Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tangy Goodness: Creamy Italian Dressing

When I was a kid, I hated sandwiches... especially ham & cheese – but I loved salads... especially with lots of creamy Italian dressing. My mom would pack my lunchtime salad in a Tupperware container, then put the bottled creamy Italian dressing in a plastic baggie. All I had to do was cut the corner off the bag and squeeze out the dressing. Pretty genius, right?

Now I mostly dress our salads with a vinaigrette made from EVOO, vinegar, garlic, a dab of mustard, salt, and pepper... easy-peasy. But then one night, the homemade mayo caught my eye as I reached into the fridge for the vinegar.

The mayo is made from olive oil, I thought. What if I replace the EVOO with mayo?

I love when I have thoughts like that. Enjoy!

Creamy Italian Dressing
Makes enough for two side salads or one entree-sized salad
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons homemade mayo
1 tablespoon vinegar: balsamic, wine, or cider (I like pomegranate balsamic! Also, no wine vinegar for you if you're doing a Whole30 cleanup.)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/8 teaspoon Italian herb blend (or pick one: dried oregano, rosemary, or basil)
salt & pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. Crush the dried herbs with your fingers, then add to mayo, along with garlic. Blend well with a fork.

2. Mix in the vinegar, then taste and season with salt and pepper. If your dressing is too thick, add either vinegar or water – a 1/4 teaspoon at a time – until it's the right consistency. Keep in mind that it will get slightly more liquidy as you toss it with your salad ingredients.

NOTE: I've given instructions for making the dressing "to order." I don't recommend making a big batch in advance because I think the texture will suffer. Plus, it really takes no time at all to blend together. Your tastebuds will thank you.

5 comments:

  1. I love thoughts like that too! Just last night I realized my recipe called for a 90 min simmer time! YIKES! I only had 30. Presto chango and out comes the pressure cooker to take over the cooking and I made it JUST in time. ;)

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  2. This is great! I actually did something very similar the other night. I love salads but get sooooo bored with the vinaigrette dressings. I missed the creamy ranch that I used to love to eat, but the other night I made a delicious steak, avocado, tomato salad and made a creamy avocado dressing using my homemade paleo mayo and blending it with an avocado and some apple cider vinegar. It was delicious! Thank you so much for all your great recipes. It makes it so much easier to stick to clean eating when there's so many good recipes to choose from.

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  3. Your creamy avocado dressing sounds heavenly -- I'm going to have to try that! So... thank YOU right back!

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  4. Just made this tonight!! it was amazing!! I made it with balsamic vinegar but next time I'm going to try it with apple cider vinegar.

    Thank you so much for a 'creamy' paleo dressing recipe!! I've been missing my ranch lately...

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  5. Jennilee --> It's really fun to play around with the vinegars because they change the flavor so much. I've been wanting to get a tarragon vinegar to try.

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