There are some inexpensive ones that can be purchased, but I prefer to consume less preservatives, so I prefer to make my own salad dressings at home. Also, I don't always like the taste of the store bought dressings. Here's a site that has 33 inexpensive and easy salad dressings, so if you'd like, you can try making your own, and see how you like them. There are the usual ones we're all familiar with, but also some new flavors that sound interesting. Log In
Nope, I don't make my own salad dressing because a huge bottle of store brand ranch dressing is $1.49 at Walmart and my daughter likes it. There are a lot of things like bread and chai tea that I make from scratch, but I don't feel like making my own ranch dressing when it's cheap to buy anyway.
I love making my own dressing. If I can't make my own for whatever reason, I go without.. if I buy a processed food, it will have far less ingredients than that and the ingredients will be real food as well. It's all hot and summery out there right now, so my dressings are mainly pureed fruits.. so yum
Thanks for that link. Some of those sound really good. I make a few of my own dressings (as well as sauces such as cocktail sauce). Ranch is the one that I make homemade above all others. I just don't care for the taste of the bottled stuff, my kids love it (and I like to make mine with more sour cream than mayo instead of equal parts or more mayonnaise). I've made French although that one I prefer to buy. Mine always seems separate too much. I've made creamy Italian, creamy garlic, blue cheese, thousand island, honey mustard, and others. I've even made up some versions of my own. So fresh and good.
Sometimes! My favorite salad dressing is blue cheese and that I usually buy pre-made (Marie's is the best!) but if I'm in the mood for something lighter I'll make either honey mustard (I literally just mix honey and mustard together, sometimes with a little lemon juice) or I mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and lemon juice. So good and easy!
I love it too, same as Italian dressing so I got one of those Walmart dressing varieties based on the good size/prizing. However, unless you eat those dressings in a snap, they get rotten in no time despite refrigeration and preservatives. So that, your big savings can turn into accumulated money losing overtime. Actually I prefer to make my own salad dressings, but may still buy either small-sized bottles when needed for a rush dish having guests coming, or because not having time for a complex salad dressing I would like to try. If I have to buy, I prefer to get a dehydrated variant that only requires the addition of water, vinegar and/or oil. Not always available at stores though.
I do when I am making a particular salad that calls for it. Other than that I just used store bought. Actually my girls family got me hooked on using just plain maple syrup (the REAL stuff) on my salads.
@MyDigitalpoint That's a good point, and the dried ones can be used on/for other things, as well. I've seen recipes that called for their addition, the same way some call for dried soup mix. @Zyni I make my own cocktail sauce, too, as well as sweet and sour. They're so much tastier than the bottled varieties, and definitely more economical. I also prefer as few preservatives as possible, for health reasons. I've never made French at home, nor blue cheese @dandeliion, and I agree, Marie's is scrumptious! @JosieP It never occurred to me to top my salads with pureed fruit, what a great way to add in some extra health benefits, as well as flavor! @ACSAPA A friend gave me a huge bottle of ranch dressing, she bought it in bulk and had way too many. That one is Hidden Valley, which really is delicious. I tend to make vinaigrette dressings and honey mustard, the easy ones, but haven't made ranch from scratch yet. I'm hoping @Zyni will share her recipe . I'll bet it would taste good with yogurt or greek yogurt as a base, also.
Yes! Oftentimes I use dried salad dressings for soup mix or to enhance the taste and table presentation of noodles. By the way, last night a friend of mine came to visit and brought a take-out try with regular lettuce salad with Italian dressing generously poured over it and topped with grapes, berries and peaches finely chopped. I thought it was weird, but was delicious!
Hmm, salad dressing is the thing that doesn't interest me in making. For fresh vegetables, my husband would whiff ranch dressing, i.e. a mix of vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar. For lettuce only or cucumber only, we just dip in pure mayonnaise. For Caesar's salad, we just buy the mix in a bottle, quite expensive but easy to use. With other kinds of salad, we just buy from the restaurant, hahahaaa.
I do make my own salad dressing. I learned how to make fairly basic salad dressings by watching cooking shows. The OP provided a great resources for various types of dressings. It's cheaper for me in the long run to make my own salad dressing. Plus I l know exactly what's it in.
