Making you own salad dressing might seem like one more thing you just don’t have time for, but it can literally be done in about 30 seconds. Plus, it’s so much better than the stuff you buy at the supermarket which is generally full of artificial ingredients and added sugar.
Most salad dressings boil down to a very simple combination of ingredients – the secret is having the right combination of oil, acidity and sweetness. If you can learn the simple formula for this combination you’ll be able to whip up your own delicious and super healthy salad dressing without so much as a glance at a recipe book.
So, here is the magic formula:
60% oil + 30% acid + 10% other flavours
Simple as that (and it doesn’t need to be exact)
To put this into practice:
- Choose an oil
- Extra virgin olive oil is my top pick
- Choose an acid, e.g.
- Any kind of vinegar (balsamic, red wine, white wine, red wine, apple cider, sherry etc)
- Lemon juice (or any other citrus juice)
Other flavours (can be any combination of these)
- Honey
- Mustard
- Herbs
- Garlic
- Tahini
- Ginger
- Jam (works surprisingly well if you want a sweeter dressing)
Then, customise it
Once you’ve got this formula down, you can start playing around with some more fancy ingredients. For example:
Asian style? Use sesame oil and add some chopped coriander and perhaps some ginger and chilli too
Italian? Add some chopped basil, a pinch of dried oregano and some crushed garlic
Want it creamy but still healthy? Use natural yoghurt in place of some of the acid.
So, to make around 1 cup of dressing, you’ll need roughly:
2/3 cup oil
1/3 cup acid
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon mustard
Put all your ingredients in a jar or bottle, put the lid on, give it a shake and you’re good to go. The dressing should keep for at least a few weeks in the fridge.
Now go make some salad! (and if you need some salad 101, click here)
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