Growing up, I remember my grandmother making her own salad dressing. She made her own everything actually… mayonnaise, jams and jellies, pasta, bread… and it was all incredible. As a little girl, it blew my mind that someone could make mayonnaise right there in their own kitchen, but in my late teens and early twenties, I just thought of her as a mythical Martha Stewart like woman spending extra time on things that were quite delicious, but could also just be picked up at the grocery store.
Fast forward a few years and I now make most of my salad dressing too. What happened, you ask? There are quite a few reasons that I started actually…
- BETTER INGREDIENTS – have you ever taken a look at the ingredient list on the back of your store bought salad dressing? I can’t read half of the things in there and none of them are necessary to make your dressing taste amazing. When you make your own, you are in complete control of everything going into your body and I love the sound of that!
- ITS REALLY SIMPLE – making your own salad dressing is really easy, as in most of them take less than 5 minutes to whip up.
- IT REDUCES WASTE – I can make only what I need for this meal and not have a huge opened salad dressing bottle in my refrigerator for the next two years, that may end up being expired by the time I reach for it again.
- CUSTOMIZE YOUR FLAVORS – sometimes when I use store bought dressings, I need to add salt and black pepper or wish there was a stronger garlic flavor or wish the dressing was thinner or thicker, but there isn’t much you can do to a store bought salad dressing and if you start customizing a store bought dressing, you might as well just make your own exactly how you want it, right?
- EASY CALORIE CONTROL – I love a good ranch dressing, but sometimes I want a lighter ranch and sometimes I want something a bit more luxurious. Did you know that there are 100 calories in 1 tablespoon of your typical mayonnaise, but only 10 calories in the same amount of low fat Greek yogurt? Yep and they are totally interchangeable in almost every dressing recipe and the flavors are surprisingly similar. Just making that swap can save you 90 calories in 1 tablespoon of dressing… awesome, right?
Types of Salad Dressings
If you are wondering what your options are when it comes to salad dressings, you may be happy to find out that your options are plentiful. There are two major categories to choose from: oil based dressings and creamy dressings. Now, of course, there are some dressings that require cooking and some dressings that are compiled as you build the salad and some dressings that require special equipment, but right now I just want to cover the simple ones that you can whip up today with a whisk and a bowl and zero special skills or even patience required.
So, within these two categories, you can really get creative with your flavors. Your options are really endless when it comes to customization, but here are some of my favorites…
- OIL BASED DRESSINGS – an oil based dressing would be a vinaigrette or something like Italian dressing or this pink poppyseed dressing. Oil based simply means that the base of the dressing does not contain yogurt, mayonnaise or sour cream. Some of them contain vinegar, but if you don’t love vinegar, leave it out! I love citrus, so I almost always add some to my salad dressings. Some of my favorite citrus dressings are this blood orange vinaigrette and this fresh lemon vinaigrette. There are many options to have fun with here!
- CREAMY DRESSINGS – the classic creamy dressings are ranch, caesar, a waldorf dressing and any other dressing using yogurt, sour cream or mayonnaise (or a combination of the three) as its base. When it comes to these dressings, there are a wide variety of options in both flavor and how much effort you want to put in. For example, my simple ranch dressing uses Hidden Valley seasoning mix and is ready in about 2 minutes, but if you want to make your ranch completely from scratch, you can make this buttermilk herb ranch dressing, which requires some herb chopping and measuring out more spices, but it is still ready in minutes and results in an addictively fabulous dressing. Then, once your ranch is whipped up, you can add jalapeños, lime juice, cilantro or whatever else you’d like into it to make it perfectly match the dish you are serving it with.
Your options are endless and once you start playing with customizing a dressing to your specific salad, whether it be a spicy taco salad or a classic French Salad Niçoise, you can make a dressing that will pair with it perfectly.
Getting Started
In order to start making your own salad dressing for todays lunch, these are some of the ingredients you may need…
- THE BASE – you will need some olive oil and vinegar (red wine, rice wine, champagne, apple cider, balsamic, distilled white… whatever you love most) or some Greek yogurt, sour cream or mayonnaise… depending on the type of dressing you want to make.
