Well, more like dressings...Anyone have any good ideas for salad dressings? I'm mainly thinking vinagerettes, or something citrus-based. I have a pretty good variety of things to make something with, but I'm lacking ideas. I usually use allrecipes.com, mainly b/c you can search by what you have. But I'm looking for some personal/tried-and-true suggestions.

I know we have veg and olive oil, balsalmic & red wine vinegar, lemons, lime (maybe), oranges, grapefruits, garlic, onion, soy & teryaki sauce, mustard (brown and dijon), ketchup, worcester sauce, parmesan and cheddar cheese, plain yogurt, honey, most of the typical herbs and spices you'd find in a kitchen, and stuff like some strawberries, a full container of blackberries, etc.

my roommate has more culinary prowess than i do, so she'd usually be my suggestion source, but I offered to take care of dinner tonight since she's working late-ish. Help?

5/25/2006 5:41:07 PM

ranch

5/25/2006 5:45:13 PM

ranch

5/25/2006 5:46:09 PM

no thx. and the point of this is to use what i have in my kitchen already.

5/25/2006 5:46:24 PM

poppyseed!

kinda sweet, very good with fruit

5/25/2006 5:48:05 PM

i've heard that (always see poppyseed salad w/strawberries, etc at places like panera)... but i don't think i have poppy seeds.

5/25/2006 5:49:44 PM

raspberry vinagrette or citrus vinagrette. I don't have a recipe, but if you find one-make it. It's so good!

5/25/2006 5:52:19 PM

yeah i've been looking at some blackberry vinaigrette (sp? that's what i found on foodnetwork's website). or an orange dressing, since i know it'll have fresh spinach in it. but i still haven't found anything i'm really fond of.

5/25/2006 6:08:24 PM

cmon people

5/25/2006 6:40:58 PM

buttermilk ranch

5/25/2006 6:43:30 PM

my mom makes a simple lemon and sugar mix for salads, really simple and good.

5/25/2006 7:12:07 PM

ranch

5/25/2006 7:15:06 PM

i <3 raspberry vinegerette
mmmmmm

but you have to get the right brand because it comes in many different consistencies.
the wholefoods brand is raspberry vinegerette is pretty darn good.

5/25/2006 7:16:47 PM

i want that new spritz dressing like i spritz is 10 calories

5/25/2006 7:16:59 PM

ranch dressing is fucking disgusting

that is all

5/25/2006 7:40:26 PM

And don't forget to add some parmesan cheese to your salad with ranch.

5/25/2006 7:42:02 PM

I guess I should have said earlier the point of this thread was to avoid storebought dressings.

I found an Alton Brown recipe that I followed, somewhat. 2 cloves of garlic smushed up, some salt and pepper, 2 tsp mustard (I used one spicy brown, one dijon), olive oil, and his was a vinaigrette, but i used the juice of one lemon instead. Oh, and I added a small touch of honey. it's gonna be atleast 30 minutes before dinner, so I'm gonna let it sit, and taste it in a few, to see if I should add more oil, or vinegar (almost out of lemons).

we'll see. it's soooo frustrating b/c my mom makes a dressing 90% of the time we have salads that i love. it's lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, some oregano, salt, pepper, and some feta cheese. and she adds dried mint to the salad. she has this perfect balance that i cannot recreate at all. tried many times, and it's never quite right. >.<

5/25/2006 7:43:15 PM

I went to a high end restaurant in Michigan called Charlie's Crab and they had what was called The Martha's Vineyard Salad

It consisted of

Romaine Lettuce
Red Onions
Crumbled Blue Cheese
Pine Nuts
Raspberry Vinegar


The raspberry vinegar compliments the blue cheese very well.

[Edited on May 25, 2006 at 8:08 PM. Reason : .]

5/25/2006 8:07:43 PM

don't tell us to eat cheese



we are FAT

5/25/2006 8:32:49 PM

ranch

5/25/2006 8:48:18 PM

cucumber ranch

5/25/2006 8:58:54 PM

texas pete

5/25/2006 9:02:19 PM

olive oil + balsalmic + pinch of salt and pepper = best dressing ever

5/25/2006 9:08:15 PM

Green Goddess

5/25/2006 10:48:55 PM

I prefer red wine vinegar simply because balsamic gets to be too overpowering for frequent use. BUt yeah, no need to do too much. Only add like one herb or one fruit juice or its just too complex to really taste it.

