Tasty Bites: The Best Dressed Salad

By Candy (Steele the Day)

Salads make perfect meals and are great ways to use up leftover vegetables, fruits, beans, meat, and rice. But what about the dressing? What’s the most tasteful way to dress a salad?

If you’ve stood in the salad dressing aisle for any length of time, you know how confusing it can be. There are literally hundreds of choices – some good, some not so good. It’s hard for me to purchase bottled salad dressing anymore because I don’t always want the same flavor on every salad, and it can be quite pricey to stock your fridge with several bottles. I saw a bottle for $7.00 the other day! You don’t want the flavors to fight with the flavors in your salad, so it’s always nice to have a couple of different blends on hand so you have a choice. If you look at a bottle of dressing, you’ll likely see things like high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, additives, and artificial color.

It’s much less expensive and much healthier to make your own, and it doesn’t take professional kitchen skills to do it. A bowl, a whisk, and the palm of your hand, because even the measurements don’t have to be very accurate for a great tasting dressing. You likely already have most of the short list of ingredients in your home. I make about a half dozen different kinds of salad dressings, and usually keep 3-4 of them on hand in reusable plastic squeeze containers. You can buy these containers at your local restaurant supply store or reuse an old container like the one that your honey comes in.

Be sure to keep the dressing refrigerated, and use within 2-3 weeks.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Honey Mustard Dressing

5 T honey

3 T Dijon mustard

2 T rice wine vinegar

2 T extra virgin olive oil

Mix honey, mustard, and vinegar thoroughly. Whisk in olive oil until emulsified. Place in a sealed container and shake well before serving.

Pomegranate Vinaigrette

6 T pomegranate juice (POM Wonderful^® brand is best)

4 T red wine vinegar

2 T honey

1/3 to ½ C grape seed or canola oil

Pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Mix the first 4 ingredients, then whisk the oil in slowly so the dressing emulsifies. Shake well before serving.

Oriental Orange Salad Dressing

2 T  balsamic vinegar

1 ½  t grated orange peel

½ t  Dijon mustard

¼ C low-salt chicken broth

1 T sesame oil

1 T extra virgin olive oil

Mix first four ingredients together. Whisk in oils. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to meld the flavors. Shake before serving.

Candy Steele is a registered nurse who has worked with cardiac patients for over thirty years. “Functional foods” have become her passion, and she enjoys sharing her love of cooking, a random life and a faithful Jesus with her friends at Steele (the Day). She is blessed with three grown children, a new daughter-in-law, and a kind and patient husband who only knows how to fix popcorn (but she’s OK with that).

Comments

[Helen]

These sound fabulous. You should publish a cookbook! Or at least healthy cooking blog!

As for the honey mustard dressing... I only have oriental hot mustard (in takeout packs) in my house right now. Think that'd work?

[Candy]

Helen, it would have a heckuva bite to it, but you could try it. Let me know how it turns out.