Yesterday we talked about salad dressings and how much hidden sugar there is in those bottles lining the shelves of the market. With a few simple steps you can be mixing up your own vinaigrette to toss your salad greens in your bowl.

Follow the easy steps to make a basic vinaigrette to keep your salads tasty and healthy. One problem people run into is creating a salad that is weighed down by too much dressing or vinaigrette. Start out with a lighter hand as you can always add more dressing later. Once it’s in there, you can’t take it out.

After you mix your vinaigrette, pour it along the inside rim of the salad bowl. This is also a good idea if you are not serving the salad immediately.

Your salad and vinaigrette are prepped ahead of time but you toss it at the last minute so the leaves are lightly coated and ready to be served. Nothing spoils a salad faster than having too much dressing weighing down the leaves, or one that was tossed with dressing, and not served immediately.

Remember your basic ratio for a vinaigrette is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar.

BASIC VINAIGRETTE

3 tablespoons extra-virgin-olive-oil

1 tablespoon vinegar or any acid (like fresh-squeezed lemon or orange juice)

This amount is about right to serve four salad servings.

You can explore using other oils and vinegars. If making your own vinaigrette is new for you, it may be surprising to you how many different options are available. Try different vinegars like red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar or white balsamic vinegar.

You can also find other oils for your salad that come in different varieties. Some oils will have a very strong taste like walnut oil or a neutral flavor like grapeseed oil.

If you are just starting to explore the avenue of making vinaigrettes buy your ingredients in the smallest bottles possible and commit to the larger size when you have settled on something as an ingredient you know you like.

Making your own vinaigrette is so simple and fast. It’s much better for you since you aren’t using the pre-made bottles of dressing with ingredients like added sugar that isn’t part of a healthy eating plan.

If you missed the post about plastic bottles of extra-virgin-olive-oil being too close to the fiery hot grill. well here you go.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. See you then!