I have a lot of food allergies. I also recently discovered that my favorite brand of Italian dressing changed their recipe to include soy, so I can no longer eat it.
Instead of scouring the Earth, searching far and wide in hopes of finding another brand that I can eat, I thought to myself, “Why don’t I just make some?” DUH!!!
Salad dressing has to be one of the EASIEST things to make, and most of the ingredients are pantry staples that almost everybody has on hand! It is also really fast to whip up in a jiffy when you want some.
So, today I was looking through my leftovers before starting dinner. I found chick peas, black beans, black olives, turkey kielbasa, and rice noodles hanging out in the fridge, so I decided to throw them all together and whip up this quick, sweet Italian dressing to pour on as a sauce.
This is a non-traditional Italian dressing because I omitted some of the common ingredients and added in some uncommon ones (like orange juice and honey). I like the tang of the dressing to be balanced out by the bit of sweetness that those two ingredients bring.
This recipe is just a guideline and can be changed and manipulated in many different ways to suit your own tastes. The thing you need to know about making homemade dressing is that it starts with oil and vinegar (any type of oil and any flavor vinegar you want) and you just add whatever seasonings you want from there.
I used rice vinegar in this recipe because it is sweeter than other types of vinegar, and I wanted the dressing to be less acidic and slightly sweet.
I strongly encourage you to play around with different flavors and let me know how your adventures go! You can email me here: anne@blessingsinsurprise.com
A basic Italian dressing with a few extras added in.
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1 Tbsp. orange juice
- 1 tsp. honey
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. onion powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. ground mustard
- 1/4 tsp. oregano
- 1/4 tsp. basil
- 1/8 tsp. black pepper
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Combine all ingredients into a mason jar. Shake and enjoy!