Make Your Own Salad Dressings

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I use to buy all my salad dressing from the grocery store. I thought that was how everyone did it. I felt like making salad dressing myself would just be one more kitchen job to do and I wanted the convenience of store bought dressing… Then I became health conscious and started reading labels and well, most of the dressings I found, were, well, yuck as far as ingredients go. Sugar, bad oils, hydrogenated oils, MSG, fillers, thickeners, etc.. When I try and find better quality dressings (which I can find at health food stores and through Azure) I find them to be very expensive, especially considering the rate at which we consume salad in this house (we eat fresh green salad every day).

Sometimes our perception that something is going to be hard or time consuming is just that, a perception. I eventually began making my own salad dressings and found that not only are they a frugal and healthy, they don’t take any time at all to put together. Last night I made a batch of Oriental Salad Dressing and timed myself.. it took less than 5 minutes for me to mix up the recipe and it yielded about 2 cups of dressing. Our favorite dressing of all time is still Ranch. But we also make Italian and a few others when we are in the mood for variety.

Here are my favorite recipes:

Ranch Salad Dressing
Bleu Cheese Salad Dressing
Catalina Salad Dressing
Italian Salad Dressing
Oriental Salad Dressing

Comments

  1. jimswifeJune 11, 2009 at 4:01 AM

    I have also been making our salad dressings for quite some time now. It sure saves a ton of money as we have fresh lettuce in the garden almost year round. My favorite is blue cheese....with making my own I can afford to buy better quality blue cheese and that is a good thing!


    Thanks for all your tips...I always look forward to your updates and your news letter. Sure hope you are enjoying the summer as we are.


    Have a day full of blessings,

    Lori

    ReplyDelete
  2. MissBeeJune 11, 2009 at 4:10 AM

    these great recipes! We love to mix our own HV Buttermilk Ranch, but those little packets of mix really add up. I'll definitely have to try the Sesame and Italian, too.


    Quick question: when making the Ranch, do you add the lemon juice when using buttermilk - since the lemon juice acts to curdle/thicken the milk and buttermilk is already curdled/thickened?

    ReplyDelete
  3. millersgrainhouseJune 11, 2009 at 4:57 AM

    We save the glass bottles from Tazo and Snapple Teas to keep dressings in. Great size so that nothing spoils before we use it up!


    Thanks for sharing these!

    Your stuff is always so good!


    Donna

    Owner of Millers Grain House online Store

    ReplyDelete
  4. PennysueJune 11, 2009 at 2:28 PM

    Thank you Crystal for the good recipes. I am looking forward to trying them.

    In the Lord's strength,

    Penny

    ReplyDelete
  5. mdonohueJune 11, 2009 at 5:11 PM

    I love, love, love Ranch dressing. I used to buy the packet and mix it up, but since I found your recipe and tried it, I haven't needed to buy the mix. I put different herbs in it depending on what I feel like. It is very good with a little fresh cilantro, chives, or parsley. Thank you for helping take one more item off my shopping list for good! :o)

    ~Michelle

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  6. AnonymousJune 11, 2009 at 9:59 PM

    Thanks for sharing for recipes for the dressings. I also want to incorporate more salads into our menu but I have a hard time keeping them fresh. If we have any leftovers they turn brown by the next day. How do you keep your salads fresh?

    ReplyDelete
  7. lindseyinalJune 13, 2009 at 12:08 PM

    It took me a while to get a homemade ranch-style recipe that my children genuinely liked. The key for them was dried chives. It's still not exactly like Hidden Valley but my husband and I both prefer my homemade version and the kids haven't asked for "real" ranch in weeks!!

    ReplyDelete

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