Dressings

Research for most school projects usually requires hunkering down in the corner of a library and scrolling through what seem to be endless online databases, or, if you’re especially unlucky, opening up an actual book- how very dreadful. Research for this blog post, however, involved nothing other than buying two ingredients and shaking some mason jars. If this blog will convince you to do anything, I hope it’s that mason jars are more than worth their weight in salt, or, in this case, their weight in salad dressing.

Is salad dressing just for salad? When your dietary needs can only be met with the food from the school cafeteria, salad dressing becomes liquid gold that’s necessary to make any sort of food edible. Sure, there’s a fairly decent selections of pre-made dressing to choose from in the caf, but after the second time of finding massive clumps of what you hope to be solidified mayonnaise, you begin to consider alternatives.

When you’re on a budget like me, you may find yourself wanting to whip up the fanciest of vinegarettes with truffle oil and sesame seeds, but let’s be real- spending that kind of money on dressing could, and probably should, be allocated for more pressing items, like overpriced parking permits.

Seeing as I refused to be more specialized and expensive items, I purposely limited myself to a few types of salad dressing with the intention of pairing them with a selection of salads and other foods. Most of these ingredients, I’d like to add, may or may not have been sneakily acquired from the caf. What’s a girl supposed to do, buy her own olive oil? For the thousands of dollars I pay to this school, I think I deserve a cup of olive oil, and maybe a cup of balsamic vinegar, and maybe some dijon mustard, and jam, and maybe a few other things too.

Dressing #1:  Balsamic Dressing

-½ cup balsamic vinegar

-½ cup olive oil

-Salt and Pepper to taste

-Teaspoon of dijon

-Optional: 1 clove of minced garlic (if you’re willing to buy a whole head of garlic)

-Optional: the less expensive alternative to adding garlic is a pinch or two of any sort of seasoning; I used a garlic herb mix that has parsley, oregano, basil, and marjoram.

Aside from an ordinary salad, I love to throw this on grilled chicken, which tends to be quite dry.

Dressing #2: Honey Mustard Dressing

-½ cup nonfat plain greek yogurt

-2 tablespoons honey

-3 tablespoons dijon mustard

-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

-¼ cup olive oil

-Salt and Pepper to taste

This is perfect to add to any sandwich for an added element of moisture.

Dressing #3: Strawberry Balsamic Dressing

-2 teaspoons strawberry jam

-1 ½ tablespoons balsamic vinegar

-3 tablespoons olive oil

-Salt and Pepper to taste

This is great on grilled chicken and salads, but I love throwing this on chopped apples and almonds with a bit of parmesan cheese- no lettuce required.

Other than the yogurt and apple cider vinegar, every other ingredient was procured covertly from the cafeteria. If it wasn’t already implied, to actually “make” these dressings, all that’s required is measuring out the ingredients, dumping them into the mason jar, shaking, and pouring. Now that we know how to make our own dressing free of mystery clumps, let us go out dress this bland and overcooked world.