The Art of Dressing
Posted by Alayne Gardner-Carimi on
Many of us think salad dressing as a thing, a noun. However, the art of salad dressing is also a verb: it’s a process. There is a whole world of dressings, from the pour of pure olive oil and a drizzle of vinegar with no whisking or measuring involved — to the most complex, the blended kinds with multiple ingredients. There’s a place for all of these in the world of salad. However, the one most often used, the most depended upon, is the mother of all dressings, the vinaigrette.
To properly dress a salad, only three ingredients are needed: an acid (like vinegar – traditional, balsamic, or fruit – or lemon juice), the “right” amount of salt (not too much, not too little) and a healthy, pure oil, like vomFASS Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Grape Seed oil or Sun Meadow rapeseed oil. Use good vinegar and good oil. How do you know if the vinegar or oil is “good”? Taste it alone before you make the dressing. Then you will know what you like and don’t like. And therein lies the beauty of shopping at vomFASS Madison.
Fresh vinaigrettes are so easy to create and contain no artificial ingredients. You can make an array of flavors to enjoy — a different one every day of the week. vomFASS-Madison prepares our oil and vinegar sets to encourage you to play with flavors in your own kitchen.
The Naked Truth
To make a great salad you can select from a variety of baby greens, each with a distinctive taste and mouthfeel. Get to know some leaves. Taste them. You’ll find crunchy, sweet, spicy, tangy, sour, bitter, mineral-y, mustardy, peppery, salty, succulent, pungent, floral, bittersweet, earthy, savory, and juicy flavors and textures. You can also accent with a sprinkling of fresh herbs — like dill, mint, parsley, rosemary, basil, or green onions — for your salad. The standard serving size of greens is about two ounces per person.
Say No to Naked Salads
The role of salad dressing is to enhance the lively flavors of greens. Dressing makes a salad come alive. Dressing gives a salad character and better texture. And believe it or not, improves the nutritional availability of the salad.
Salads are known to be healthy for you. They contain fiber, phytonutrients, enzymes and can be a good source for vitamins A, D, and K. These vitamins are fat soluble. Research has shown that these vitamins are better absorbed in conjunction with monounsaturated dietary fats, like those found in extra virgin olive oils, and cold-pressed nut and seed oils used in dressing a salad!
6 Steps for Salad Success
Making Mayo
Want a creamy salad dressing? Substitute 2/3 of the oil in your vinaigrette with some fresh mayonnaise. Good news, it’s easier to make up a fresh cup of mayo than you may realize. See the Mason Jar Mayo recipe below.
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