No need to chop anything for today's recipe. Just rip the parsley and cilantro leaves right off of their roots, wash, and toss into the blender with all of the other ingredients.
Think whipping up a fantastic salad dressing with just a few ingredients can’t happen unless you work in a chemistry lab of a Major Food Company? Think again. After reading today’s post, you may never see making your own dressing in quite the same light. Today I’m showing you how to put together a healthy, clean, and very herbal salad dressing. In fact, once you get the hang of making your own dressings, you’ll start to see the store-bought stuff as sooooo not worthy.
I have a love-hate relationship with one of today’s key ingredients–fresh herbs. Love the taste, love the flexibility, and of course, LOVE their invigorating color. But my inability to keep them alive in planters has me walking around with some sort of a complex, convinced I have a black thumb. What kind of woman can’t grow her own herbs? (Feel free to insert your obvious growing-your-own-herbs joke here).
This inability to grow my own food may or may not be the case. Herbs can be quite delicate, I’m told. (Except mint. . .that stuff just holds on and on and on!) Other herbs? Sometimes they even have the nerve to go a dry up on me a day or two after purchase, even when kept in a glass with a bit of water feeding them. Whaddup with that?
Cilantro (fresh coriander) makes a killer dressing, whether fresh (as in this photo), or sad and drying (as mine was).
So today I noticed the cilantro (fresh coriander) I bought not two days ago was looking dry and sad. So was the parsley. Instead of tossing them, or tossing them and feeling guility about the fact that I don’t (yet) compost, I decided to make herb dressing out of herbs.
This was a real “use it up” moment–I even tossed in the last of my current bottle of apple cider vinegar to make way for the new bottle I got on sale earlier in the day. A quick whir in the blender, and voila! A light, fresh dressing that will make every salad this weekend (and maybe a couple beyond) taste bright and, well, herbal.
All amounts below are extremely approximate, and flexible. Feel free to adjust the amounts of the ingredients to your taste. Also feel free to play around with the herb combo. It’s not like I’m coming over to your place to make sure you’re only using cilantro and parsley 😉
Weekend Use It Up Cilantro Parsley Dressing
1 small bunch cilantro (aka fresh coriander)
1 small bunch parsley
3 large garlic cloves
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or other vinegar of choice)
3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon agave nectar or honey
Pinch each of salt and pepper
Filtered water as needed
Directions:
1. Toss all ingredients except water into a blender. Add enough filtered water to blend. You can always add more water to thin it out if needed. Blend until smooth.
2. Taste, adjust seasoning, and re-blend as needed.
3. Transfer to an airtight jar and store in the refrigerator until ready to use. Remember to shake well before each use.
The final product looks a lot like this. I’ll get my own photo up here soon. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Read Full Post »
West of Persia 