Cristina Acosta

Recipes:  Citrus Salad Dressing

Citrus Salad Dressing

©2007 Cristina Acosta

    Homemade salad dressing boosts not only the flavor of your salad, the fresh and healthy ingredients you put in the dressing are key to a tasty result and a huge nutritional plus. Top quality ingredients are the foundation of good food and are especially obvious in a salad dressing. Try this easy recipe and you’ll discover how failsafe a homemade dressing can be.

Yield: Approx. 1 1/4 cup

Tools: Blender / Vitamix or mix with whisk or fork. Tool to crush or mince garlic if not the blender. Jar with lid to store the dressing.

Ingredients:

I like my dressing less acidic, so I tend to structure the recipe to be about 1 part acid ingredients versus 3 to 4 parts  oil ingredients.

• 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Buy the best quality of oil you can. First cold pressed oil is best. Store it in a cool dark cupboard and replace it every six months if you haven’t eaten it all.

• Appx. ¼ - 1/3 cup. juice of one medium lemon, fresh-squeezed.  

• ¼ teaspoon (to taste) unrefined sea salt (small enough grains to dissolve in the dressing)

• ¼ teaspoon (to taste) fresh ground pepper (I prefer a mix of black and white pepper berries)

• 1 small clove of garlic, minced or pressed. You can skip this step if your blender is fast enough to mince the clove.

Mix:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and put on the lid. Turn on the blender beginning on the lowest setting. Gradually step the speed to high for about a minute. If you don’t have a blender, make sure to put the garlic through a press and whisk all ingredients together well.

Pour:

Dressing into a glass jar or decanter with a secure lid. You are ready to dress the salad. Refrigerate any dressing you don’t eat. Cold will cause the olive oil to become hard. This does not hurt the dressing. To re-liquefy the dressing, set the dressing container on the counter or in a bowl of warm water until the oil is runny.

Variations:

• For Mexican inspired salads: Replace the lemon juice with lime juice (I like a half lemon, half lime mix) and add a few Tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro.

• For a sweet or fruit filled salad: Add 2 Tablespoons of honey or other sweetener and omit the garlic and pepper. I like to add a dash of cayenne to my fruit salad dressing. The sweet/hot flavor is very flattering to a variety of summer fruits, especially melons.

• For a starch-heavy salad like pasta or potato, I like to increase the acid part of the dressing to a 1 or 1 1/2 parts acid to 3 parts oil. Often I'll add something salty like olives, pickled vegetables or salty fish to lighten the heavy starch.

• Figure out the oil versus acid ratio you like. Keep that in mind when you are creative with variations of your own, and you’ll be making fresh dressings regularly.

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