Kitchen Through the Lens: Vinaigrette

Every once in awhile, I get a little twitchy about the number of things I buy that contain ingredients I can’t pronounce. Ingredients that were probably created in some lab somewhere as part of some science experiment involving beakers and chemical reactions and isn’t that just really gross? [Exception to the rule: I don’t care what science was involved in the making of Cheetos – it’s all good with me, though.]

An obvious place to make changes is salad dressing. I love vinaigrettes and it seems silly to buy them from a store. How hard could it be? Surely it has to be better for me, right?

So, I searched Google for vinaigrette recipes that didn’t require a stop at the store for more ingredients on the way home. I found three worth trying. I figured I would try all three, and use my favorite on my dinner – grilled chicken salad. FYI, I marinated the chicken in lime juice, fresh garlic, sea salt and olive oil – it’s my go-to marinade, and I wanted to pick vinaigrettes that would complement those flavors.

I picked a honey lime, honey dijon and cumin lime (seen below, left to right).

I had no cruets for salad dressing – I did have these funky glass jars, hand painted by my kids WHICH IS WAY BETTER THAN SOME STUPID CRUETS.

Honey lime vinaigrette-
4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
dash cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Honey dijon vinaigrette –
1/3 c. balsamic vinegar
1/2 c. olive oil
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
salt and pepper to taste

Cumin lime vinaigrette –
1/4 c. lime juice
1/4 c. olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Ultimately, they were all fine – but the honey dijon is the only one that felt like a true vinaigrette to me – perhaps because it’s the only one that actually HAD VINEGAR IN IT. I put that on my disappointing salad along with a little bit of the honey lime and kind of mixed the two and it was tasty. All three are now in covered dishes in my fridge where they will go bad in three days because I no longer have any salad to put them on.*

*Bagged salad. What a pain THAT is. I don’t know if you can tell from the above picture, but there’s a spot in my fridge that freezes lettuce. And so it’s wilty and soggy and not so yum. I threw away SO MUCH LETTUCE and was left with a pretty puny salad. Also, you’ll note from the above salad that I even grill the cloves of garlic from the marinade (I use a grill pan). Yeah, so, grilled garlic is delicious and fabulously smelly and I love it, so there.