One of the best ways to spice up a salad is to pick the perfect dressing for your pallet. In this blog, I will share with you my favorite dressings. What is great about all of these and that you can change them up to your taste and create your own favorites. Salad dressings are a wonderful place to save money and calories by creating your own.
Three Super Simple Dressings
Fresh veggies, grains, and fruits really don't need a lot to dress them up. Sometimes, I use the following three items to create a fresh and wonderful dressing:
Fresh squeezed lemon, lime or orange juice
Your favorite flavored balsamic vinegar (I love lemon)
Your favorite salsa
Three Salad Dressings to Add Some Extra Pizzaz
The following three recipes are favorites of mine that I use to create a more complex flavor profile and to change up my salad or Buddha bowl.
This is a wonderful creamy balsamic dressing. You can leave out the ginger and add your favorite spice blend to create the perfect taste for your salad or Buddha bowl.
Essey's Favorite Balsamic Dressing
Servings: 3/4 cup
Source: Reversing and Preventing Heart Disease
INGREDIENTS
3 Tablespoons hummus
3 Tablespoons orange juice
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons minced ginger
DIRECTIONS
Combine all ingredients in blender or jar. Mix well
I love this make this sauce a dressing by adding some water to thin it out. It goes great on an asian inspired salad or Buddha bowl with greens such as cabbage and noodle salads.
Peanut Sauce
Servings: About 1/2 cup
Source: forksoverknives.com
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/8 cup low-sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon agave
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and whisk well. You can thin this out with water to make a wonderful dressing.
Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
For many of us, we just need some Ranch dressing for those certain salad mixtures. This one takes a little more work, but is well worth the effort.
Ranch Dressing
Servings: Serves: 1 cup
Source: Plant Powered Payson
INGREDIENTS
½ cup raw cashews, soaked and drained
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp horseradish
juice of 1/2 a lemon
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp fresh dill, minced
1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
1 tbsp fresh chives, minced
1/4 tsp garlic granules
1/4 tsp onion granules
1/2 to 3/4 cup non-dairy milk
DIRECTIONS
To make the dressing, add the cashews, garlic and onion granules, nutritional yeast, mustard, horseradish, lemon juice and 1/2 cup non-dairy milk to a high speed blender.
Blend the mixture until completely smooth — adding more non-dairy milk until you reach a nice thick, but still pourable, consistency. Depending on the intended purpose of the dressing, and how thick you like your dressing, add more or less non-dairy milk as desired.
Lastly, taste for seasoning. Note that this dressing if quite nice with good amount a bit of freshly ground black pepper, so don’t be too shy with it.
Refrigerate the dressing until ready to use. This dressing can be used as a dressing and/or as a dip.
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