Garlic Herb Salad Dressing

This is my first year with a large herb garden so I’ve been looking for more ways to use the herbs that I’m growing.  My parents visited this weekend and my mom made a homemade garlic herb salad dressing.  I captured the recipe so that I can continue to make it on my own and also share it on the blog.  This dressing was so delicious.  I love that it’s a healthy alternative to many of the store bought dressings.  It would make a great marinade too!

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Ingredients

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1 cup Grapeseed Oil

4 tbsp Fresh Herbs

1 Orange

1 Lemon

2 cloves Garlic

1 tbsp Honey

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

Salt

Pepper

Fresh Herbs

For this recipe we used fresh mint, basil, oregano and thyme.  Once chopped there was roughly 1 tbsp of each.  You can get creative with the herbs and substitute any of these for different herbs.

Oil

We used grapeseed oil for this dressing because it has a very mild flavor.  Other great oils to use for salad dressing include flaxseed oil, extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil and walnut oil.

Acid

For this recipe we juiced one orange and 1 lemon which created about 1/2 a cup of juice when combined.  You could also substitute vinegar for the citrus.

Emulsifier

An emulsifier is something that attracts and binds oil and water molecules together.  It’s super important to add an emulsifying agent when making a vinaigrette or citrus/oil dressing to create a well blended salad dressing.  If you don’t, the oil and vinegar/citrus will separate and you won’t have an even consistency or flavor of dressing throughout your salad.  For this recipe we used dijon mustard and honey but other common emulsifiers are egg yolks, and mayonnaise.

Ratios

A good rule of thumb for acid to oil ratio is 1 part acid to two parts oil.  For this recipe we used about 1/2 cup of citrus juice (lemon and orange) and 1 cup of grapeseed oil.  For the emulsifier you’ll want about 1 tsp of emulsifier for every 1/2 cup of liquid.  Since we had a little over 1-1/2 cups of liquid we added 1 tbsp of honey and 1 tsp of dijon mustard.  The honey added the perfect amount of sweetness to the garlic herb salad dressing.

Container

I used a recycled glass tea jar with a lid that I had on hand for my dressing.  They make specific salad dressing jars with measuring marks, a tight lid to allow you to shake it and a pour spout.  I think I’m going to get one of these for my next round of dressing! It’ll be worth it to reduce the amount of dishes that I have to do.  If you have one of these let me know if you like it in the comments!

Homemade Garlic Herb Salad Dressing Recipe

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Garlic Herb Salad Dressing

Keyword Dressing

Prep Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 Lemon
• 1 Orange
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 1 Tbsp Oregano
• 1 Tbsp Mint
• 1 Tbsp Thyme
• 1 Tbsp Basil
• 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 Tbsp Honey
• 1 Cup Grapeseed Oil
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/8 tsp Pepper

Instructions

1. Finely chop the herbs.

   

2. Juice the lemon and the orange into a small bowl and then add 2 cloves of minced garlic.

   

3. Then add 4 tbsp of the chopped herbs (1 tbsp of each).

   

4. Add 1 tsp of dijon mustard, 1 tbsp of honey and 1 cup of grapeseed oil and mix it all together.

   

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Pour salad dressing into a jar with a lid and shake well before serving.

   

This garlic herb salad dressing paired perfectly with a simple salad that had a mix of vegetables including cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, beets and carrots.

Just shake the dressing before you add it to the salad.  Since my glass container doesn’t have a spout I used a spoon to drizzle the dressing over the salad.

This dressing should be stored in the refrigerator and should last 1-2 weeks.

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