Tonight's Topic: Salad Dressings

Writing a blog post about salad dressings makes me feel like the gals on that old SNL sketch, Delicious Dish, who droned on and on in monochromatic voices about ice, fiber and various double entendres.

 Let's all say it in harmony: "Tonight's topic: Salad dressing."

Oh well.  I'll embrace my nerdyness (nerdiness?) and promise that an entire post dedicated the wonders of salad dressing will not bore.

Homemade salad dressing is one of my favorite things.  It wasn't always this way, though.  I used to think making a salad dressing was a luxury, something fancy for special occasions.  And come to think of it, I didn't like salads because I didn't like salad dressings.  Oh the irony.  The bottled dressings were aways so acidic, both pungent and flavorless at the same time.

Things changed in 2006 when I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance.  After learning I was allergic to wheat, rye, barley and oats, I naively thought I would avoid gluten by just not eating bread.  Wrong.  I came to learn through reading lots of labels, talking with fellow celiacs, scouring the internet and occasionally puking my guts out, that gluten lurks in all manner of unsuspecting processed foods, even salad dressings.  In the beginning of the glutenless years, salad dressing represented another thing I couldn't eat, another label I had to read, and making salad dressings was another annoyance and extra step in cooking that my new life dictated.  But one fateful day, I was in the mood for balsamic vinaigrette.  I found a recipe online and the rest is history.  I realized that making my own salad dressings opened up so many possibilities in the world of salads!

Here are my arguments for making your own salad dressings:

1. It tastes better.  Like a 1000 times better then the bottled sort.  (Of course, I have not tasted every bottled salad dressing in the world and if you have a bottled dressing you love, that's okay too.)
2. It's cheaper.  Stock your pantry with the likely suspects, and you'll have almost any salad dressing at your fingertips with just a few ingredients.  Buy a new bottle of salad dressing and hate it, you're out $4.  Make a little batch of a new salad dressing and hate it, you're out 1/4 cup of oil and some vinegar.  
3. You control the quantity.  Having a party?  Make a big batch.  Dinner for 1, half or third the recipe. (I keep my homemade vinaigrettes around about a week and give them a toss).
4. You control the quality.  Have you read the ingredient lists on bottled salad dressing?  They're at least an inch thick at 6 point font!  Processed salad dressings must contain extra stabilizers, thickeners (ahem, gluten), and preservatives, among other junk like extra sugar and salt and words you can't pronounce unless you've taken a few semesters of college chemistry.
5. You control the ingredients.  Have a diabetic in the family?  Substitute the sugar with Splenda or a natural sweetener.  I have a friend whose daughter was allergic to garlic.  That's easy to skip.

The Cast of Characters:
Salad dressing a mixture of acid and oil, with some sugar, salt and flavor thrown in.  The general ratio is 1-part acid to 3-parts oil, but it depends on the strength of the acid, the heaviness of the oil and your personal preference.  Here's a simple list of the cast of characters you need and probably already have to make just about any salad dressing you want.

1. Acid - 
1. Vinegar - I keep red wine, apple cider, balsamic and rice wine vinegars on hand.  Champagne vinegar also is very nice.  
2. Citrus - I try to keep fresh lemons and limes in the house, but since we live in the real world, I also have a big bottle of lemon juice in the fridge for emergencies and laziness.  
3. Mustard - Yes, mustard counts as an acid in salad dressings (you'll include mustard with another acid because a salad dressing with half mustard would be gross.)  I keep Dijon and whole grain mustard around for such occasions.  And by the way, you can get the house brand (Target has a good selection) of a lot of fancy mustards now for pretty cheep. 
2. Oil - Whatever oil you prefer.  I use canola and extra virgin olive oil.  Don't use the expensive stuff in salad dressings.  If your EVOO salad dressing tastes too tart or pungent, try mixing half EVOO and half of a less flavorful oil like canola or safflower.  The darker the color of EVOO, the more intense the flavor.  Add flavor to Asian salad dressings with a small amount of sesame oil (I got mine for $2 at the Asian market), or be super fancy with some truffle oil.  I do not own truffle oil because it is not $2.
3. Sugar - A little bit of sweet balances out the acid.  You can use plain old sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup.  Oh the possibilities!
4. Salt - I prefer kosher salt.  Don't forget about other salt options like soy sauce (or g.f. soy sauce)
5. Flavor - This is the fun part, the part that makes the salad dressing really special.  Garlic, shallots, fresh ginger, onions, worcestershire sauce, herbs, citrus zest!  Many recipes call for jalapenos or some other sort of spice.  I keep Sriacha Sauce, a very spicy Thai chili sauce, around and put in a squirt of that instead.

