Salad Dressings
Homemade dressings are easy to make and often healthier than store bought. Once you have done them a couple of times you will see how easy they are to make. Making your own will allow you to control what ingredients you use and you can make them to your specific taste. Salads are so much nicer with a homemade dressing! See below for basic recipes but feel free to experiment and change recipes to suit your families taste.
French dressing or vinaigrette: very simple to do, standard proportions are 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil, for example: 1 tbsp of vinegar + 3tbsp of oil, then just mix together. You can change the flavours depending on the oil & vinegar you use. Traditionally made with white wine vinegar & olive oil but feel free to experiment with different vinegars and oils to find your favourite (or use whatever you have in your cupboards). You can add chopped fresh herbs to the vinaigrette to make it a herb one, crushed garlic to make it a garlic vinaigrette. Add a bit of mustard & honey to make it a honey & mustard vinaigrette, a people pleaser with the sweetness of the honey. The best way to make & store vinaigrettes is in jars. Add all the ingredients to a jar, close with the lid, give it a good shake and, voila, ready to use & store in the fridge.
Lemon dressing: as the vinaigrette but using lemon instead of vinegar. You can then add herbs, garlic, mustard & honey like above. Lemon dressing is ideal for salads that have fish (tuna) or shellfish (prawns). It is also a lovely staple to keep at all times in a jar in the fridge, especially yummy over grilled vegetables, fish or chicken – super handy in BBQ season.
You can always use mayonnaise for a pasta salad dressing. You can keep it plain or you can also add some herbs to it, a squeeze of lemon or some garlic (to make garlic mayo /aioli). Choosing the light mayonnaise is always a good option if you are trying to cut down in calories. Alternatively mix some fat free Greek yoghurt with your mayo to lower the fat content – a great way to still get the mayo taste but with lower calories.
Yoghurt dressing: 150g Greek/natural yoghurt (ideally low/no fat if you are trying to cut down in calories) + 1tsp mustard + 1tsp vinegar + 1- 2tsp honey + salt & pepper. You can also add chopped herbs, crushed garlic or finely chopped onion. This dressing is especially good with lettuce based salads or used as a dip with crudités (vegetable sticks).
If you are making salads with noodles and lots of lovely crunchy vegetables, you may want to use a more Asian inspired dressing than a classic vinaigrette. You can make a simple sesame dressing: 1 part soy sauce + 2 parts sesame oil+ 1 part white wine vinegar+ 1 part vegetable oil (sunflower/olive/rapeseed) + pinch of sugar or a little bit of honey. You can also add crushed garlic/garlic powder or grated ginger/ground ginger to it for extra flavour.
