Certainly you can do wonders with some balsamic vinegar to make a light dressing, but when a salad is going to be the principal portion of a meal, you might want something a bit more substantial.
You can make your dressing part of the nutritional "payload" of your salads. Instead of recipes, here are some general guidelines for making dressings to enhance both the flavor and healthfulness of your salads.
Remember the importance of balancing the "basic flavors" of foods, especially the five principal ones: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory. (There are some other systems of naming and classifying flavors, but this is good for a start).
SWEET: A great source would be a few dried dates. Just one or two finely chopped medjool or similarly sweet dates chopped and blended into a dressing add just enough sweetness to bring out the flavors of the other ingredients, and add a bit of fiber as well. A few drops of maple syrup or honey can do this as well, but I like dates the best!
SOUR: A generous squeeze of lemon and lime juice adds the sour flavor. A good time to add this is just juicing a a lemon or lime and stirring it into your salad vegetables before adding any dressing. Or add a little raw apple cider vinegar. My preference is for fresh lemon or lime.
BITTER: Most salad greens have enough bitterness that you do not need to add anything. Mainly your task is to balance the bitterness with the other flavors.
SALTY: For saltiness, some miso, preferably not soy (we get enough soy in our lives!). I especially like Miso Master Organic Soy Free Chickpea Miso. This is a fermented bean paste and adds a nice rich flavor of its own. You can find it at Whole Foods Markets and other outlets. Read about it here: https://great-eastern-sun.com/shop/miso-master-miso/miso-master-chickpea-miso/.) Saltiness can also come from small amounts of sea salt, but for many reasons I'd say miso is the better choice.
Notwithstanding the view that sodium in miso may act the same way in the body as the sodium in table salt, (http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=114) go easy! But also bear in mind that we are avoiding a huge source of sodium in our diets: processed foods!
Also, nutritional yeast adds a "cheesy" flavor as well as some saltiness. I prefer it as a "shake on" after dressing the salad, rather than incorporating it in the dressing. Find a brand that is Vitamin B-12 fortified. If you are not familiar with nutritional yeast a nice "starter" product is Parma, at http://www.eatparma.com. You can find it in the cold chest at stores that carry it. It combines nutritional yeast with walnuts and seeds for a rich, cheesy texture and flavor. Whole Foods Market and other stores carry it. If you haven't had it before try the smaller size of the "Original" flavor to see if you like it, or if you like spicy, the "Chipotle Cayenne." It's a bit of an acquired taste, so give it a chance. You can shake it on all sorts of veggies, raw or cooked, for a bit of excitement!
My fave is Anti-Inflammation Spice from Love That Spice in Highland Park (and online at https://www.lovethatspice.com). If it's convenient go to her store and meet Marlena who grinds spices fresh daily to be at the peak of their flavor and healthfulness.
Related to spices but fresh rather than dried would be some fresh ginger. Grate it or mince it, and let your blender do the rest. Great for health as well as flavor. Also garlic, onion, leeks, scallions, etc. add to the flavor and nutrition!
MOUTH FEEL This isn't really a flavor category, but more about how the dressing feels in your mouth as you eat it. For this you may want to add some fat in the form of avocado, tahini, or even sesame seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. Beans are great too! Garbanzo beans work here (just add a little more liquid to your favorite hummos recipe!). Cannellini beans in particular make a great sauce or even salad dressing. If you like garlic, here's a very simple one from Anne Esselstyn: https://www.forksoverknives.com/recipes/cannellini-bean-sauce/#gs.g7jFEZE.
(I like it with fresh lemon juice instead of tamari).
Now you are ready to make a dressing! Do not make a lot! Make enough for just a day or two - three at the most! For most of us, a small blender is much easier to manage than the larger ones we use for soups and smoothies.
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| Tribest Personal Blender; Complete Set |
A small Magic Bullet works too and also has container covers so you can store right from the blending bowl.
These small but powerful blender is available at many outlets but here are e Amazon.com link:
http://tinyurl.com/TribestPersonalBlender
http://tinyurl.com/SmallMagicBullet
(if the tiny links doesn't work let me know or just search on Amazon or Google.)
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| Small Coffee Grinder |
Another blender choice would be a stick blender used in a wide mouth pint jar. I've had this one for years and I use it a lot. http://tinyurl.com/proctorsilexstickblender
It's a little slower than the Tribest or Magic Bullet and needs a little more liquid to start, but it does the job!
A small coffee grinder quickly turns seeds into a fine powder to thicken your dressing. You can find a small electric coffee grinder for under $15.
SO HOW DO WE MAKE THIS DRESSING?
Here are some of the ingredients you may want to use to make your own dressing:
Begin with your liquid or very soft items such as a little lemon or lime juice (even if you've already sprinkled some on the salad), and miso, tahini, avocado, grated or minced or grated ginger, etc.
Add your thickeners, including your ground nuts or seeds, and blend well.
Now add your chopped veggies such as zucchini or yellow summer squash. They'll add a little liquid when blended, they don't add much of their own flavor and they give a nice smooth texture. Cucumber adds a lot of water so if you use that you might want to scrape out the central seed core.
Next your firmer veggies such as onions, garlic, peppers, or even a little jalapeño! (Keep track of which of these you've already put in your salad!) Also any sweet fruit.
Finally add your spices and, if you wish, a few drops of something sweet like maple syrup.
Start out making small amounts. It will probably be thick so just work it throughout your salad; this is especially good to do with leaves that may be tougher, like cabbage, kale, chard and collard. You can chiffonade the large leaves, rolling them up like cigars and cutting across the rolls in fine slices, and then massaging in a little dressing at a time with your clean hands.
Mix your dressing well into your leafy greens as well as the other veggies in your salad, such as finely sliced carrots, radishes, turnips, parsnips, and other veggies, all diced or sliced or cut into matchsticks, to make sure your it gets everywhere!
Put leftover dressing into a in a glass jar in the fridge to enjoy the next day. These don't have preservatives so enjoy them quickly!
Consider freezing a small amount - perhaps an ounce or so - to see if it might be something you could make ahead. Experiment to find flavors you enjoy. Add flavorful herbs such as dill at the last minute so that you can make several flavors from one base.
Write down what you put in your dressing:
1. So you'll remember for next time, and,
2. To compare with the labels on just about any commercial dressing and see the difference you made!
MAKE SMALL AMOUNTS when you are EXPERIMENTING! In time you'll find the combos you like the best!
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This post (like all the others in this blog) is a work in progress.
But that said, I would like to thank Ariane Glazer (https://www.meetup.com/RawChicagoCommunity/ )
and Cyndi Dodick https://www.meetup.com/LiveFoodChicago/ who have added to my understanding of making great raw dressings that could be meals in themselves. Join their meetups and you can learn more from them!
Whatever is good in this post is thanks to them. Whatever doesn't quite work -- well you can just blame me!
