Salad dressing is one of my priorities in Meal Prep!

You know how it is when it has to go fast, everyone is suddenly really hungry and dinner is almost ready on the table? Now only the need to make a salad… but oh no, the salad dressing still has to be mixed, the salad needs to be washed… oh well, maybe tomorrow? No way! This situation can be changed so easily, you won’t believe it.

Top priority in my diet plan: always have washed salad, ready to serve, in the fridge and at least 1 bottle of already prepared dressing. This is so essential and really easy to do. All those who have a blender or immersion blender can simply no longer find an excuse for not eating salads every day!

I always make the recipe below in 2 times the quantity, you can easily adjust the quantities in the recipe….

Ingredients for my basic dressing: great for all occasions

This salad dressing is much loved and can be varied in all possible directions.

Extra virgin olive oil – organic quality please.
White balsamic vinegar – you can also use dark balsamic vinegar, but will loose the green color
Garlic – I like garlic raw, if you can’t stand it you can blanch it briefly.
Spring onions – together with the herbs they give the dressing a nice fresh colour
Dijon mustard – or your favorite mustard you always have in the fridge
Horseradish – freshly grated or from a jar
Maple syrup – alternatively, use honey or agave syrup
Freshly ground pepper and sea salt
Herbs – as you like, I love parsley, chives, basil…
Water – the water emulsifies during mixing and makes the dressing wonderfully creamy yet runny

Prepare all the ingredients for the salad dressing (see recipe below for exact measurements). If you have a good blender, just roughly chop everything in the blender jar, run on high speed for 30 seconds, season to taste and fill in a bottle- done!

If you don’t have a stand blender but an immersion blender, roughly chop the herbs and spring onions, then put all the ingredients in a tall cup and blend until the herbs and spring onions are pureed and the rest of the ingredients are well emulsified. Depending on the power of the blender, this can take 1-2 minutes – or if it has a lot of power, it can be ready after 30 seconds.

If you don’t have a blender / immersion blender to prepare the salad dressing, chop the herbs, spring onion and garlic as finely as possible and then mix with the rest of the ingredients using a whisk. Or pour everything into a bottle and shake it well to create a nice emulsion of the ingredients.

Dressing variations

The basic recipe can be changed and adapted in no time, here are some possibilities, but I’m sure you can think of many more:

Lemon juice – replaces some of the white balsamic with fresh lemon juice, wonderfully fresh!
Grainy mustard – makes the vinaigrette even more savoury.
Sweet mustard – you can omit the maple syrup with it.
Rosemary oil – use already flavoured olive oil.
Ginger – fresh ginger immediately gives the sauce an Asian flavour.
Herb variations – anything goes, just parsley, just basil, maybe dill? Or just lots of herbs mixed together. I always check what’s in the fridge at the moment and use up all of the sad-looking leftover herbs.

No matter what ingredients you choose – having that salad dressing in the fridge is worth its weight in gold! And if you pre-wash the lettuce, then nothing will stand in the way of your daily portion of salad!