honey

Making your own vinaigrette is so easy, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing it for years. It takes a few ingredients and five minutes to get “better than store bought” salad dressing at a fraction of the cost.

The three most dreaded words in my vocabulary “Bathing Suit Season”.   It’s not that I have an issue wearing one, I hate shopping for them.   Come on, Girls out there…  Please tell me you have my back.   It could nearly be classified as torture.  I have to psych myself up for the task, give myself a little pep talk and promise myself a reward if I get it accomplished in record time.

When life gives you lemons, make a vinaigrette ~ Me.

The point is, we are eating A LOT of salads these days.  We always eat salad, but lately we are eating enough greens for a small village.   We have a few favorites, like this Butternut Arugula Salad, but I like to change it up fairly often.  One of the best ways to do that is with the dressing. Last year, we were at a family reunion and I was lucky enough to score 2 lbs of raw honey from a cousin who has bees.   That honey is incredible and makes the best vinaigrettes!   Making your own vinaigrette at home takes about 5 minutes and one of the advantages in doing it yourself is total control over the ingredients.  You know exactly what is in there.  No red dye #5,  no high-fructose corn syrup, no need for a PhD to decipher ingredients!   Just squeeze a few lemons, add in a little honey, blitz it & stir in whole grain mustard.  Easy Peasy, Lemony Squeezy.

This vinaigrette is good for more than just salad, I use it in a summer pasta salad (post coming soon) and it’s a great marinade for chicken!  This recipe makes about 3 cups of dressing and it will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 5 – 7 days.   Five minutes of work for a vinaigrette you can use all week!  That’s a pretty good deal.

Honey Lemon Vinaigrette with Whole Grain Mustard

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A light homemade salad dressing with honey, lemon and mustard

Prep Time 2 minutes

Cook Time 3 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 fl. oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice, about 4 big lemons
• 6 TB raw honey
• 1 TB whole grain mustard
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups canola or grapeseed oil

Instructions

1. Combine lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper in a deep bowl or container. I like to use quart containers (Tall deli containers or large soup containers from takeout)
2. With an immersion blender (or regular blender), combine all ingredients for about 15 seconds and SLOWLY drizzle in olive oil, then canola oil.
3. The texture and color will begin to lighten as it emulsifies.
4. You will see oil on top and then suddenly, it will be a perfectly blended dressing that holds together instead of looking separated.
5. When dressing is nice and thick, add in whole grain mustard and give it one last blast with the immersion blender to combine everything & Voila! Dressing, Done!