Obviously salads are a wonderful thing to have in your nutritional strategy, but most people are unaware that the salad dressings they are using COMPLETELY NEGATE the benefits of the salad, and make their body store fat like crazy!
The bottled “Ranch” and “Caesar” dressings out there are far from good for your health. You’ll often notice that they’re made with things like soybean oil and sugar, which are two ingredients that can totally screw up your metabolism. Soybean oil is commonly known as “vegetable oil,” but it’s not even a vegetable at all! This is an oxidized, unstable oil that will clog your arteries faster than you can say false advertising.
One of the most powerful things you can do for your health is learning how to make your own delicious, fresh salad dressings. The varieties are endless, and it always gives you the edge when you know where your ingredients are actually coming from.
You can make a big batch and keep it in your fridge for 7 to 10 days. Salad dressings are not supposed to stay fresh forever if they’re made from real ingredients… So how in the world are those dressings sitting on store shelves for months on end?!
Well this recipe is here to get you started in a good way. It tastes AMAZING and loaded with beauty foods that will have you feeling golden in no time. Here’s the recipe:
Recipe & Preparation Tip
*1 Cup Virgin Olive Oil
*1 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
*1 1/2 Cups Fresh Basil
*2 Tbsp Dried Oregano
*2 Cloves of Garlic
*1/4 Cup Diced Red Onion
*3/4 Tbsp Sea Salt
*1 Tbsp Ground Mustard Seed
*1/4 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
Add all ingredients to your high speed blender and blend until smooth.
Chef Tip: Add half of the olive oil and Apple Cider Vinegar with the rest of the ingredients to your blender FIRST, blend until smooth, then add the remaining oil and vinegar and blend again.
This dressing serves 4 people heartily with a large salad.
Have you ever made your own salad dressing before? Leave me a comment below and let me know what kind you made.
Looks great! How long does this dressing last in the refrigerator?
Thanks, Jen 🙂
It’s good for around 10 days in the fridge.
I like quick and easy, so I drizzle flaxseed oil on my salad, then add the juice of 1/4 lemon and some himalayan sea salt and dash of pepper. Voila! But I’m planning on trying your Golden Greek dressing. =)
Victoria, I 100% agree with quick and easy. Your simple dressing is great… Have you ever tried adding a bit of tahini to your salad along with it? It just might knock it out of the park! My apologies for taking a moment to reply, we’ve been working on some cool updates to the site to make it even better 🙂 All the best!
Too many cotnpimelms too little space, thanks!
I’ve altered my long-time Italian dressing to have healthier ingredients. Instead of sugar and table salts. Seems like more herbs replace the difference of not adding cheeses to my salads. Red Wine Vinegar, olive oil, fresh garlic, basil, oregano (optional) crushed pepper, raw organic honey, a good salt (just trying himalayan but have heard sea salts have more minerals and it’s a more ‘living salt’ choice. Would love your opinion on that, Shawn) Also would like to know your opinion on red wine vinegars and balsamic. I’ve heard that balsamic can have some lead in them.
Thank you to the others for sharing your recipes.
Irene, your recipe is fantastic! It’s true that celtic sea salt generally has more minerals, but there is value in having numerous types of salts in your diet. Himalayan concentrates the properties of that region of the world into its salts, so it can be VERY enlivening.
Red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar are both time-tested and nice to add-in in small amounts. Both are made from aged grapes which have a tremendous array of benefits. It’s true that some small studies have shown a RARE incidence of lead over exposure, because the grapes naturally extract lead from the soil and then it’s concentrated with the abundance of grapes used to make vinegar. In this case, truly, the positives far out weigh the negatives, as this has been a health-giving staple for many generations.
raw honey, smoked paprika, dried oregano, freshly cracked black pepper, dash of cayenne pepper, any sea salt, and some extra virgin olive oil. sometimes i do this type mix on salad or on quinoa pasta or on quinoa. sometimes i add turmeric. a fresh tiny clove of garlic helps set off the flavors but that’s not really in the dressing. and dried parsley too.
i also mainly came here to share my excitement for going to Asheville NC june 4&5th 2011 to see David Wolfe! a chocolate party, kombucha buchi tasting, and raw cafe lunch (2 lectures each a few hours long) WOWIE. 3 weeks away i can’t wait. soon i also hope to see your video of your tedx sincity speech.
i make a simple dressing:
– big dollop of organic spicy brown mustard
– a quick pour of balsamic vinegar
– olive oil or grapeseed oil
– salt and pepper to taste (himalayan salt and organic black pepper)
mix together really well (i use a fork in a bowl) and voila!
i like it spicy, so i go by color… the balsamic vinegar and mustard together can make many shades of gold to purple… i prefer it in the ‘brownish’ realm because i prefer it spicy rather than vinegar-y.
two other nice additions: chopped fresh organic basil + fresh chopped garlic.
YUM!
Awesome recipe! Quick and easy… And I like it spicy too.
I have one very similar to this in my Quantum Health book called “Easy Caesar”.
It’s so easy to upgrade your salad experience with recipes like these.