I will admit I was hesitant to start making my own salad dressing. It just seemed like one more thing to do. But alas many salad dressings have pretty scary ingredients—even the organic varieties. Most days it’s more work to scrutinize labels then it is to actually make it. There’s also the cost factor. Any pre-made salad dressing with any hope of making it to our home is expensive and we’ve been going through way too much dressing lately. So yes, I needed to get over my fears and just do it because here’s the thing: making salad dressing is simpler than I ever imagined. Yes, you read that right, it’s easy. I didn’t believe it either at first, but here’s what I figured out: I made sure I had small pint size mason jars on hand, I kept my personal sized blender in a handy spot, and I figured out a basic recipe I could customize for any occasion. You can of course use a whisk and a bowl to blend your dressings but I find a small blender to be simpler most days as mine will blend directly into a regular mouth mason jar so there’s less clean up involved. Here’s how I do it, usingkombucha.
15 minutes
45 minutes
4
INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE AT CULTURES FOR HEALTH
Kombucha Starter Kit
Kombucha Starter Kit
$26.99
New to brewing your own Kombucha? No problem! Our starter kit gets you going in the right direction of making delicious kombucha right at home.
Included in the kit is our dehydrated Kombucha Starter Culture and hand-picked ingredients and equipment to help you successfully start brewing.
Making Kombucha at home is not only a great way to save money, but it also allows you to control the ingredients and make a healthier, great-tasting tea.
Equipment in the kit may appear different than pictured.
Salad dressing is typically a mixture of oil and vinegar with spices and other flavorings. Instead of vinegar I use kombucha for a dose of probiotics. Using well-fermented kombucha will yield a tangy dressing with a good bite to it. Less fermented kombucha will yield a more sweet dressing.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup kombucha
- 1 tsp. salt (I often use onion or garlic salt)
- Add any combination of the following:
- couple of tbsp. of kombucha mustard
- 1/2 - 1 tsp. onion powder or garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. dried or 1 Tbsp. fresh any spices including parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, etc. chopped fine
- a couple cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp. raw honey for a sweeter dressing
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Combine ingredients to taste
Simple and flexible. When I have fresh herbs available during the summer I’ll use a combination of thyme, basil, parsley, black pepper, and garlic. When we need a nice Italian-style dressing it’s basil, oregano, parsley, and garlic. Of course you can stick with a classic by mixing kombucha mustard and honey.
These days we use dressing on everything from salad, to meat, and as a dip for cut up veggies. Just one more way to add flavor, save money, and get an additional dose of probiotics into our meals.