Incredibly Easy and Delicious Vinaigrettes

Who loves salad? Did no one raise their hand? Well that is going to change! Most people don’t enjoy salad because their salad is boring. If you want to really enjoy it, add some crunch! Pine nuts, apple, rough crushed tortilla chips, etc. That crunch changes everything, but it isn’t a salad without something to pull all the flavours together, and that’s where the dressing comes in. Ranch and Caesar dressings are very high in fats, sugars and calories, which works against the healthy choice of having a salad, so let’s look at the simplest dressings, that are low calorie but high flavour.

VINAIGRETTES

Basic Vinaigrette

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 tsp white vinegar
• a dash of black pepper
• a dash of corse salt
• the juice of half a lemon

Mix your oil, vinegar and pepper. Drizzle it over your salad then mix you salad until all elements have a rough coating of the dressing. Now squeeze your lemon juice over the salad and sprinkle your salt. Toss up your salad and serve.

Raspberry Vinaigrette

• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 3 tsp vinegar
• 5-10 raspberries
• 1/2 tsp honey
• a dash of corse salt

Put vinegar, raspberries and honey into your blender (I use my Ninjas smallest smoothie cup for this). Pulse until raspberries are broken apart. Mix with your oil (do not blend you oil, it holds onto air bubbles too well). Drizzle over your salad, toss, add your salt and toss again. Serve and enjoy.

Garlic Vinaigrette

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 tsp vinegar
• 1 clove of garlic minced or 1/2 tsp garlic powder + 1 tsp dried crushed garlic
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• a dash of cayenne pepper
• a dash of corse salt
• the juice of half a lemon

Mix your oil, vinegar, garlic, onion powder, black pepper and cayenne. Drizzle over your salad. (If you are using tired garlic, you will want to mix at least 10 minutes before dressing your salad, mixing often, to get the flavour to come through). Squeeze your lemon over the salad and sprinkle your salt. Toss and serve.

The great thing about making your dressings at home is that you can really customize to what flavours you want to enjoy! Spinach and arugula taste great with both robust flavours and sweeter flavours. Romain is fantastic with a little spicy kick. Iceberg lettuce has little flavour on it’s own so it acn wear any dressing!

Make Your Own

The basics of a vinaigrette is its proportions. 1:3 oil to vinegar. You can use any vinegar you want but I would recommend keeping close to olive oil, grape-seed oil and avocado oil. These all lend well to a variety of flavours and hold their own in the recipe. Let me know what recipes you use to add flavour to your salads!