I’m concerned about preservatives and additives as well, so I usually just whip up simple vinaigrettes and such. There are a few store-bought dressings I enjoy, and I’ll eat them on occasion, but I’ve come to prefer making my own dressings. I usually have the ingredients on hand, I can better control how much I use, and it’s more cost-effective.
This just reminded me that I need to ask my Mom for one of her recipes. She always makes a sweet creamy sauce to put over fresh fruit salad on holidays. It's really delicious, and I haven't had it in quite a while, so would like to make some, especially right now, since fresh fruit is abundant, and the prices are lower.
Once in a while I will, and it's usually home made blue cheese dressing - I like to make it myself because I can control how strong/tangy the dressing is as well as how thick or runny it is. A lot of blue cheese dressings in a bottle are often too thick and gloppy for my liking, and won't coat a salad evenly. Many of them are often a bit too strong flavored as well. Other dressings however I usually just stick with the bottled variety for several reasons. Whenever I've tried to make home made Italian dressing for example, if I use fresh herbs it becomes way more expensive (each pack of fresh herbs is like $4 a piece at our grocer). If I use dried herbs, I can't eat it right away because they are still hard and haven't had enough time to soften and infuse any flavor into the dressing. I can also never seem to get the dressing to emulsify well either, even with adding stuff like mustard and blending it on high speed. The bottled variety use stuff like lethicin to help keep things emulsified, but I'm not crazy about that either because it gives the dressing a slimy quality. I've tried making home made ranch dressing as well with all fresh ingredients, but the flavor was still lacking - I guess it's because I'm used to the MSG-laden bottled variety too much. Sarah Moulton had a recipe for a simple dressing she makes to use throughout the week - it was something like vegetable oil, cider vinnegar, fresh garlic and Parmesan cheese, if I recall correctly. That one was pretty good. I just gotta hunt down the actual recipe again so I can get the proper measurements.
Looks like we're all on the same boat. I specifically picked up an emulsifier for this exact reason. I got really tired of using mason jars. It's my preferred way of eating dressing because I can change it according to my taste. I lean more toward tart & less toward fat when enjoying dressings so it's better that I make them myself.
Okay, you share that recipe, and I'll try to share my Ranch dressing recipe. I'm terrible about not measuring stuff as I go though, so keep that in mind. The original recipe for it started out as equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream. I usually use more sour cream instead, but not quite double. So, maybe 3/4 cup mayo and 1 1/4 sour cream? Doing that throws things off a bit. I also add a splash of milk if using it for dressing, to thin it down a little (can keep it thick if using for veggie dip). Some people like buttermilk instead of sour cream and the milk. Okay, I went looking for a comparable recipe, so the measurements shouldn't be too far off. This is close: 1 t. parsley 1 t. finely chopped fresh onion or chives (or dried minced onion) 1 t. onion powder 1 1/2 t. Seasoned salt 1/2 t. garlic powder 1/2 t. ground black pepper 1 T. dill weed (I tend to get heavy handed with the dill weed) Mix the mayo and sour cream together until smooth then add seasonings and mix thoroughly. I like to let it chill a while before using (and it's a must if you use the dried onion things). You can also substitute Nature's Seasoning instead of the onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper (I use the low sodium one, but it still contains salt, so maybe knock down the seasoned salt to one teaspoon).
I don't usually make my own but I am willing to try anything. I know there are some fantastic dressings you can make...like a bacon dressing is fantastic on leaf letttuce for instance. I make my own dressing usually if making colelaw or something. Making your own salad dressing I am sure is better for you in many ways.
I know some people might find it despicable to make your own salad dressing or something but, I think it is healthier. Knowing what the ingredients are means I know what I am eating. There are a lot of additives and other poisons in US food chain any more. I think I would be healthier if I start making my own things.
I do. I find that making your own dressing is much more affordable than buying one on the market. Not only that, but dressings that you buy in the supermarket often comes with ingredients you do not like, or you cannot eat. So for example whenever I am on a diet, like right now, I would never buy a ready made dressing in the supermarket.
That might be a good idea for me to try that. I'm sure that it would save me money in the long run because I wouldn't have to keep on buying it. I could make a bunch of it and then just use that. I would make a lot so long as it doesn't go bad. Thank you for that! I'm going to have to try some of these out.
