I'm often amazed by how much people spend on bottled salad dressings. Some of the ones in the grocery store are really expensive! You can make your own salad dressings at home for a fraction of the cost.
Homemade dressings are free of preservatives, artificial colours, and stabilizers. They are almost always made with better quality oil than you find in store bought dressings, and they have fresher, more vivid flavours.
Salad dressings are so simple to make that it rarely occurs to me to write a recipe for them, but I've noticed lately that when I post my supper menu on Facebook or my "What We Ate" menu revues here on the blog, I get requests for tutorials.
This honey mustard salad dressing the first of a series. I'll be sharing several salad dressings in the coming weeks.
I chose to begin with honey mustard salad dressing because we forage for nettles and young dandelion greens at this time of year. Both are slightly bitter tasting so a little sweetness is a welcome addition to our plate and, like all greens, nettles and dandelions pair well with mustard.
If you don't forage for greens, you'll still want to try this recipe. It works well with the spinach or the "spring greens" mix you see in the produce aisle, with radicchio, or as a dressing for cooked kale, beet greens, turnip greens, or Swiss chard.
To make honey mustard salad dressing, you'll need:
- 3 Tablespoons mild flavoured honey
- 2 Tablespoons mustard (I used a brown, whole grain mustard this time but do use whatever mustard you like best. This even works with a dijon/horseradish blend.)
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vinegar (I used a peach infused vinegar this time, but I've also used champagne vinegar, homemade cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, and even lemon or lime juice depending upon my salad ingredients.)
- salt to taste
Combine the honey, mustard, and vinegar in a small bowl and mix them together until well combined.
Test the consistency. If the dressing is too thick, add a little more vinegar.
When the dressing is the consistency you prefer, add salt a little at a time, whisking after each addition until your salad dressing is seasoned to your taste.
Store any leftover honey mustard salad dressing in a sealed container in the fridge.
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This post has been shared with the Adventurous Palette Program at The Aliso Kitchen.
