DIY: Salad Dressing

One thing I am never doing again in my life is buying salad dressing from a store.  What is the point?  It basically takes the same amount of time to create your own salad dressing from scratch as it does to take the Kraft out of the fridge, shake it up, and pour it on your salad.

Have a gander at Kraft's current lineup - over 50 varieties of salad dressing?  Have you tried them all?  NO, you haven't, and you never will be able to because then you would have to buy a fridge for salad dressing only and eat nothing but salad so you could use them all up before they expire.

Here's what you can do if you make your own salad dressings:  make a brand new flavour every day for the rest of your life and never have to throw out a 1/2 used bottle of Bacon Ranch because you already had Rancher's Choice, Calorie-Wise Rancher's Choice, Three Cheese Ranch, and Bacon Italian in the fridge that you liked better.  Oh and you also had to throw most of those ones out too.

As long as you have oil, vinegar, and a few random things to add in (if you want) you've got salad dressing.  A couple of my favourite standbys are oil+balsamic vinegar+a crushed garlic clove (amazing) and oil+apple cider vinegar+maple syrup (also amazing).  But really, the possibilities are endless, as long as you have oil and vinegar (which in itself is a delicious salad dressing).  If you're into creamy dressings, which are kind of gross in my opinion but whatevs, here's a recipe for homemade ranch that you could play off to create your own version of Creamy Cucumber.  Being able to control the ingredient ratios is awesome.  Is your favourite store bought dressing too salty, oily, or acidic?  Make a copycat version but adjust the ratios to your preference.

How many times have you found yourself accidentally thinking a new kind of salad dressing on the shelf at the store looks good, bought it, didn't really like it, and ended up throwing it out after it expired a few months later?  Never again!  Making your own salad dressing will save you money, fridge space, and calories.  And you can create the flavour that you thought the disappointing store bought dressing was going to have.