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Salad Dressing Ideas

4K views 36 replies 18 participants last post by  teamfat 
#1 ·
Can everyone share their interesting salad dressing ideas?  I'm bored to death with my vinegraittes made with olive oil, red wine vinegar or lemon and sometimes a little mustard or mayo. 
 
#6 · (Edited)
since spring is in the air my tendency is whimsical and fruity.....

citrus(orange, lime) vinaigrette

passionfruit vinaigrette

ginger-lime-jalapeno

watermelon? bluberry? vinaigrette

jalapeno-raspberry

tangerine or blood orange vainaigrette

spicy asian 

sesame ginger

lemon-mint

cucumber chipotle(yougurt)

chipotle balsamic

strawberry balsamic

spicy peanut

mediterranean tahini

lime cilantro

green chile vinaigrette

black olive and rosemary

prickly pear

i know that these are primarily vinaigrettes, but they truly are different and are perfect when paired with the right salad....perhaps changing up your whole salad would help with the boredom..instead of a garden salad maybe fresh and dried organic fruits and nuts...glazed, spiced, cranberries, fig pieces, dried or fresh strawberries or raspberries or blueberries etc.....just a thought

joey
 
#8 ·
KK, what about a Chinese Chicken Salad:

Oil – rice vinegar – soy sauce – sesame oil – honey – garlic – fresh ginger – roasted sesame seeds – smooth peanut butter – s&p to taste

Or a Cold Somen Noodle Salad:

Sugar – soy sauce – rice vinegar – sesame oil

These are our two Summer favs

My husband prefers salads that have loads of “goodies” in them,

not just two or three items, I think that’s why he likes these two so much
 
#12 ·
BDL, are you a spokesman for green goddess dressing? :)

KK, what about a Chinese Chicken Salad:

Oil - rice vinegar - soy sauce - sesame oil - honey - garlic - fresh ginger - roasted sesame seeds - smooth peanut butter - s&p to taste

Or a Cold Somen Noodle Salad:

Sugar - soy sauce - rice vinegar - sesame oil

These are our two Summer favs

My husband prefers salads that have loads of "goodies" in them,

not just two or three items, I think that's why he likes these two so much
These sound great, I shall try them, I imagine the cold noodle salad would be good with the first dressing as well but alas, I'm going low carb these days and avoiding all noodles.
 
#16 ·
KK, I know you said that you’re on a low-carb diet right now,

and I’m sure that you’ve thought about or even tried this before,

but I just adore tzatziki on my green salads. 

I think that it's not meant for that, but I always order extra in a to-g0 cup.

I can’t seem to make it the same way as in the restaurants or take-out places. 

Does anyone have a recipe they could share?
 
#17 ·
KK, I know you said that you're on a low-carb diet right now,

and I'm sure that you've thought about or even tried this before,

but I just adore tzatziki on my green salads.

I think that it's not meant for that, but I always order extra in a to-g0 cup.

I can't seem to make it the same way as in the restaurants or take-out places.

Does anyone have a recipe they could share?
Tzatziki is great as a dressing or a dip. Here's my recipe.

greek yogurt (total)

english cucumber, grated

garlic, minced or grated

red wine vinegar

olive oil

salt

1. in a small colander place the grated cuke with a little salt and leave it for 15 min to release juice. press it to rid the juice.

2. mix with the ypgurt and garlic and stir in olive oil and vinegar. salt to taste.

Depending on what i serve it with I mix in a fresh herb. With lamb throw in mint. With pork or chicken throw in fresh thyme or fennel fronds. With seafood, dill. Quantities of ingredients are up to you.
 
