Salad Dressings, Vinaigrettes - sure, you can buy them; Ranch, Italian, what have you. But then the total number of ingredients in your salad bowl will jump from, say, ten to well over forty and include a bunch of long, scary ones you'd never want to pronounce. Making your own salad dressing is easy and it will beat the store-bought kind. (Ranch dressing is basically mayonnaise with sour cream, a couple of herbs, garlic, salt+pepper and thinned with a bit of water or milk.) I won't bore you with vinaigrette mixology; this is all to say that you should check for recipes for your favorite dressing before just going out and buying a bottle. You'll be amazed at how simple it is to make at home.
The vinaigrette for one of my favorite salads has only 3 ingredients; oil, lemon juice and soy sauce. The salad part also has 3 ingredients; baby spinach, quinoa and sesame seeds.
It's so easy, but trust me, it's all good. I usualy make this for lunch, but it could also go very well with any meat or fish.
Lemon-Soy Vinaigrette • 1/2 cup sunflower oil • 2 tablespoons soy sauce • 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
Mix all ingredients.
Salad • 6 good handfuls of baby spinach • 3 cups cooked quinoa (that's about 1 cup uncooked, cook in stock for more flavor) • 1/4 cup roasted sesame seeds (roast them in a pan or in the oven)
Mix all ingredients.
Stir in the vinaigrette with the salad only a couple of minutes before serving, to keep the spinach crispy.
