Making a Great Salad Dressing
There’s nothing worse than making a wonderful salad and having your salad dressing turn out to be less than average. We’re going to eradicate that problem by breaking down everything you need to know about salad dressing so your salad will never suck again. Every salad dressing needs to play it SAFE. That’s my little mnemonic device to remember all the things a dressing needs. SAFE stands for seasoning, acid, fat, and emulsifier. So, here’s what you need to know.
Acid
Acids are a wonderful base for salad dressings because their bright flavors will balance out the heavier components of the dressing and the salad. Great options to use in your salad dressing are:
Vinegar (balsamic, apple cider, red wine, champagne, white wine)
Citrus juice (lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit)
Emulsifier
Emulsifiers hold together the liquids in dressing and help bind together the components. There are also a lot of opportunities for adding lots of flavor to your dressing with whatever emulsifier you choose. The list of possible emulsifiers is miles long, but these are some of my favorites:
Chive
Scallion
Miso
Dijon
Hot sauce
Anchovies
Fresh herbs
Seasoning
Seasoning. Spice. Flavor. No matter what you do, always add salt and pepper to your dressing. If you are super anti-pepper, FINE don’t use it. But salt? When I say ‘seasoning’ I mostly mean salt, and if you don’t add salt to your dressing you’re just hurting yourself. Both salt and pepper will accentuate flavors in your dressing and just make it BETTER.
Fat
Hold on a second! Before you add the fat component to your dressing, give it a good mix to make everything homogenous. Okay, now that that’s taken care of it’s time for fat. The kind of fat you use in your dressing will make the difference between vinaigrettes and creamy dressings. If you want to make a vinaigrette any kind of oil will work. My favorite is extra virgin olive oil, but you could also try:
walnut oil,
grape seed oil
sesame oil
avocado oil
coconut oil
If you prefer creamy dressings for a salad you’re making, try working with some of these fats:
Buttermilk
Greek yogurt
Sour cream
Tahini
Egg yolk
Steps
Every time you make a dressing you always want your ratio to be 2 parts fat, one part acid. That’s a good baseline. I usually start with 1 tablespoon acid to 2 tablespoons fat.
Start with your acid and your emulsifier, don’t forget to add your seasoning. Mix together in a bowl or mason jar.
Next, add your fat. Whisk together until combined or close up that mason jar and shake away.
Congrats, you just made an epic dressing. Proud of you.
Now that you have all these components, the world is your oyster and you’ll be able to make countless awesome salad dressings. If you want to speed up the process of whisking up your dressing, I love to pop everything into a mason jar, screw on the top, and give it a wild shake to blend everything together. TaDa!