Secret Recipe Club: Lemon Vanilla Salad Dressing

For this month's Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned the blog Shockingly Delicious.  Shockingly Delicious is written by a woman named Dorothy who is a writer, long time cook, and mom.  Dorothy has so many amazing looking recipes on her blog!  I had such a hard time choosing one because the recipes look so interesting.  I considered Vegetarian Chard Soup, Slow Cooker Hawaiian Kalua Pork, Hot Gooey Caramel Pie, and Rustic Herbed Stuffing with Greens.  I'll probably make the stuffing recipe for Thanksgiving because it looks so good.  We don't even normally have stuffing at Thanksgiving because my family can take it or leave it, but that one looks too interesting not to try.

 

Anyway, I chose Lemon Vanilla Salad Dressing.  What unique ingredients, I've never seen vanilla in dressing before.  Though I was a little suspicious of how it would turn out, I'm happy to say it's quite good.  Unique and tasty, the flavors totally work!  My husband liked it, too, and he has pretty traditional tastes when it comes to salad and dressings.  I'm having flashbacks to his horror when I served a kale salad with chopped apples, walnuts, and dried cranberries topped with an avocado lemon dressing.  Usually he loves what I make, but he still talks about how bad that was.  I liked it...  Point is, even he enjoyed this dressing, unique and dare I say "girly" as it may be.

I served the dressing over plain bagged salad from the grocery store, but added some of the last of my baby tomatoes and peppers from my garden.  I meant to give the salad a sprinkle of dried cranberries, too, but forgot.  Oops!  What I can say for sure is that I'll definitely make this dressing again.  It would be great in the summer since the flavors are so light, or in the dead of winter to perk things up a bit.  Thanks for the awesomeness, Dorothy!

 

One last thing: I received a sad e-mail saying that November would be the last month of Secret Recipe Club because they're closing up shop.  I remember how excited I was to join 2 1/2 years ago.  The rules were that you had to have 100 recipe posts WITH pictures, and a recipe index, so I spent quite a while building up my collection of recipes with photos (it isn't second nature of me to take a picture of what I cook!) and making the index before I applied.  How disappointing for it to be over.  

  

I'll still lurk around some of my favorite blogs that I found through SRC, like Making Memories with your Kids, Chef in Disguise, Mother Would Know, The Pajama Chef, and BCMom's Kitchen, but it won't be the same.  All of the blogs I've been assigned to have been great though.  Many of the SRC recipes I've made are ones I still make, and I've tried a lot of recipes that I never would have tried. and I've thoroughly enjoyed the past two and a half years of Secret Recipe Club.  Does anyone know of other cooking blog groups like this?

   

  

  Lemon Vanilla Salad Dressing

 

4 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (I used Nielsen-Massey brand, yum!)

pinch salt

 

Place all ingredients in a bowl and blend with an immersion blender for about 30 seconds or until all ingredients are combined and the dressing has thickened slightly.  Alternatively, you can mix it up in a blender.

 

Yield: 1/2 C dressing
   

An InLinkz Link-up

Pepper Parmesan Vinaigrette

Today I'm sharing my new favorite salad dressing!  I found it over on the Brown Eyed Baker blog and have made it several times.  My version is slightly different from hers and I just love it.  It's very peppery, salty, vinegary, and just all around really good.  It also could not be any easier to make and keeps fine in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
 

 
Pepper Parmesan Vinaigrette

7 Tbsp Canola oil
3 Tbsp olive oil (too much will make it bitter)
7 Tbsp white vinegar
4 Tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth with an immersion blender, food processor, or blender.  Pour into a jar and store in the refrigerator.  Shake before serving.

Creamy Salsa Dressing

When we were teenagers, my cousin and I loved a bagged salad kit that had a salsa dressing, so one day I experimented in my mom's kitchen and ended up with this dressing.  I've been making it for about 12 years now and finally measured the ingredients tonight.  It's a snap to make, and everyone I've served it to has really enjoyed it.  I've made it with countless types of salsa over the years (green salsa is great, too) and it's always fantastic.  The directions are really just a guideline and how much you need of each ingredient will depend on what salsa you use.  For example, some salsas result in a thinner dressing.  You can just add more sour cream if it's too thin for you.

This dressing is great made into a side salad with lettuce, tomatoes, a sprinkle of cheese, and some crushed tortilla chips, or you can make it into a dinner salad by also adding cooked taco meat, sliced olives, and sliced avocado.  Whatever you want, really.  We always love having taco salad!  It's also good drizzled over grilled chicken or in turkey wraps.  You can even use cream cheese instead of sour cream and make a dip.

Creamy Salsa Dressing

3/4 C of your favorite salsa

1/2 C sour cream

1 Tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp cumin

salt to taste (I used 1/2 tsp but the amount will depend on the salsa and your preferences)

Puree all ingredients in a food processor, blender, or with an immersion blender.  Taste it and add more of any of the ingredients if you think it needs it.  The dressing will stay good in the refrigerator for about a week.

Yield: 1 1/4 C, about 6 to 10 servings depending on the size of your salads

Ranch Dressing

This ranch dressing is incredible and without a doubt better than any ranch you can buy. We used to buy the refrigerated kind even though it was more expensive than the regular kind because it tasted a lot better, but this is even better and cheaper! It doesn't even have to sit in the fridge for the flavors to blend. I got it from one of my favorite cooking blogs, Our Best Bites. For once I didn't alter a single thing in the recipe because it's perfect as is! We use it as salad dressing of course but more often than that we dip raw veggies in it, especially raw zucchini and whole sugar snap peas this past summer. I was surprised to learn that a lot of people think raw zucchini sounds gross. It's actually really good and you should try it if you haven't yet.

The original post says you can make this into dip by using sour cream instead of buttermilk. I haven't done that yet so can't vouch for it but thought I'd toss it out there! Also if your dressing turns out too thin (it should not if you measure properly), just stir in a little more mayonnaise.

Quick note: Often you can make a buttermilk substitute by stirring together milk and lemon juice, but I do not recommend trying that with this recipe. Just buy a little carton of buttermilk. You can use the leftovers in lots of recipes. Later this week I will post a recipe for biscuits or pancakes or whatever I decide to do with the leftovers. Embrace the buttermilk!

When I visited my family in Seattle this summer, my mom and I went to Crate and Barrel and I found this fantastic little bitty pitcher that's perfect for homemade salad dressing or syrup. It doesn't fall over easily (unlike other dressing containers I've tried), has a lid to keep out gross flavors, and is cute.


Ranch Dressing

1C mayo
2/3 C buttermilk
1 1/2 t dried chives
1 t dried parsley
1/4 t seasoned salt
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
1/8 t dried dill
1/8 t black pepper
1/8 t dry mustard
1/4 t white vinegar

Stir together all ingredients in a bowl. It will stay good refrigerated for 1 week if your buttermilk is fresh.

Yield: 1 2/3 cups