Raspberry Vinaigrette

One of our favorite meals at home is a salmon salad I make with feta cheese, onions, pine nuts, and dried cherries.  I serve it with a raspberry salad dressing as they pair extremely well together.  Last week, however, after I assembled our salads and went to the fridge for the raspberry vinaigrette I realized in horror that we were short!  There was no time to go buy more and I definitely CANNOT eat salad without dressing.  Luckily my husband said I could use the last of it and he would use ranch on his salad instead.  Yuck!  But thank god he didn’t care.  This incident is what inspired me to learn how to go about making my own dressing.  Until today I never would have considered making salad dressing as I thought it would be extremely hard.   Turns out, it’s not hard AT ALL.

I looked up a few basic tips and found that dressing typically contains 1 part vinegar to 3 parts olive oil.  This of course can be modified depending on your taste preferences.  I never would have guessed this, but honey dijon mustard is a main ingredient.  It’s used to give a nice creaminess to the dressing.  Beyond that, the seasonings and fruit (optional) are completely up to you.  I used a food processor to combine the ingredients, however if you don’t have one, don’t let this stop you.  As long as you smoosh/grind the raspberries by hand until they’re a fine liquid-like paste, you can then use a whisk to combine everything together.  When the dressing is complete, store in an air tight container in the fridge for 1-3 months.

Ready to blend

Since this was my first time creating salad dressing, my husband suggested I make 2 batches with different ingredients.  Then we would judge which recipe we liked better.  The recipe below is our favorite and hopefully you’ll enjoy it too.  One difference we noticed when compared to store bought dressing is that this vinaigrette is not as sweet.  But trust me, it’s still sweet enough.  We looked at the label of our normal store bought brand and saw that it contained added cane sugar.  When making your own dressing you’ll find that the raspberries alone are sweet enough, and extra sugar isn’t needed.  In the end there are 3 things I’ve come to love about making your own vinaigrette:

1. You make the amount you want.  We don’t eat salads all the time, so 1 cup will last us for a few salads.  Say good-bye to expired salad dressing in the fridge!
2. It’s better than store bought.  You know the ingredients that went into the making.  No chemicals and dies or artificial flavors. 
3. You can whip it up whenever you want.

Raspberry Vinaigrette

Original recipe by Alissa Hebert

Serves 4-6 (batch makes approximately 1 cup total)

Prep Time: 5 mins.

Total Time:  10 mins.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup white balsamic raspberry blush vinegar
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons honey dijon mustard

Directions:

1. In a food processor add all of the ingredients except the olive oil.
2. Pulse on low until all the ingredients are combined, producing a nice fine liquid.
3. Add the olive oil in small increments, pulsing each time to combine.
4. Use a funnel to easily pour in a jar or bottle with lid.  Chill and serve cold over salad.