January, the month of newfound motivation to eat healthy, can be tough. Salad after salad gets boring, especially if you're using bottled salad dressing. Not only is the flavor not so great, bottled salad dressings are full of unpronounceable ingredients, preservatives and sugars. Making your own salad dressing is an infinitely better way to eat your greens and they only take a few extra minutes to make.
Here are five excellent recipes to help you actually enjoy your salads:
1. Green Goddess Dressing (from Food52): This herby, creamy and bright green dressing originated at the San Francisco Palace Hotel in 1923. Copycats popped up everywhere, making the dressing at home or even bottling it for sale, and its popularity has never waned. When you try it, you'll understand why.
2. Toasted Sesame Asian Dressing (from My Whole Food Life): The perfect dressing for a salad or to accompany a bowl of ramen or pho, this sesame oil-based dressing is incredibly easy to make and will make any salad more interesting.
3. Catalina Dressing (from Epicurious): Catalina dressing is popular among kids with celery sticks in hand, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it too. It's sweet and tangy and bright orange in color, and it goes particularly well on salads loaded with cucumber.
4. Dijon-Shallot Vinaigrette (from Everyday Maven): This is an elegant, bold-flavored vinaigrette that goes well with everything. You can dress roasted vegetables with it to make a great vegetarian side dish, or bring a Tupperware of it to work and add it to a salad right before eating. Though it's unconventional, it's also great to spread onto a turkey sandwich.
5. Essential Balsamic Vinaigrette (from The Kitchn): You definitely know how to make balsamic vinegar-olive oil dressing, but did you know you can make a huge batch and it'll pretty much last forever in the fridge? You'll have your own homemade bottled dressing in no time, and it makes salad-making a breeze.
