Salads Dressings

Salad Dressings

A salad dressing should always enhance the flavour of the salad and should not drown the individual taste of the ingredients.

Oils

selection of green leaves and strawberries with French dressing

For most vegetable salads involving green leaves a light oil is preferable, Rapeseed/or Sunflower oil, is best suited.

For specific salads involving Asian herbs and spices, Peanut oil or Sesame oil can be used.

Using a mixture of leaves and other ingredients, a Virgin olive oil, or some of the Nut oils, like Walnut, Hazelnut, Oils with herbs and Spices etc. can be used.  For most salads a mixture of olive oil and  the special oil works best.

! A dressing is a good as your oil and vinegar. For everyday salads a good Rapeseed Oil or a good sunflower oil is the best to have in your cupboard.

Rape(seed)Oil (Canola)

has been established as being the best everyday oil to use in you cooking, may it be frying or in salad dressing. It can be heated to higher temperature than Olive oil and is thus safer for consumption. A lot of supermarkets carry now Rapeseed Oil. It is said to be healthier than Olive Oil.

Olive Oil 

has a very distinctive taste depending from which country it originates. The largest providers are Greece, Italy and Spain. There is a amazing amount of different ones and different prices, the dearest is not necessarily the best. Lately both Aldi and Lidl have offered better Virgin Olive Oil than the bigger supermarkets at much better prices.(according to tests done by a German TV documentary)

According to a new survey even virgin olive oil has been subjected to additives which give the oil a longer shelf life, but it might not be better for your health. The advise is to buy olive oil not from a big producer but from smaller companies. At the moment of writing this,  Aldi has a really good virgin cold pressed olive oil from a Greece monastery  for less than 5 Euro. The taste is one of the best I have tasted.

Personally I would be inclined to buy Italian or Greek rather than Spanish Olive Oil, a question of personal taste.

Vinegars

As much as oil can “kill”the taste of a salad, so can a bad vinegar. For most green leave salads and most other vegetable salads a neutral vinegar  works best as you want to taste the salad not the vinegar. Cider Vinegar or White Balsamic Vinegar are best. Some white vine vinegars have too much of an own taste, so try out which one would suit your taste best.

Modena Balsamic Vinegar has been on the market for the last decade or so and is mostly associated with Italian dishes and salads where tomatoes are the main ingredient. Like with the Oils there are many differences in the quality of the Vinegar. The price range is vast from less than 3 Euro to 15 Euro for less than 1/2l.

Some of the cheap ones are very vinegary, aka very sour and it will be hard to get a nice dressing. Often good balsamic vinegars come in small bottles. Again the discounters Aldi and Lidl have small bottles on offer which are surprisingly good.

As with the Oil try out a few different vinegars to find the one you like.

In your cupboard you should have a good Rapeseed Oil, a good Olive Oil, a good White Vinegar (Cider or Balsamic) and a good Modena Balsamic Vinegar. With these you can produce a really nice tasting dressing any time.

Recipes

Vinaigrette  ( simple oil/vinegar dressing)

carrot salad with mango on lettuce (vinaigrette with dill)

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon cider/white balsamic vinegar

3 Tsp Rapeseed Oil/Sunflower Oil

½ tsp salt ( sea salt, if possible use a herb salt  less salt!!)

Black freshly ground pepper

1 crushed clove of  garlic (optional)

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients together!!

Variations:

French Dressing: 1 tsp of Dijon mustard , ½ tsp sugar (unbleached, organic if possible)

Cream Dressing: 1Tsp fresh cut herbs (Dill, parsley etc.) ½ cup fresh cream, 1 tsp. sugar.

Yoghurt/Crème Fraiche Dressing: 1 tsp Dijon mustard, ½ tsp sugar, ½ cup plain yoghurt, ½ crème fraiche, 1 Tsp mayonnaise, fresh herbs (optional)

Balsamic Dressing

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon  Balsamic Vinegar ( see note above)

3 Tsp Olive Oil

1 tsp salt

Ground black pepper to taste

1 crushed clove of garlic

Method:

Mix all ingredients together until you have smooth syrupy consistency

Light salad dressing

Ingredients:

¼ l vegetable stock (cooled)

1Ts red/white wine vinegar ( or White Balsamic vinegar)

Pepper to taste

Method:

Mix all ingredients together 

This dressing is often used for mixed salads which include Potatoes or Rice or Pasta

Note:

There are a lot of novelty oils and vinegars available, try them out on small quantities!

For most salads the rule is: Keep it as simple as possible and let the salad ingredients “talk”