Homemade dressings take your dinner up to eleven. They don't take much effort but once you've got a couple that you can crack out while you're cooking dinner, suddenly your salad has got quite exciting. Use them as a marinade, crack them out at a barbecue, play about until you're happy. We don't want you to have dull salad leaves, so here's a selection of the dressing recipes that we use on everything.
Sian: Actually, mine is in the Domestic Sluttery book. It's the one I use in the prawn pasta dish. It's one of those dressings that I play about with depending on what's in the fridge, but it's usually a mix of olive oil, soy sauce, lime juice and then chilli and garlic. A splash of fish sauce if I'm doing something seafood-y, maybe sesame oil if I'm doing something with chicken. I like playing about, but the basic ingredients stay the same.
Sara: mine is super simple: olive oil, black pepper, lemon juice. Keep mixing and tasting until it's as sharp or mellow as you want.
Kat: The Brown family fail safe is super simple. Take one jam jar and add a heaped teaspoon of whole grain mustard. Cover with balsamic vinegar and the same amount of olive oil. Then shake vigorously and add to everything.
Hazel: I'm a huge fan of Asian inspired dressings which are brilliant drizzled over a great salad or bowl of rice noodles. Grab some toasted sesame oil, Thai fish sauce, light soy, a drizzle of runny honey, a squeeze or two of lime and put them in a clean jam jar. Then use a microplane to finely grate some red chilli, fresh garlic and red onion into the jar, chop some fresh mint and coriander and throw that in too then pop a lid on and shake. Taste and play around with the quantities of everything until you get the perfect sweet, salty, hot balance.
Caleigh: I'm a fan of honey mustard dressing. Put equal amounts of rapeseed oil, cider vinegar, honey and grain mustard in a clean jar, add a pinch of salt, put the lid on and shake it (like a Polaroid picture). For a hotter version, I like using half dijon mustard / half grain mustard.
Flickr image from jmayer1129's photostream.
When I was a kid, my dad used to make salad dressing by mixing condensed milk with vinegar. Yummmmmmmmm
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