Salad dressings are like the cherry on top of a cold dish. The right sauce will emphasize and reveal the taste or give new shades to the usual ingredients.

To learn how to cook the perfect dressing, you need to know a few simple rules.

Dressing consists of a base, additional components, spices and a “secret” ingredient.

For the base of the dressing take:

• vegetable oil. Olive and sunflower are suitable for most salads, sesame - for Oriental and Asian, mustard - for salads of greens and vegetables;
• vinegar;
• berry or citrus juices.

Additional components are selected, taking into account the ingredients of the salad:

mustard - for salad it is better to choose grainy. It will give the sauce flavor, spiciness and make it thicker. Suitable for meat, vegetable and salads with herbs;

honey - perfectly complements salads with dried, fried or smoked meat, spicy cheese, nuts and arugula;

mayonnaise, yogurt or sour cream - for meat, vegetable and fish salads. You can not add oil to dressing with sour cream or yogurt.

Spices

The main rule is not to get carried away with the addition of spices. Especially with those that have a rich aroma. What spices are suitable for salads:

salt;

black freshly ground pepper;

fresh herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro, basil);

coriander - for salads from boiled vegetables;

nutmeg - to meat and salads from boiled vegetables;

ginger - for Asian salads, as well as with chicken and fresh vegetables;

dried chopped herbs, such as marjoram or oregano.

“Secret” ingredient/zest

The choice of this component depends on taste and imagination. You can experiment with the “zest” of the salad. Can add:

grated cheese;

olives or olives for vegetable, fish and salads with ham;

chopped nuts for cheese and vegetable salads;

flax seeds go well with vegetable salads (especially with tomatoes and herbs);

roasted sesame;

pomegranate;

chili pepper;

hard-boiled egg yolks;

berries. For example, raspberries are suitable for salads with green beans, fresh lettuce, arugula, tomatoes.

Photo: pixabay.com

How to prepare the dressing correctly:

to obtain a homogeneous mass, mix the oil and acid with a whisk;

to understand how the dressing will be combined with a salad, try it with a leaf lettuce or vegetable;

It is better to water the salad with dressing immediately before serving, so that it does not have time to soften.

Some simple salad dressing recipes:

Classic (universal) dressing recipe: 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon of acid (vinegar or juice), salt and pepper to taste.

French. Combine minced garlic clove, 1 teaspoon grain mustard, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 6 tablespoons olive oil, salt, and freshly ground black pepper;

Yoghurt. Combine 6 tablespoons yogurt, 2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper;

Lemon. Combine 6 tablespoons olive oil, juice of 1 medium lemon, salt and freshly ground black pepper;

Egg. Roast the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs. Add minced garlic clove, 2 tablespoons mustard, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 100 ml olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper;

Mayonnaise dressing: 100 grams of mayonnaise, 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper. You can add dill, depending on the salad.

Resources: zira.uz

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