Mixing your salad dressing:

On the cooking shows, they like to make salad dressing creation a grand production complete with a blender.  If I am going to make these a few times a week, they can't be a grand production.  A blender will best emulsify the oil and other ingredients.  I have a blender, a pretty nice one I bought from friends heading into the mission field, but seriously, I do not want to clean a blender just to make a salad dressing.  (Like Bobby Flay does his own dishes anyway.)

There are a few quick and easy ways to do this with minimal dishes and clean up.  First rule in salad dressing making - add the acids, sugar, salt and flavor first.  Get them all mixed up and cozy.  Then add the oil.  You can do this by two ways.  The first, and better of the two, is to use a whisk in a mixing bowl.  Throw in everything but the oil and give it a good whisk. Then pour the oil in a thin, steady stream while continuing to whisk.  This helps get the oil mixed up and less apt to separate.

But here's the way I mix my salad dressings.  I would like to introduce you to my fancy salad dressing mixing apparatus.  Don't be intimidated.  I've been doing this for a long time.

Yep, I mix my salad dressings with an old Talenti Gelato container.  Fancy, right?  It is the perfect size and seals well.  Someday when I'm cool enough, I might get a mason jar instead.  All I do is mix everything but the oil, twist on the lid, and give it a shake, and then add the oil, put the lid on again and give it another shake, and I'm done.  The oil eventually separates, but I just give it a good shake before I use it again.

** As a side note, the 12 years of stomach problems before I was finally diagnosed with gluten intolerance damaged my stomach and as a result, I can't eat a lot of lettuces.  I stay away from all spinach and baby greens and just eat romaine.  If you have stomach problems and find yourself getting a bad stomach ache after eating salads, try hearts of romaine.  Also, try skipping the lettuce all together.  The Bleu cheese vinaigrette recipe below is put on bite-sized blanched asparagus and slice apples.  The sesame soy vinaigrette is for green beans.  Caprese salad is a stack of sliced tomatoes, sliced fresh mozzarella and basil with a balsamic vinaigrette.

And now here are my favorite salad recipes.  Of course, no directions are included because you are now a salad dressing making master and need no directions!

Raspberry Vinaigrette
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup raspberry wine vinegar  (basically balsamic vinegar with raspberry flavoring)
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp black pepper

Simple Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 c. olive oil
1/4 c. canola oil
optional: a bit of dried or fresh rosemary, chopped

Orange Vinaigrette
2 small or 1 large orange, zested and juiced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp honey
1 clove garlic, chopped
3/4 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 c. olive oil

Sesame Soy Vinaigrette 

(This is made to go on steamed green beans with almonds, chili flakes and sesame seeds)

5 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 c. rice wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

2 tbsp tahini (a paste made from ground sesame seeds.  If you don't have tahini, just use some sesame seeds instead)

1/4 c. dark sesame oil

Bleu Cheese Vinaigrette
(from Cooking Light's Asparagus-Apple Salad)
1/4 c. crumbled bleu cheese
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp Dion mustard
1 tsp estravirgin olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper


** Bleu cheese contains gluten because the culture is started on a slice of bread.  So if you buy your bleu cheese from a fancy shop and they know what village in France this bleu cheese came from, it probably contains gluten.  Cheap bleu cheese is started from chemical culture and doesn't contain gluten.  I buy the cheapest bleu cheese possible (Alouette) and have not had a problem.


The Pioneer Woman's Big Steak Salad dressing
*This is my current favorite.  A salad with worcester sauce in the dressing, steak, onion rings and candied pecans should have its own chapter in Gary Chapman's Love Languages marriage book.  Your hubby will love this salad!!!!

The Pioneer Woman's Ginger Steak Salad dressing
* Great for any Asian salad.  I like to serve with almonds, green onions, oranges and sesame seeds.

Ranch Dressing:
I keep a bottle of Ken's Peppercorn Ranch on hand to eat with cucumbers.  Every once in a while I'll make a batch of flavored ranch like chipotle ranch or basil buttermilk ranch.  Otherwise, we stay away from mayo/buttermilk-based salad dressings.

Enjoy and post your favorite salad dressing recipe in the comment section!