easy salads & dressings

The trick for a dressing as creamy and beautiful you get in a restaurant is – I assume you’ve guessed it already – a really large quantity of a good quality oil. Ideally the ratio from oil to acidity, such as vinegar, lemon juice or yoghurt is 3:1, 3 parts oil, 1 part acidity. Personally, I have an intolerance for raw onions, so you find them very rarely in my salads, usually I pickle them or replace them by spring onions or chives. A super simple way to pickle onions is to slice them thinly, add two spoons of caster sugar, 30 ml of vinegar, a pinch of salt and two spoons of neutral oil. Mix the onions thoroughly and leave them on the side to soak.

I’m going to show you some dressings for your everyday salads, they keep in the fridge for roughly a week, so I usually prepare up to three portions.

First salad is going to be a leaf salad with falafel, feta cheese, halloumi and olives, topped with roasted cherry tomatoes and baby courgette. The dressing for this is nice and simple, it’s a Middle Eastern inspired Blood Orange and Cumin Dressing, that takes less than five minutes to make. I usually use a screw top jam jar or similiar to make my dressings. For this one you’ll need: Juice and zest of 2 blood oranges, 150 ml of olive oil, a teaspoon of ground cumin, a clove of garlic (pressed through a garlic press or chopped very thinly), salt, pepper and two tablespoons of apple cider or white wine vinegar. Add all ingredients to your jar, close the lid and shake for a minute. Voila!

Second salad is going to be a simple pesto dressing, which works best for Mediterranean salads, such as tomato salads, pasta or potato salads with dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes or antipasti. You’ll need a small bunch of basil, juice and zest of one lemon, 150ml of olive oil, 50g of parmesan cheese, 1 clove of garlic very finely chopped, a hand full of nuts of your choice, salt, pepper and 50 ml of vinegar. This dressing is easiest to make by throwing everything in a blender and blending it until smooth. If you would like it more liquid, you can add some vegetable stock or even a bit of water. Mix with your pasta , chunky vegetables or potatoes and leave it to soak for a while. Ideal for a family barbeque. If you’re vegan, replace the cheese with yeast flakes.

The next one is one of my personal favourites (although in this picture clearly an afterthought, haha). This cucumber salad takes five minutes to make. You’ll need two cucumbers, finely slices. Sprinkle some salt on top and leave on the side while you make the dressing. The salt will remove some of the water from the cucumber slices and you’ll be able to pour it out, before you add your dressing. The dressing is 200g of sour cream, 50ml of cider vinegar, a sprinkle of salt, some white pepper and a teaspoon of Hungarian paprika. Mix thoroughly and then mix with the cucumbers.

And last, one of my staples (I usually make half a litre), a dressing which works with any salad in my opinion. You’ll need 100 ml of cloudy apple juice, 50 ml of vinegar, 400 ml of rapeseed oil, a dollop of coarse dijon mustard, salt, pepper and a bunch of chopped chives. Add all ingredients apart from the oil to a blender and blend thoroughly. While the blender is still running, slowly add the oil. If you think, you’re slow enough, slow down a bit more. The slower you are, the more creamy your dressing is going to be. The dressing keeps in the fridge for up to two weeks, look out for bubbles. If it gets sparkly, it’s time to throw it away.

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