Everyone knows that salads are healthy, and with health and weight loss resolutions popular in 2018, we wanted to help you eat more salad.
Salads can be a little boring or repetitive, but here’s the trick: focus your efforts on making a delicious salad dressing and you’ll be gobbling up that salad like it was your favorite food!
Making your own salad dressing is very easy and truly one of the things that is much better when you make it yourself than buy it pre-made in a bottle. In addition, making salad dressings yourself saves you money and lets you be in complete control of what you eat, so there won’t be any hidden additives or synthetic flavors in your food, not to mention extra unwanted calories.
The basics of making a salad dressing is to start with a ratio of oil to acid (like vinegar), usually most people like a ratio of 2 parts oil to 1 part acid, but some people who are more sensitive to acidic flavors prefer a ratio of 3:1. Once you’ve got your oil and acidic component combined all you need to do is add a flavor — in general about a teaspoon is a good amount, but adjust it to your taste. Here are some great examples of things to add for flavor: dijon mustard, honey, chopped garlic or ginger, sriracha sauce, tahini, fresh or dried herbs (like cilantro, oregano, basil), soy or tamari sauce.
We’ve made a handy reference chart to show you how you can combine different oils (like extra virgin olive oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil), acids (like orange or lemon juice, balsamic or rice vinegar), and flavours to make dozen of different salad dressings. If you have leftovers, you can save dressings in the fridge and they generally last 2-7 days.
Aside from a delicious salad dressing, try to put one vegetable, fruit or protein on your salad that you absolutely love, like avocado, roasted tempeh, chickpeas or grape tomatoes, then you’ll want to eat it all up. Here’s to keeping your health resolutions going through 2018!