I made a new salad dressing today/yesterday.

pure sesame oil
fresh garlic
distilled white vinegar (not too much)
brown sugar

buzzed in my Magic Bullet

It was great on plain romaine.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2012 12:51PM by rawalice.

Rawalice,

Can you say approximately how much garlic, sesame oil and brown sugar you used? Thanks.

Paul

Honestly, the first time it came out perfect. I didn't even think about it, I just did it and it was marvelous. After the second time, I'd guess about:

2/3 oil to 1/3 vinegar (maybe more to taste) I probably made maybe 1/3 to half a cup with about 4-5 small cloves of garlic and maybe a tablespoon or more of brown sugar. (I accidentally put more than half vinegar and it wasn't so good, so I added some olive oil. Sorry.) Still, awesome dressing. Worth playing around with for formula. I would do it but I ran out of sesame oil.

Why brown sugar? Why distilled vinegar? My go-to dressing is Braggs Liquid Aminos, RAW vinegar (either Eden's wine or ACV) and extra virgin olive oil. You don't even have to put it together--just drizzle each one and then mix.

(Instead of brown sugar, why not honey? If you are vegan, then there's agave..)

I use maple syrup in dressing now and then, or succanat. I used to love a bit of mustard too. Olive oil, lemon, garlic, ginger and whatever herbs of the moment plus some pink salt is the current recipe. Or nothing, I like a naked salad too.

I's po. Nooo, I haven't really tried Bragg's. My food budget is pretty bad. I'd say about 30-40 bucks a week. Yeah. I had a friend once who liked salad like that. No dressing, just a bit of salt. I can't do that. My go to is basically like a greek dressing with parsley instead of feta. I do like agave for dressing. Honey is a little too sweet for me for dressing, but, I'm on my budget, so that's why I've been sticking with the brown sugar. I like oil and vinegar though, I'll have to try that. Thanks.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2012 10:14PM by rawalice.

I love sweet stuff but it's a nice respite to have a dressing without the sweet. Coco is right: if you can't afford the Braggs, get some raw salt. The larger Whole Foods sell Real Salt in bulk (although my smaller one stopped years ago )
Also, Braggs makes a little spray bottle that is under $3 and very handy for putting on salads.

I don't like Bragg's, has a weird taste to me. I read it's not very good for you anyhow, some naturally occurring MSG or some such, can't remember exactly. Sometimes I buy a small bottle of organic tamari but not often.

I like plain salad with a squeeze of lemon but since trying to replace food that has to travel far to get to me with local items I've been thinking I might try some of the juice from a jar of ferments. It's pretty salty so I'd only need a little but it's Alive!

Coco, please think about that one. Natasha also stated the same in a video and never responded to my comment. Yes, MSG is naturally occuring in some foods like that one but guess what else? Sea weed! I mean, we have to be able to differentiate between something which is isolated in a lab and that which occurs within a non-processed food naturally! And then this stuff is repeated ad nauseum. Same with talking about the "sugar" in a mango versus the white stuff. Equating them is erroneous.

I have read info that perhaps it isn't processed in as healthy a way as we would like. But it is very hard to find definitive info and so I reserve judgment until then. I think it's great for certain things like marinades and salads. I tried to use natural soy sauce instead and did not care for it. It's too salty and too strong a flavor; Braggs is perfect for my needs, including when I make stirfry. To each her own...

I know MSG is naturally occurring, it's derived from kelp, so I don't necessarily think it's bad, but I don't think it's good in high concentrated doses, you know?
There was something about the processing too that I don't remember exactly, it's a cooked food etc. Meh, I just don't like the taste of it. There are reduced sodium tamari's, I've had that. I barely use any though, if I do use salt it's a tiny bit of pink salt. We buy a small container maybe twice yearly.
I do think that excess fruit sugar is nearly as bad as refined sugars though, if I have too much sweet produce I feel just as yucky as if I've had something actually "sugary". I crave some greens or nuts/seeds if I've had too much sweet fruit.

Know what I love? Avocado mushed into greens, ooh yum. I'm trying to avoid tropical foods though, sigh. There's nothing really fatty that grows in Canada. We need a northern olive or something up here!

I am differentiating between natural MSG and the chemical variety. For instance, whenever I have table salt these days, it's tastes like CHEMICALS. I can taste the difference from Real Salt! And of course they are stripping all the other minerals and processing it at such a high heat, adding anti-caking agents (beware even sea salt that is not raw; I bought one with baking soda!
)

That savory taste, umami, is found in soy, seaweed, and some other foods. I like to use Braggs for certain dishes and I have found it better-tasting that tamari, which is too overpowering.

Oh, ew, salt is disgusting. Man, the taste of it, just nasty. There is SUCH a big difference between that boxed crap and something less processed for sure.

