If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Life Changing Salad Dressing

Who knew salad dressing could change your life? Nothing surprises me anymore...

Salad is one of my very favorite dishes, especially in the summer because it's so cold and fresh and you can use plenty of homegrown ingredients! But even when it starts getting cold outside, I can't pass up a good salad. Especially not after discovering the most delectable salad dressing in all the world.

This recipe originated from a co-worker of mine. She has become the salad lady at our potlucks ever since she brought this dressing in. She's made a few different salads that have never failed us, but this is my personal favorite. I tweaked it just a little but it's basically the same. I made this about once a week on average over the summer. And last night I had a craving for it again and just about overdosed on it. I survived.

I usually have these ingredients on hand but there may be a couple of things you don't have right away that you'll need to stock up on if you want to try this. Thankfully, they're all relatively inexpensive and will last a LONG time so that you can make this dressing again and again without having to restock the ingredients very often.

I like to make this for side salad sometimes but most of the time I make a large salad with some kind of meat (usually rotisserie chicken) and eat it for dinner with a side of bread!

This dressing just doesn't really have a name. So we'll just called it "The Best."

The Best Salad Dressing











Servings: ~10
Calories per serving: ~180

Ingredients:
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of sugar (or 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup Splenda)
4 tsp onion powder
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp celery salt
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup olive oil

Instructions:
Whisk all ingredients together EXCEPT olive oil.* Warm olive oil in microwave for 20-30 seconds and then drizzle in slowly with the rest of the ingredients while whisking together. 

*If you didn't read the instructions first and accidentally added the olive oil before heating it, don't panic, I've done it before. It mixes better when the olive oil is warm, so just stick the whole thing in the microwave and nuke it for 15-20 seconds and it should be fine.

Special Instructions:
  • Do not store dressing in a metal container as it will take on a metallic taste.
  • This recipe makes at least 10 servings but it can be refrigerated for quite a while as long as it's in a sealed container like an old, washed out plastic or glass salad dressing bottle.
  • If you do store the dressing for later, make sure to mix it up well with a whisk and/or microwave for 20-30 seconds before using it, as the vinegar and oil will separate.

Drizzle (or saturate) your salad with dressing!

Mangia!

If you want suggestions for salad fixings, see "recipe" below for one of my favorite ways to make salad.












Ingredients in salad pictured:
  • Romaine lettuce (chopped because I like my lettuce more bite sized)
  • Grape tomatoes, cut in half
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped (with yolk)
  • Yellow onion
  • Chick peas, 1 can, drained
  • Dried cranberries
  • Walnuts, chopped
  • Blue cheese crumbles
  • Rotisserie chicken
Other favorites to use in salad:
  • Strawberries
  • Goat/Feta cheese
  • Pecans
  • Red onion
  • Croutons
  • Green/Red/Yellow bell pepper
  • Grapes
  • Chopped Ham
  • Corn
  • Etc. Etc. Etc.!

On another note... How cute is my dog???

No comments:

Post a Comment

***If you want to comment and you don't already have an account or don't want to register for one, just comment under "Anonymous" OR "Name/URL." For Name/URL, you can just put your name and leave the URL part blank if you want! Thanks!***