. Could you tell me what kinds of lettuce you are growing?
    I am new to your blog---love it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely! I'll be trying some of these.

    I make all our own salad dressings. Our current favorite is from Mennonite Country Style:

    3 Tbsp. mayo
    2 Tbsp. sugar
    1 Tbsp. vinegar
    pinch salt
    sprinkle of poppy seeds

    It's so simple but I don't know, we're really in love with it right now! Another favorite is French without ketchup, recipe here: http://thriftathome.blogspot.com/2010/04/cornbread-salad-from-south.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanx you guys! I copied and pasted so I can try them as well. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. hubby makes a killer chipotle vinaigrette. He doesn't have exact amounts written down he just adds until it tastes good. the main ingredient is chipotle peppers, and I know he adds brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, garlic powder, diced tomatoes, and any salsa we have. He may add more ingredients depending on what we have on hand. It always makes a blender full that's for sure. sometimes it's so hot I can't eat it and sometimes it's perfect. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. We made the Caesar dressing. It is delicious. Can't wait to try the others. Thanks Gina.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Here's a Ranch dressing that we've started making that we really like (similar to the one above):

    Ingredients:
    1 cup mayonnaise
    1/2 cup sour cream
    1/2 teaspoon dried chives
    1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
    1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
    1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
    1/4 teaspoon onion powder
    1/8 teaspoon salt
    1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

    Directions:
    In a large bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, chives, parsley, dill, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks so much Gina! I made your Italian, Honey Mustard, and Catalina French! We loves them all three! Thanks so much for sharing!
    Joy

    ReplyDelete
  10. That's Gina for sharing these recipes. I have made the Caesar dressing a few times and it has become one of our favorites. I finally copied it to a recipe card today. Went to make it today thinking I had copied it and couldn't think for a bit where I was going to find it before. Thankfully I remembered it was your blog:-)

    ReplyDelete

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