These are my two favorite Caesar dressing recipes. They are pretty damn similar but the differences are substantial enough to not trash one of them.
http://www.napastyle.com/kitchen/recipes/recipe.jsp?recipe_id=276&category_id=112
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cooking/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_23416,00.html

Oh, and don't forget asian style dressings... sesame oil, peanut butter, soy sauce, etc. Makes for good change of pace.

5/25/2006 11:02:53 PM

make some of that italian dressing that comes in packets. i think its called good seasons. you buy the packets and the bottle for a couple of bucks and add oil, vinegar, and water. it is THE BEST italian dressing EVAR

5/25/2006 11:36:10 PM

to make balsamic vinegar less overpowering, cook some of the water out of it by heating it in a saucepan. it makes its sweeter and this is really good as a salad dressing (just don't overdo it or you'll get a sticky mess stuck on your pan) i use it over baby spinach with oranges and bacon and it is really good

5/25/2006 11:38:50 PM

thx for all the suggestions. haha manda didn't even eat the salad (she didn't eat much. not hungry), so it was only me as judge. i was happy with what turned out, but i still want/like all of the suggestions. if i have time this weekend, i'm thinking about trying to make a few different dressings that i can keep in the fridge. even though it's not -that- hard to whip something up each day, it'd be nice to have some i know i'll like, and use. i definitely want to do something asiany, ginger or peanut, and other things.

i usually use spinach either in with my salad with romaine, or as the leaf as a whole in the salad. i <3 fresh spinach. so i'm gonna try out some of these balsamic ideas (i don't at all use this vinegar), and i also wanna find something citrusy, that's not just lemon or lime. we'll see what happens.

^question...wouldnt cooking water out of it do more concentrating of the flavors? so it's the same powerful balsamic punch in a smaller amt? I guess i'm comparing this to deglazing, etc.

5/25/2006 11:52:49 PM

Balsamic is good stuff. Wont make your ass too fat either.

5/26/2006 12:44:38 AM

it smelled really good, though!

5/26/2006 12:54:05 AM

I'm not big on store bought dressings, but the Kraft Greek Vinaigrette is the bomb. It's got a pesto'ish taste.

5/26/2006 1:45:42 AM

^^

5/26/2006 2:16:56 AM

[quote\]if i have time this weekend, i'm thinking about trying to make a few different dressings that i can keep in the fridge[/quote]

cook for me, kkthx

5/26/2006 2:25:15 AM

Quote :

"^question...wouldnt cooking water out of it do more concentrating of the flavors? so it's the same powerful balsamic punch in a smaller amt? I guess i'm comparing this to deglazing, etc."

Yes, it would be intense flavor in a smaller amount. Its not deglazing, but it is reducing (which is what you usually do after deglazing so you were in the right area of thinking). If you buy a higher quality balsamic that is aged it will also have the sweeter, more intense flavor and have a slightly thicker consistency but it can get pricey so most people just have the grocery store variety.

Quote :

"i usually use spinach either in with my salad with romaine, or as the leaf as a whole in the salad. i <3 fresh spinach. so i'm gonna try out some of these balsamic ideas (i don't at all use this vinegar)"

Oh, you are definitely missng out if you haven't tried balsamic based dressings. A great salad is baby spinach, sliced strawberries, roasted sweet pecans (brown sugar and butter on them then put in the oven), and a little goat cheese or parmigiano-reggiano with a balsamic vinaigrette for the dressing.

Oh, and for anyone who wants a really good vinaigrette from the grocery store that is relatively healthy try Maple Grove Farms Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette:

I'm also a big fan of Ken's Steakhouse Lite Caesar dressing.

5/26/2006 8:48:05 AM

^hmm, thanks for the advice. i think i've never really used it is b/c growing up, we never ate vinaigrette dressings. my father despises vinegar, and we usually had the olive oil/lemon/garlic dressing on salads at home. so now that i'm cooking day-to-day, i can try new things, experiment, etc.

5/26/2006 5:43:22 PM

Harris Teeter has a good Wasabi dressing that is naturally low fat. It's yummy too.

5/26/2006 7:14:55 PM

mmm wasabi!

5/27/2006 1:13:06 PM