How often do you make homemade salad dressings?

[CherylTorrie]

I am curious as to how often you make your own dressings versus buying ready made. I enjoy some bottled dressings, that aren't loaded with sodium and preservatives, like the Paul Newman brand but I also enjoy making my own. As a child I don't remember ever being served salad that wasn't dressed with a homemade dressing but lately I have been to multiple dinner parties where commercial dressings were out on the table in the original bottles. So honestly which do you prefer and why?

 

[Morning Glory]

I never buy ready made dressings. Its so easy and much cheaper to make your own. My son does buy ready made mayo, though, as he likes to dollop it on everything! But I do sometimes make my own mayonnaise too.

 

[L_B]

I usually make my own. I have on occassion gotten ready made dressing when I buy a salad for lunch. They usually give you packages of ready made dressings then. I prefer the taste of my own because I can make it to suit what flavours we like plus I know exactly what is in it!

 

[winterybella]

I don't often make my own but I probably should. I've made a few dips from time to time and salad dressing just on the odd occasion.

 

[cupcakechef]

I'd say it's probably about a 50/50 split for me. Usually I just mix some olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice and herbs when I make my own, and those are all things that I keep on hand. If we're starting to get a bit more fancy/complicated then sometimes store bought is just easier. I know, I know - it's the cheat's way - but it's convenient in a pinch.

 

[Corzhens]

For the salad, we used to make the dressing. Our favorite is the ranch dressing that is special vinegar with salt, pepper and sugar. Sometimes we make Caesar's salad. When we moved to this house in 2001, it was pretty far from the grocery and supermarket so we had changed our lifestyle somehow. We rarely make our salad dressing and we just buy the read-to-eat in the bottle. That saves us time because we come home late due to the usual heavy traffic on the road. And to catch up with our dinner time, we have to be fast in preparing the food.

 

[Bakemehappy]

I have not tried making my own salad dressing yet I am still new in the kitchen. Right now I use store bought salad dressing but soon I will learn to make my own. I tried once mixing olive oil and apple cider vinegar I do not know what went into my head maybe I was trying to make my own vinegrette

 

[Sue Veed]

I nearly always make my own, so that I know what goes into it!
Usually make 250ml, just because that's the size of our container, with main proportions ~40% white wine vinegar to 60% extra virgin olive oil.
2 or 3 cloves of garlic chopped and mashed with a level teaspoon of salt, a heaped teaspoon of Colmans mustard powder, about a dessertspoon of pomegranate molasses and the vinegar go into the small bowl of the Magimix and get thoroughly blended, then some chopped French tarragon is added if it's in season (otherwise some fresh thyme), then the olive oil is added in a thin stream with the motor running, so it gets emulsified and (hopefully!) doesn't separate too much in the bottle. The pomegranate molasses adds an intriguing sweet'n'sour note to the dressing - without it, I'd be inclined to add a heaped teaspoon of unrefined sugar instead.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I only ever make my own.
I have a bottle that is a shaker that includes recipes for different dressings down the side. The recipes are marked out, so fill oil to this line, lemon juice to here... And you have your dressing once you have shaken the bottle etc. It works really well.

 

[foolsgold]

We usually make our own. My favorite dressing is pesto vinaigrette whose recipe was handed down to me by my grandmother. Sometimes we would buy generic ranch dressing, but I prefer homemade - less salt and additives.

 

[ReadmeByAmy]

We do not use a salad dressing that are store bought and we are making our own salad dressing from scratch. We usually make our salad dressing when we only feel like eating a salad and when there are really fresh lettuce and other greens that are available for us to make a salad.

 

[TheViper]

I've probably made a homemade dressing at least twice a month. To be honest it isn't like some big occasion when I do it. In fact most of the time I am just throwing stuff together so I have something to put on top of my food.

 

[MyExWasAChef]

I only ever make my own salad dressings. I'm afraid that if I buy them from the store they'll be chock loads full of fat and preservatives plus other taste sensations I wouldn't recognize. My base is always a good olive oil and balsamic vinegar and then I get creative with the spices.