Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Honey-Mustard-Ginger Dressing

There are a lot of advantages to making your own salad dressing, one of the major ones being that even high-quality store-bought salad dressings have extra ingredients in them such as sugar or preservatives. Plus, I think that home-made dressing tastes a lot better.

This is my favorite salad dressing recipe, which I have literally eat on salad almost every night. What can I say. But the major reason I've been doing this is that it's very easy to make a large batch of and have around. Once it's all mixed up, it will keep at room temperature for several weeks. I think it's also because if you make the large-batch version below, the garlic favor that gets infused into the oil and vinegar is REALLY delicious and something you can't get with store-bought.

So, I present two versions, the basic recipe that can be made more quickly and about a cup, or enough for a salad for several people, and the more time-intensive version that I usually make.

Honey-Mustard-Ginger Dressing (Quick Version)


1/2 C olive oil
1/4 C balsamic or apple cider vinegar
1/2 T honey
1/2 T dijon mustard
1/4 t black pepper
1/2 t salt
1/2 t ginger powder
1/2 t garlic powder

Honey-Mustard-Ginger Dressing (Batch Version)


**For this, you will need something glass to store the dressing in. You can use an old glass jar, or buy an olive oil bottle like the one I have in the photo below (which has clearly been used a few times :)).

1. Peel 4-5 cloves of garlic and slice in half. Put in bottom of glass container.



2. Add all other ingredients above, except for garlic powder. These are the ratios that work for my bottle, but adjust as needed:

1 C olive oil
1/2 C balsamic or apple cider vinegar
1 T honey
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 t black pepper
1 t salt
1 t ginger powder
(4-5 cloves garlic as mentioned)

This version obviously tastes the best after at least a day, since it takes time for the dressing to absorb the garlic flavor. ENJOY!