Making Your Own Salad Dressing

Many of my patients have been asking about salad dressings lately. I personally make my own with ingredients found in my pantry or refrigerator. Homemade dressings are good on leafy green salads, slaws or on grains salads such as barley or bulgur. Homemade salad dressings are a quick, healthy, and cheap alternative to bottled dressing. Homemade dressings tend to be lower in sodium, sugar, and preservatives. Simple dressings take minutes to make and use only a few ingredients.

Getting Started

Most dressings need a fat, an acid, and seasoning. Examples of each are found below:

• Fat: Oil, pasteurized egg, mayonnaise, sour cream, or cheese

• Acid: Lemon, lime, or orange juice, or any type of vinegar (red wine, balsamic, apple cider, rice, etc.)

• Seasoning: Garlic powder; mustard; salt; pepper; oregano, parsley, chives, and other herbs; or spices like curry powder, paprika, or celery seed

Keep portions of salad dressing to 2 tablespoons per serving to manage calories. You can refrigerate dressing in a sealed, airtight container (like a jar) for up to 7 days.

How to Make Salad Dressing

Use these easy steps for most salad dressing recipes:

1. Measure out the ingredients.

2. Whisk all ingredients, except the fat, in a medium-size bowl. Slowly pour in the fat while whisking the ingredients together.

3. Unless the recipe states otherwise, the dressing is ready to use on salad or other dishes. You can also make salad dressing using a jar with a screw-top lid. Add all of your ingredients to the jar, including the fat. Tightly screw on the lid. Shake the jar until all of the ingredients are well combined.

Recipe Ideas

• Lemon Vinaigrette: Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon into a bowl. Remove any seeds. Add salt and pepper to taste and whisk well to combine. Slowly whisk in ¼ cup extra

virgin olive oil. Makes 2 servings.

• Balsamic Vinaigrette: Finely chop 1 clove peeled garlic. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together ¼ cup balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon honey, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the garlic to the bowl and whisk well to combine. Continue to whisk while slowly adding ½ cup extra virgin olive oil. Makes 6 servings.

• Honey-Mustard Dressing: Add ¼ cup honey, ¼ cup Dijon mustard, ¼ cup reduced-fat plain Greek yogurt, and ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt to a medium-size bowl. Whisk well to combine. Add pepper to taste. Makes 6 servings.

Tips

• Add ¼–½ teaspoon Dijon mustard to salad dressings so the oil and vinegar won’t separate.

• When making creamy dressings, use low-fat or fat-free Greek yogurt or reduced-fat sour cream instead of mayonnaise or sour cream. This can help lower the calories.

• Use homemade dressing as a marinade for chicken or vegetables.