Recipes: Three Awesome Salad Dressings

"You’re going to have to eat that salad if you want dessert." Growing up in Steven’s house, a plate of leafy greens was viewed as a punishment. Each of the kids was required to consume at least a few pieces of iceberg lettuce drowning in bottled ranch dressing. Steven, in particular, responded to it as though he was being asked to eat a live cockroach.

​Contrast this with Andrea’s house. There was no iceberg lettuce or store-bought dressing sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup and pumped full of chemicals to increase the shelf life. Her family assembled salads of fresh romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and other vegetables served lightly dressed in a homemade dressing.
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Throughout the long Colorado summers, Andrea and her siblings would pick fresh greens and vegetables from their garden and then fight over who got to wash and cut them. The downside of all of this “kitchen help” was that someone was invariably served a slug.

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Fact: Assuming each person at Andrea’s dinner table received an equal portion of salad, the distribution of garden mollusks throughout the family should’ve been random. This was not the case. More often than not - and Steven interviewed several family members to confirm this - the slug went to Andrea’s younger sister Cassandra.
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Andrea argues that this was a naturally occurring statistical anomaly. Steven is not convinced. At the risk of sounding paranoid, when Steven looks at the grassy knoll he sees shadows of Andrea’s older brother.

A bowl of lettuce is just a bowl of lettuce. It takes dressing to make a great salad. Steven’s parents knew this and hoped that the food scientists at Kraft could fill that void. As we mentioned, Andrea’s family made fresh dressing every night.

After all those years of practice, all of Andrea’s siblings hold the equivalent of a PhD in salad dressings. They exchange tips and recipes every time they cook together. If competitive salad making were a sport, they would dominate it like the Manning brothers.
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Here are three of Andrea’s best vinaigrettes. Paired with fresh greens, any one of these dressings will yield perfection. (Obviously, the slugs are optional.)

Three Variations on Vinaigrette

Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• 1 medium shallot (yielding approximately 2 tbsp.)
• 1 small clove of garlic (optional)
• 2 tsp. smooth Dijon mustard
• 4 tbsp. balsamic vinegar (This will impact the taste of the dressing more than anything else. A sweet balsamic = sweet dressing. More acidic = stronger, more tart dressing. It’s impossible to own too many balsamic vinegars. Experiment with different ones to find your favorite.)
• 8 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (Feel free to add more if you like an oilier dressing. Less if you like more vinegar. Our ideal ratio is 2:1 balsamic to oil.)
• 1 tsp. salt
• Black pepper to taste

Method:

1. Thoroughly chop the shallot and garlic and place in a medium bowl. Add the balsamic and allow the mixture to sit for five to 10 minutes. Add the mustard. Add the salt. Mix well. It’s important to add the salt at this phase because salt does not dissolve easily in oil. Once the oil is added, the salt tends to remain in the liquid like tiny grains of sand.
2. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while whisking. The dressing should thicken quite a bit. (The technical term is “emulsify,” but most people have not seen that word since they last studied for the SAT.)
3. Add pepper to taste. Let the dressing rest for at least 10 minutes before using; this allows the flavors to combine. Re-whisk the dressing just before pouring it on to the salad.
4. This recipe makes more than enough for a few salads. Feel free to make it in advance, as the dressing will keep in the refrigerator for a week or more.

Making The Balsamic Vinaigrette:

Champagne Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• 1 small clove of garlic
• ½ tsp. smooth Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp. champagne vinegar
• 4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (Again, feel free to add more if you like an oilier dressing. Less if you like more vinegar.)
• ½ tsp. salt

Method:

1. Mince the garlic and combine it with the vinegar, mustard and salt in a bowl. As with the Balsamic Dressing, mix well and then allow the mixture to rest for five to 10 minutes.
2. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while whisking. The dressing should thicken. Let the dressing sit for at least 10 minutes in order to unify the flavors. Re-whisk the dressing before pouring it onto the salad.
3. The recipe yields enough for one large salad. The dressing will keep for a week or more in the refrigerator.

Variations on the above:

• Substitute mustard with a mixture of lemon juice, orange juice or lime juice along with the champagne vinegar for light citrus component. Without mustard, the dressing will not thicken as much. (This variation is admittedly vague, but it’s by design. It has to be done to taste. But here is our favorite version: Lose the mustard and use ½ orange juice and ½ champagne vinegar. This version of the dressing goes unbelievably well with duck.)
• Any light, tangy vinegar will work in place of the champagne vinegar. Examples include white sherry, white wine and light or white balsamic vinegars. Rice vinegar will also work, and it gives the dressing a distinctly Asian flair. (To make the flavor even more Asian, add a few drops of sesame oil and ¼ tsp. chopped ginger.)
• Add finely chopped herbs (fresh tarragon, thyme, sage, basil and parley are all excellent options) to make your vinaigrette more aromatic. This is particularly good in the summer if you, like us, have fresh herbs growing in your garden.

Lemon Olive Oil Dressing

This is our favorite dressing for arugula and other bitter or peppery greens. As an added bonus, it pairs far better with wine than either of the two previous dressings. Vinegars tend to fight with wine. This dressing does not. If you want to channel your inner sommelier and match your salad course to a glass of wine, this is definitely the way to go.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. lemon juice (3 tbsp. Meyer lemon juice if you can get Meyer lemons.)
• 4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• ½ tsp. salt

Method:

1. Add the salt to lemon juice. Mix until the salt dissolves.
2. Slowly drizzle oil into the lemon juice while whisking vigorously. The dressing should thicken and change color to a light, milky yellow. Let the dressing rest for 10 minutes and re-whisk it just before pouring it onto the salad.
3. This recipe yields enough for one large salad. Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for two to three days, but this dressing is best served immediately.

Making The Lemon Vinaigrette: Note The Color Change.

​Note: All these dressings are relatively low in salt. We tend to be conservative when it comes to salting food. You can always add more to your salad, but it’s impossible to take salt away.