Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- 7.5g garlic powder (not garlic flakes, which somehow don't hit the same spot)
- 4 spring onions
- Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley
- Small bunch of chives
- 5 leaves of tarragon
- Fresh dill (to taste)
- 100g buttermilk
- 100g sour cream
- 10g Kewpie mayonnaise
- Juice of half a lemon
- Modest glug of Worcestershire sauce
- Salt to taste
Method
Before doing anything else, put your garlic powder into a small container and add about a teaspoonful of water. It will soak it up and in about five minutes will mellow the flavour beautifully.
Chop the onions and the herbs as finely as you can, then combine them with all the other ingredients in a bowl. The dressing will be at its best once it's sat in the fridge overnight to infuse. I usually find it stays good for a week in a sealed container.
Blue Cheese Dressing
Ingredients
- 5g garlic powder
- 5ml white wine vinegar
- 100g gorgonzola
- 100g sour cream or yoghurt
- 10g Kewpie mayonnaise
- 5g hot horseradish
- Coarse ground black pepper
Method
Pre-soak your garlic powder in the vinegar, then mash the cheese into the liquids.
Season with pepper before whisking everything together.
Choose one that's really boring and watery, but remember the more complex its structure, the better the dressing will cling to it. The cut face of an iceberg is, for once, just what you want.
'Japanese' Carrot and Ginger Dressing
Ingredients
- 100g carrots (go for young and juicy ones)
- 50g spring onions, white parts only
- 15g peeled fresh ginger
- 10g mirin
- 30g light soy sauce
- 50g rice vinegar
- 100g vegetable oil
- 10g sesame oil (optional)
Method
Peel and roughly chop all the vegetables, then place in a blender with the mirin, soy and rice vinegar. Blitz vigorously.
Once you have a very smooth purée, keep the engine running and drizzle in the oils, allowing them to emulsify.
Green Goddess Dressing
Perhaps the most effective of all the Big Dressings to the modern palate, but that shouldn't be a surprise. You basically collect all the ingredients of a really good salad, blend them into a smoothie and then pour it thickly over a bad salad.
Ingredients
- Handful each of fresh parsley (curly leaf), tarragon and chervil
- You can add a handful of basil too, but be aware that it will bully everything else into submission
- 4 spring onions, green parts only
- Splash of fish sauce (optional, but it's a respectful nod to the anchovy in the original)
- 1 clove of garlic
- Juice of half a lemon 100g olive oil, buttermilk or the chopped, lesh of an avocado
Place everything except the oil/buttermilk/ avocado in the blender and blitz until completely smooth, then combine with your choice of oil, buttermilk or avocado.
A new-and-improved Thousand Island Dressing
Ingredients
- One egg plus one extra yolk
- 5g Dijon mustard
- Salt to taste
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- 150g good quality neutral vegetable oil
- 3 large tomatoes
- 5ml apple cider vinegar
- 1 small shallot
- 1 sweet pickle
- 2 cornichons
- 4 leaves tarragon
- 5g nonpareil capers
- Pinch of sugar
- Splash of Worcestershire sauce
- Paprika to taste (sweet not hot, and for God's sake not smoked)
Method
Put the eggs into a jug with the mustard, salt and lemon juice. Ply the stick blender while pouring in the oil.
Peel, deseed and chop the tomatoes. Simmer in a pan with the apple cider vinegar, until everything breaks down and you have a smooth, quite dry paste. Allow to cool.
Micro-dice the shallot, the pickle and the cornichons. Finely mince the tarragon, then stir in, along with the capers, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Adjust seasoning with salt and paprika.
Refrigerate overnight.
A classic Thousand Island
Ingredients
- 100g mayonnaise
- Squirt of ketchup
- Large dollop of sweet pickle relish (the fluorescent green stuff)
- Worcestershire sauce
- Paprika
Method
Chuck everything into a bowl and stir. The second option is probably the more authentic. It's a dressing. It's big. And it'll cling to leaves. If you can handle mayonnaise and ketchup on your salad, it's not too bad. I'm not sure I can, but it's a great excuse to make a Reuben sandwich.