Umami is in parmesan and tomato paste as well, interesting when you think about that.

yep yer right coco .. we have no real fatty-ish produce up here do we .. never really thought about that before ..

but for creamy dressings i whiz up some almonds or filberts from the farm .. and add my spices / acids / etc to that

otherwise im a plain salad eater or squeeze of citrus

alice instead of processed sugars you could blend a a date or two and have a really nice natural sweetneer

this was posted a couple of years ago but its always my go-to go back tooo .. when i get bored and stumped

Posted by: katrink ()
Date: August 05, 2009 03:22PM


Today recipes were salad dressings from our raw food instructor. There isn't really a recipe but more a listing of items he uses to make dressings and some combos of them.
He uses 5 ingredient groups for creating his salad dressings. Groups A, B, & C are the main ingredients. D & E are items added depending on mood or salad. He also likes to add water to most dressings to allow for the use of less oil and to thin out the nut butters and blend the seeds. Always add the acids (C) last because that will make the dressings thicker and creamier.

(A) Oils/Fats- Olive oil, Flax oil, Coconut oil, Nut butters, Tahini, Sesame seeds, Sunflower seeds, Pumpkins seeds, Pinenuts, Almonds, Cashews, Macadamia nuts, Avocado

(B ) Salts - Celtic Sea salt, Crystal salts, Nama Shoyu, Miso ,Sea vegetables

(C) Acids - Lemon, Lime, Orange, Grapefruit, Tomato, Sauerkraut, Apple Cider Vinegar

(D) Sweets - Dates, Figs, Dried Fruit, Honey, Orange, Berries, Papaya, Mangos

(E) Herbs & Spices - Garlic, Ginger, Onion, Chili, Peppers, Cayenne, Basil, Oregano, Thyme, Dill, Mint, Curry, Sun Dried tomatoes

These dressings are all made in a blender.
Here are some combinations that can be made but by all means make up your own and be sure to write down the amounts and ingredients as you make them.
The first 3 on the list are the ones he demonstrated today, I will also list the ingredients of the salads he used them on.

Basic Tahini - Water, Tahini, Nama Shoyu, Lemon juice, Garlic (this was served on baby spinach and onion salad)

Spicy Thai - Olive oil, Almond butter, Nama shoyu, lime juice, honey, ginger, garlic and thai pepper (this was served on cabbage, bok choy, raisins, coconut and scallions)

Date dressing - Water, olive oil, miso, lemon juice, dates and garlic (this was served on a mixture of baby greens)

Creamy Italian - Water, macadamia nuts, celtic salt, apple cider vinegar, garlic, basil and oregano

Tropical Vinagrette - Flax oil, celtic salt, apple cider vinegar, mangos, papaya, mint and garlic

Sun Dried Dream - Cashews, celtic salt, grapefruit juice, apple cider vinegar and sun dried tomatoes

Ageless - Water, sesame seeds, miso, sauerkraut, garlic

Avo Dressing Avocado, celtic salt and lemon juice

Curry Cream - Tahini, celtic salt, orange juice, ginger and curry
.
These are just a few examples but be creative and make your own combos. Just be sure to blend until the are creamy because they will stick to the greens better and you won't be left with that puddle of dressing in the bottom of the bowl when you are finished eating. Oops I also forgot to add if you are using nuts or seeds toss them in with the oil or water before adding any other ingredients to allow them to be blended with out any chunks in the dressing, you can also toss whole garlic cloves in with the oil or water and save yourself having to mince them too.

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

You know, that's one thing I like about the dressing I made. It doesn't require any salt or pepper or anything. Oh, and I guess I just prefer white vinegar. It'd probably be okay with some different flavored vinegar. It's weird, like some people really enjoy balsamic vinegar and stuff, but I don't care for it generally. Maybe we all have different tastebuds. Of course you can substitute. Maybe I'd like the balsamic mixed with the sesame flavor.

Does msg really come from kelp? I'm not sure why, but I think it acts as a preservative too. Of course, too much, and you feel icky. I wonder if it can replace stuff like sodium benzoate or eek! sodium metabisulfite. I don't know why but that one scares me.

Sodium Benzoate is the worst. My garbage eating brother doesn't generally care what's in his food but even he won't touch that one. It's in so many packaged foods too, like all of them.

Jo, wow what a list! Thanks for that.

Thank you for sharing those wonderful ideas for salad dressings.

i just wanna point out the rough hidden info about braggs. Some years ago they had to remove the word raw from the label as it was a lie! The logic behind the production method is so simple and straight forward it is likely accurate. Industrial grade hydrochloric acid is used as a soaking agent for soybeans. doesn't even sound like food to me! i just gotta shout out to my homies, we probably are much better off with nama shoyu. I don't eat any of these things as Gabriel cousens has found in the blood of his patients that these soy products promote negative effects in the blood chemistry and biology.