Frugal (most of the time), tasty, fresh ingredients, no preservatives, and easily adaptable- making your own salad dressings is….
Well, okay. It’s not exactly fun. It takes some extra time, dirties up an extra dish or two. I like homemade salad dressing, however, we do buy the ready made stuff at the store. But we also run out of the ready made stuff from the store, and when you drive a fifteen passenger Moby Dick of a van and live several country miles from the supermarket, you don’t just hop in the the van and go. You improvise. Here is some improvisational kitchen theatre:
Buttermilk Dressing
1/3 cup buttermilk (which we never have. Sometimes I have powdered buttermilk on hand for baking. Other times I use a mixture of plain yogurt and milk)
1/4 cup mayonnaise (we’ve been making our own. The Equuschick has proven to be quite a dab hand at this)
2 teaspoons mustard, brown, Dijon, or honey
two or three shakes of the salt shaker
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
dash of pepper
1/4 teaspoon dillweed
Put all ingredients in:
a jar with a tight lid and shake well
OR the blender and blend for a few seconds
OR a bowl and whisk well
Chill, shake or whisk again just before serving
This only makes half a cup, so we need to triple it.
Sweet and Sour Dressing
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons of sugar (or one T of honey)
1/2 tsp dry mustard or one squirt of yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon paprika
salt to taste
1/2 cup salad oil (olive, safflower, or ?)
Combine everything but the oil and let stand, blending flavors for at least 1/4 of an hour. Add oil, shake, whisk, blend, or otherwise briskly combine until well blended. Chill and reshake when ready to serve.
This makes 3/4 cup
BAsic Tofu Salad Dressing
this is creamy and similar to mayonnaise, so for salad you would add herbs and spices, perhaps blend it in the blender with a peeled cucumber for a Green Goddess type of dressing.
Combine in your blender (you can whisk this, it just takes more wrist strength)
1/2 pound of soft tofu
1/4 cup oil of your choice
1 Tablespoon lemon juic
1/2 Tablespoon of honey
a squirt of mustard
1 teaspoon apple cider or balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
This makes about 1 1/2 cups
Tofu Curry Dressing for a Chicken and Grape or Oriental Salad
Blend well:
1/2 cup smooth tofu
1/4 cup oil (include a spoonful or two of sesame oil for flavor)
2 Tablespoons of vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder- adjusted for taste. we prefer more, and we like the mild curry
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
dash of ginger (optional)
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
Russian Salad Dressing
Bascially you want a combination of yogurt, mayonaisse, and ketchup (I know- it sound dreadful, doesn’t it?). Add a dash of Worcestershire, a touch of horseradish, a bit of minced onion, perhaps a dash of lemon juice- adjust it all until it tastes right to you. I like it tangier, so add a spoonful of vinegar or two.
I’m not including a recipe for Italian salad dressing because that’s so easy I assume everybody already knows how to make it. I’m not including a recipe for bleu cheese dressing because the idea here is to be frugal, and buying the bleu cheese you need for bleu cheese dressing is not frugal.