Help with Dressing please!

D&DD

Hi Old Stylers :hello:
I'm in need of some help please.I love pasta salads and rice salads and now we are seriously cutting back on our food budget would like to start making my own..I have searched the recipe threads and found some lovely recipes but am stuck when it comes to the dressings for them.I don't like mayonaise but eat most everything else! Can anyone help me please?I have no idea what to use.Thanks in advance

arkonite_babe

I make one with olive oil, dried mustard some balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. I have no idea of quantities, I just bung it all in a jar and give a good shake to mix it, then adjust the flavours to taste.

HTH

Murtle

I use olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a sprikle of sugar, some onions and chilis shake and pour.

Another one I do is olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard (any french stuff) and shake and pour.

adapt to taste!!!

x

henhog

You can mix mayonnaise with tomato sauce and it makes Marie Rose sauce which is nice with any thing with fish in it!

I agree with the other posters - olive oil, white wine vinegar and any mustard, herbs, spices or honey does the trick usually.

You can use greek yoghurt or hummus too, for a creamy dressing.
HTH

susank

Try Olive oil , cider vinegar or wine vinegar, teaspoon of runny honey and seed mustard - all shaken up - lovely and will keep in fridge

Swan_2

this is a really nice slightly spicy dressing for any rice salad

2 Tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon black/brown mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon ground cummin
1/2 teaspoon salt, if peanuts are unsalted
pinch turmeric
2oz roasted peanuts, roughly crushed/ground
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

heat oil
fry mustard seeds till they pop
remove from heat & add cummin, salt if using & turmeric
cool, add nuts & lemon juice
good with rice or green salads


another good thing with rice salads is to add a handful of Bombay Mix or other similar crunchy snack just before serving

Anne_Marie_2

For any salad dressing involving mayonnaise, substitute fromage frais, Greek or plain yoghourt or even creme fraiche - suppose you could try salad cream, but I can't stand the stuff so don't know.
As for other dressings, agree with all other posters, olive oil and then either lemon juice/balsamic vinegar/white wine vinegar/red wine vinegar/cider vinegar - any fresh herbs or spices of your choice, or grain mustard, salt and pepper, bung all into screw top jar and shake - so simple and you can store in the fridge what you don't use.

Thanks Swan for your recipe, sounds brilliant and going to give that a try. Was thinking that might be nice with a puy lentil salad too.

ChocClare

Standard French dressing (this is not what we English call French dressing, but it's standard in France!) = sauce a la moutarde:
In the bottom of your salad bowl, put a scant teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Add pepper and salt and a SMALL amount of vinegar - just enough to make the mustard go a bit runnier. Now GRADUALLY add oil - not olive oil, it's too pronounced a flavour: sunflower or vegetable oil will do - and stir vigorously to incorporate the oil after each addition until you've got enough sauce for your salad. You end up with a thick, glossy emulsion, not the runny stuff you get in England which masquerades as French dressing! You can add herbs to this or any kind of nuts (walnuts are particularly nice) or crumbled roquefort and peanuts.
Nearest in niceness is Delia's vinaigrette: crush a garlic clove and add coarse salt and pepper. Mash together (using a mortar and pestle - yes, right, Delia, I'm really going to add to my washing up when I can use the back of a spoon and the bowl I'm making the salad in!), add a little lemon juice or vinegar and gradually add in oil as before. Or take those ingredients and zhuzh them all up in the blender. MUCH easier! Using balsamic vinegar gives a fantastic flavour if you want to improve either of these still further.

Gers

I recently bought a tall jar thingy with a stopper from M&S which has loads of dressing recipes on the outside - it's for measuring the ingredients and is really useful. Only cost £2 or £3 and has lots of different dressings on it:

Sesame & Ginger vinaigrette
Chille & Lime vinaigrette
Traditional French vinaigrette
Traditional Italian vinaigrette
Balsamic vinaigrette.

For taking dressings as part of a packed lunch I reuse the little plastic bottles which had Benacol health drink in. They have little caps on and are really useful!

Good luck with the ideas.

D&DD

:T Wow so many ideas thankyou all so much I really do admire you lot and although I don't post in here that often I find you are always so welcoming when I do Thanks again Old Stylers

alikat_3

Along with others I usually use olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice & if required mustard + herbs, with pasta you can be very versatile, sometimes I also make a dressing with olive oil, pasata or finely chopped tomatoes & freshly chopped herbs. My personal preference is more oil 3/4/ to 1/4 alothough others prefer half & half & sometimes I just use olive oil on its own or with finely chopped garlic.