- THE SEASONING – this is where the dressing really becomes “your” dressing. Start by adding a pinch of garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne, crushed red pepper flakes, tajín or whatever spices you love and work from there. Remember, you can always add more, but you can’t go back in time if you added too much, so start with a little, test it out and go from there.
- THE CITRUS – while a citrus element is not in every dressing recipe, I can’t think of a dressing that wouldn’t be better with a little squeeze of lemon or some lime zest. Now thats just my citrus obsessed opinion talking, but adding a squeeze of fresh citrus juice adds a great layer of flavor that brightens up your salad dressing. You can add any type of citrus too… oranges, grapefruits, clementines, limes, lemons… whatever you have on the counter top can be squeezed or zested into your dressing!
- A BIT OF SWEETNESS – in some dressings, a little bit of sweetness is needed to balance out the acidity and saltiness, so adding a squeeze of honey, a pinch of sugar or even some agave or guarana can take things from good to fabulous.
- FRESH HERBS – if you have some fresh or dried herbs on hand, you can toss them into your dressing too! I love cilantro (my apologies to the cilantro haters), so I usually have it on hand and love adding some finely chopped cilantro into my dressings. Parsley, dill, tarragon, mint, chives, basil or rosemary work great too!
- MUSTARDS – a teaspoon or so of a good mustard adds delicious flavor to a homemade salad dressing and if you do some recipe research, you will find that many dressings call for dijon, spicy brown or grainy mustards in the mix. If you are not a fan of mustard, its totally fine to leave it out, but if you love mustards bold flavor, then add a bit into your dressing!
Getting Your Texture Just Right
When it comes to the texture or consistency of your salad dressing, much of this is up to personal preference, but as a rule, if you are making a dressing to be used as dip for a batch of wings, you will probably want that dressing a little on the thicker side. Now, if you are making a lighter dressing to be drizzled over some greens, you will most likely want a thinner consistency.
Here are some tips for getting your consistency just right…
- EMULSIFYING – if you are making a vinaigrette and you notice that your olive oil and vinegar don’t want to be friends, then you need to emulsify. This means that you need to combine the ingredients in a way that will make them want to fully incorporate. This step is technically unnecessary, but will result in a superior product. There are two ways to emulsify: you can combine your dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor and slowly drizzle the oil in while blending, which will help to break down the oil as it incorporates with the other ingredients creating a more combined, cohesive consistency or you can add mustard to the recipe and whisk vigorously by hand. Mustard seeds contain mucilage and this substance is capable of combining liquids that would not normally stay combined. Mustard is all about bringing things together. Mustard rocks!
- BLENDING – similar to emulsifying, blending a dressing can help things get really creamy, real quick! Let’s say you have already combined your vinaigrette ingredients and they aren’t playing nice. Simply tossing them in a blender for a quick pulse can help things come together quick and can save your arms a good bit of work. Some dressings, like my pink poppyseed vinaigrette, include red onions that are blended until smooth to both incorporate a bit of onion flavor into each drop, but also create a gorgeous pink color. You can also toss your creamy salad dressing ingredients into a blender if you want to bring things together in seconds instead of minutes.
- THINNING – this is typically only required in creamy dressings, as oil based dressings are usually more thin in consistency and already great for drizzling, but if your dressing is thicker than you prefer, adding a tablespoon of milk, buttermilk, almond milk or citrus juice is a great way to create a thinner consistency in your salad dressing. Avoid adding water, as it will dilute the flavors and have trouble fully incorporating.
Storing Your Salad Dressing
If you have a little leftover salad dressing or made a bigger batch on purpose, transfer the dressing into an airtight container (I love using mason jars) and chill them in the refrigerator. Oil and vinegar based dressings will easily last four weeks in an airtight container. For creamy dressings, check the expiration dates on the yogurt, sour cream or mayonnaise that you used and write down the earliest date of expiration on the top of your jar and thats what I go off of.
Remember to give your dressing a vigorous shake after it has been sitting for a while to wake everybody up and re-incorporate the ingredients.
Now that you are a bit more familiar with making your own salad dressing, I hope you consider giving it a try and if you do, I would love to hear about it!
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away! I’d love to hear from you!
Now. go dress some salads!!
