Salad Dressing

A simple flurry of slightly bitter endive slivers is just the right palate cleanser after a substantial meal. The key to the equally easy vinaigrette is to temper sumptuous walnut oil with lighter, more neutral vegetable oil.

When purchasing rack of lamb, ask your butcher to remove the chine bone as well as any excess surface fat and to "french" or clean, the rib bones. To create a really flavorful spice coating for the lamb, Hayden recommends using high-quality coffee and dark, strong Valrhona cocoa. For the salad, Fleming likes to use a spicy Tuscan olive oil to give the vinaigrette an extra kick of flavor.

Vin Santo is an Italian dessert wine. If you can't find it, use sweet Marsala.

Salad dressing has derailed at least seven of my diets. Fat-free varieties are either bitter or icky sweet, so I end up skipping salads altogether. The spa version uses thickened nonfat vegetable stock, which uncannily resembles emulsified olive oil, as a base. Soon you'll be buying greens in bulk and jeans in a smaller size.

Here, a garlic-packed vinaigrette is infused with caramelized sucs—pan drippings—from the roast pork, creating an uncanny fusion of nutty, meaty flavors.

Thin green beans add ribbons of color as well as bite to a celeriac rémoulade.

This salad shows how bitterness, punctuated with a zingy vinaigrette, can be supremely refreshing.

This fresh salad could be served family-style with the rest of the meal or as a plated first course.

Orange slices add a juicy, sweet touch to this simple salad, which is made even easier by drizzling the lettuce with oil and vinegar (rather than making a proper vinaigrette).

Grill the lettuce? Trust us, you'll make this dish again and again.

Something green and crisp is in order, and this simple salad is just the thing. A tangy from-scratch honey-mustard dressing will make salad eaters out of even the youngest at the table.

The tangy-sweet vinaigrette brings out broccoli's deep flavor in the best way.

Wash the salad greens in a large bowl of cold water. Handle them gently to avoid bruising.

This recipe was created by chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program and is used in his Summer Salad. The recipe makes more than enough lemon oil, but it stores well in the refrigerator and can be served with fish or used to flavor dips.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Bikini Bootcamp: Two Weeks to Your Ultimate Beach Body, by Melissa Perlman and Erica Gragg. This yummy dressing is a favorite at Bikini Bootcamp. Try it over salads, fish, and vegetables. You can dilute with water to your liking.

Editor's note: The recipe below is part of a healthy and delicious spa menu developed exclusively for Epicurious by Chef Jesús González of La Cocina Que Canta Culinary Center at Rancho La Puerta Fitness Resort and Spa. This recipe makes 1/2 cup more dressing than needed for Chef Jesus González's picante jicama and roasted carrot salad. The extra dressing is good on all sorts of salads, and will keep, tightly covered and refrigerated, for 3 days.