Salad Dressing

Spoon this dressing over fresh fruit, such as melon or pineapple, when you want a pretty side salad or a light dessert.

Fresh dillweed and parsley perk up this low-salt version of a classic.

Creamy and just a wee bit spicy, this classic dressing is the finishing touch that will make your salad creations irresistible.

Green tea on your salad? Yes, it makes a great base for this Asian-style dressing, which lets you duplicate the flavor of restaurant salads at home without all the extra salt. Toss the dressing with a variety of salad greens and raw vegetables for a side salad or add grilled chicken, shrimp, or lean beef strips for an entrée.

Fresh lemon juice and garlic intensify the flavor of this dressing. You’ll be able to complement many different types of salad with it and its variations.

Dinner is on the table in minutes when Pacific Rim Flank Steak (page 180) or other cooked steak becomes part of this entrée salad.

Roasting lemons and shallots brings out their natural sugars and imparts a smoky flavor as well. Try variations, too, such as oranges and large cloves of garlic.

This is a bare-bones recipe for the simple all-purpose vinaigrette, which you will vary as you wish; you’ll find suggestions at the end of this recipe. Its beauty lies solely in the quality of your ingredients. Note that you will so often see proportions of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil, but that can make a very acid, very vinegary vinaigrette. I use the proportions of a very dry martini, since you can always add more vinegar or lemon but you can’t take it out.