#18 · (Edited)
kgirl,

i add fresh dill or mint and use lemon juice instead of red wine vinegar....i just love the sunshine that a squeeze of fresh lemon brings to it...to anything really....

kk,

farro is a grain(wheat) very nutty in flavor with a bit of a bite to it(firm). yes, it does carry near the same amount of carbs as rice or pasta, but it is a healthier choice and as in everything, it's all about the portions. you can find it in an italian deli which  you have many of where you live or in stores like trader joe's. the brand i get is a roland product in 1 # bags.

as an aside to an earlier post, i mentioned to replace white sugar with brown sugar..just to clarify, i wasn't talking about 'brown' sugar, but sugar products that are brown, as in sugar in the raw, turbinado, agave syrup, honey

joey

oh shoot, i just realized i posted this in the wrong thread..it should be in the low carb thread...sorry, but i gotta scoot...will try and fix it later...oh yeah, it's a monday for sure!

also, something  i'm sure you are aware of but can really add up quickly is the amount of carbs in drinks and juices...cranberry juice which i personally especially love with vodka on a hot day...heck, even on a cold day! a lot of the fancy schmancy new age designer drinks are loaded. some of them sound so good and healthy until you read the label. caveat emptor!
 
#19 ·
Ya’ know Joey, I think that’s what I liked so much about this one place I use to go to across the street from my office in Honolulu, the splash of lemon.  Just that little bit of brightness and I think that they also used fresh dill, I’ll give it a go.  KK’s basic recipe and then use lemon juice and dill.  Good call ladies!
 
#20 ·
Here's another idea for dressing, I knew I had this one somewhere, just had to hunt for it.

My Grandmother gave this to me, it's from a well known restaurant in Honolulu, the Waioli Tea Room:

Waioli Guava Dressing

1C Mayonnaise

1 C Tomato Catsup

¼ C Vinegar

½ C Salad Oil

1 tsp dry Mustard

2 tsp Lemon Juice

½ C Guava Jam

½ tsp Garlic Salt
 
#21 ·
OK. I'm gonna jump on the "Green Goddess" bandwagon.

3 parts green goddess out of the bottle

1 part wasabi paste out of the tube

1 part vinegar of choice (red wine, apple cider or my favorite, champagne vinegar)
 
#23 ·
OK. I'm gonna jump on the "Green Goddess" bandwagon.

3 parts green goddess out of the bottle

1 part wasabi paste out of the tube

1 part vinegar of choice (red wine, apple cider or my favorite, champagne vinegar)
hummmm, like the wasabi part, but my mister does n' t like any thing with mayo... How else would you use it in a dressing ?
 
#24 · (Edited)
The asian cuisines offer some good choices as mentioned.

Vietnamese Nuoc Cham works well and  has no oil. I'm quite fond of it cucumbers with some basil.

In the Chinese restaurants, there's a thin sweet/sour mayonnaise based dressing that is popular. It's not part of traditional Chinese cuisine but can be good in its own right. Usually the ingredients are mayo, pineapple juice, lemon juice, sugar, a little salt.  But there are some interesting twists it could take with other citrus or citrus accented rice vinegar. I'm partial to some orange flavored rice vinegar when I can find it. I had a yellow tinged variety of this dressing with poppy seeds that was good too with a more orangey flavor than lemon/pineapple.  I've not found exact ratios. I've been thinking something along the lines of simple syrup made with the rice vinegar instead of water and then work from there. I've seen some claims  where it's done more in the vinaigrette style, beating in oil rather than mayo. Based on the behavior of the dressing at my local favorite Chinese place, I think they use some mayo.

Japan and Korea have some good dressings too, but I don't know the cuisine well enough to point you anywhere specific.
 
#26 ·
Last year I jumped into the world of rolling sushi. For the most part it was not all so pretty. I needed some wasabi to go with. The paste strait out of the tube blew some people's heads off. I tried Green Goddess strait out of the bottle. They spit that out. I mixed a tube of paste w/ a bottle of dressing (3:1 was just from tube/bottle ratio), and everyone loved it, Asian people included. Later I threw in the vinegar to thin it out for a salad and it went over well too. Personally, I can't stand the stuff, but I guess that's why restaurants have menus.
 
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