A healthy salad dressing template

Growing up, there was no concept of a salad dressing as I understand it today. Salads were simpler, too, just greens, or tomatoes, maybe shredded cabbage. One would add some oil, some vinegar, and a pinch of salt on top of the greens, toss it up, and the salad was done.

We were missing out on a lot. An emulsion lightly coating greens or other vegetables does elevate the salad game substantially. My problem is that I am not a big fan of purchased dressings. Just looking at the list of ingredients tends to cool me off, and, frankly, I am yet to find a store-bought dressing that I really like. Not that I looked super hard, because a dressing is so trivial to make - in seconds for the most trivial version. I almost always make dressing a salad bowl, only as much as I need for this particular salad. I add all the ingredients to an empty bowl, whisk them quickly to get an emulsion, and then add and toss vegetables or greens, nuts, raisins, fresh fruit, whatever the daily inspiration calls for.

My a-hah dressing moment was when I realized that a salad dressing can be a great vehicle for consuming all sorts of "healthy" oil - flax seed oil and hemp oil come to mind first. After that T wondered what else I could add to the dressing and I realized that miso, with all of its umami and emulsifying property would be a great addition. Shortly, a template emerged, making it easy for me to both adjust and experiment.

Notes

The list of ingredients is very loose - one needs some oil, some acid, some emulsifier. Once this is in place, there tons of opportunities to play and see what works for you.

The classic ratio of oil to vinegar (or lemon juice) is 3 parts of oil to one part of vinegar. Miso is a powerful emulsifier, and so is ground garlic, so one can experiment with using much less oil. These days it is known that consuming fat is essential for human health but it is nice to have options and play.

Ingredients:

• Oils: I use olive or pumpkin seed oil as the base and add flax seed oil, hemp oil, and often a touch of sesame oil. With sesame oil one needs to watch so that it does not overpower other ingredients.
• Acid: I tend to use apple cider vinegar and lemon juice in roughly 1:1 ratio. Note that lemon adds more acidity. Any other vinegar would work, or lime juice - experiment and see what you like.
• Emulsifiers: I usually go with a 1/2 to 1 TBS of Dijon mustard, and about the same quantity of miso paste. 
• Grated garlic and ginger: I usually grate one (or more) clove of garlic and about the same quantity of fresh ginger. Sometimes I use more of one or another. I always use a fine microplane grater like this one, anything coarser defeats the purpose.
• Spices: salt can be omitted if using miso, freshly ground black pepper is classic. Additional options include cumin, coriander, ground thyme, ground rosemary, cayene pepper, gochugaru - you can ruj your imagination wild. I usually go light with spices.
• Fresh herbs: Anything you have you can chop up and try: thyme, marjoram, oregano, tarragon, basil, chives... Give it a shot and see what you like.

Method

1. Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl.
2. Whisk until you get an emulsion. 
1. Add more oil or emulsifiers if the dressing is too runny, and whisk some more.
3. Taste and correct with any of the ingredients, and whisk some more.

Once you have the dressing, add your greens and/or vegetables, nuts, fruit etc to the mixing bowls and toss so that the salad ingredients are coated lightly.

If you want to make more dressing ahead, you can add all the ingredients to a mason jar. Close the jar with the lid and shake vigorously to get an emulsion. Use what you need, and store the rest in the same closed jar in a refridgerator. Shake again before using the next time.