There was a day last week, between the holidays, where I wasn’t prepared at all for an evening meal at home. I’m thinking it was Tuesday, because it was the first day in several that we were just home for the day. Andy and I were discussing dinner, and my comment was that I had no idea what we were going to have for dinner, but it would be veggie-laden, after a weekend of indulging in lots of treats. He wholeheartedly agreed, and specifically requested a salad. This was a good idea, I had enough salad ingredients on hand, but I was missing one key ingredient- salad dressings. Specifically, a nice French style dressing. Abigail would happily eat salad every day of the week if it came with a side of creamy French dressing, she loves it that much. But I was completely out of French dressing, and more than anything I wanted to just stay at home in my jammie pants all day.
I was thinking about this problem and debating running to the store for salad dressing when I thought of the one time I’d made homemade French dressing. It had turned out okay, but not great, and I thought that surely someone out there in Internet-land surely had come up with a decent recipe for homemade French dressing, and maybe, just maybe, I would have all the required ingredients on hand.
I found the very recipe on Allrecipes.com. I read many of the reviews for French Salad Dressing, and then checked the ingredients, sure enough, I had everything needed to make this dressing, though I didn’t quite have the quantity of a few things. I didn’t have a full cup of ketchup, and I was running low on oil. So I scaled the recipe, by putting in 6 servings and asking Allrecipes to calculate for me. I had just enough of everything and quickly tossed all the ingredients into the blender, whispered a little prayer for success, and pressed the button. Less than a minute later, I had what I thought was a great resemblance to bottled French dressing!
I put the dressing in the fridge to rest and meld for a few hours before dinner, and when it was time, showed Abigail the homemade dressing. We all tried it on our salad and agreed it was delicious. The more I ate, though, the more I thought I had used a bit too much onion in the dressing. So next time I will cut back on the fresh onion. Other than that, seriously, it was as good as store bought dressing- it had the thick, creamy texture, the sweet, tangy flavor, and overall it was a real winner. It was good enough, that I will seriously consider not buying French dressing anymore. I was instantly thinking of a salad fresh from the garden in July.
I suspect this dressing would keep for about two weeks or so in the fridge. It may last longer, I guess just give it a taste before serving to guests. By making it myself, I knew exactly what was in it and didn’t have to worry about corn syrup or preservatives, as the ketchup I used didn’t really have anything strange in it either.
Here is the first incarnation of this recipe for a half-batch. I am going to play with it a bit to get the perfect dressing, and will share that when I have it. This should yield you about two cups of dressing, which is plenty to last a while. You will need a blender to put it together, as I don’t think a food processor will work quite as well.
Creamy French Salad Dressing
3/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup ketchup 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1/2 small onion, chopped 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1/4 teaspoon saltDirections:
Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Store in the refrigerator, allowing the dressing to rest for at least one hour before serving.
Wikipedia: Allrecipes.com is a global social networking service and forum, which encourages users to post recipes, comment on and make changes to existing recipes and search for specific recipes. ?