In the spirit of being back in California next week, I thought I would quickly share my favorite salad and vinaigrette recipe—I have this same salad almost every day for lunch when I’m home, and this dressing is so good that it never gets old!
Have you ever noticed that some dressings look totally normal, but when they sit out you just get a huge pool of oil on top? The first unspoken rule with dressings—and this has taken me many failed attempts to learn—is to blend in everything but the olive oil together, slowly stirring in the oil so that the dressing fully emulsifies (ie, the oil and vinegar are sufficiently mixed). In other words, mix and shake isn’t going to cut it here.
My recipe below is a quick creamy vinaigrette that you can easily make ahead for the week. Feel free to change the recipe depending on your taste, but as a general rule of thumb, a vinaigrette base is typically 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar.
Once the dressing is ready, my basic salad is just a few simple ingredients: mixed greens, cucumber, vine-ripe tomatoes, lemon herb chicken, and lots of avocado. I also love adding homemade croutons for a little crunch (simply toss stale/leftover bread pieces in olive oil and oregano and toast them on a cookie sheet under the broiler until golden brown, about 5 minutes).
To avoid making the salad overly soggy, put a small amount of dressing into the bottom of your bowl, then mix and serve.
- ½ cup olive oil
- 4 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon minced fresh garlic
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- In a small bowl, combine the mustard, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.
- Very slowly pour in the olive oil, whisking all ingredients together until the dressing is fully emulsified.
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