Italian Vinaigrette

Things that make me feel better about life: old friendships and homemade salad dressings.

Weird combo? Sure. But that is what I am grateful for tonight. I will say that catching up with one of my favorite people in the world (who just graduated from pharmaceutical school!) was definitely the best part of the evening. However, this blog post is actually about the salad dressing. 

You know me. I love to make stuff from scratch. Or at least I love putting for the effort. Since the fridge is basically exploding with greens, (my little spinach patch is a champion) I decided that tonight I was going to finally get around to trying out some of the yummy sounding dressing recipes I've been hoarding.   

Tonight I made an Italian vinaigrette. Fantastic. And so easy. Salad dressing is one of those things I don't under why I don't make from scratch more often. It is tasty, simply, and doesn't have ingredients in it that are also found in antifreeze. 

So next time you want to make salad, try out this recipe and then go tell propylene glycol alginate where it can go. 

---

Italian Vinaigrette 

1/4 c water

1/4 c lemon juice (I used fresh. You'll get a cleaner taste)

1/4 c red wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves, halved

1 t sugar

3/4 t salt

3/4 t paprika

3/4 t dried oregano

1/2 t onion powder

1/2 t ground mustard

1/2 t dried thyme

3/4 c olive oil  

Place first 11 ingredients in blender. Cover and process until purer. While processing gradually add oil in a steady stream. Refrigerate leftovers. (Using a blender or food processor will give you the best results in this recipe. The paprika, onion powder, and ground mustard coat the oil droplets, which prevent them from blending with the other liquids. Shaking the ingredients results in droplets too big to prevent separation).

Source: Healthy Cooking