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Easy Homemade Italian Dressing Recipe

Homemade Italian Dressing

Making Italian salad dressing at home is so quick and easy. It only takes a few minutes, and your kids can make it for you. Worried about the flavor? You shouldn’t be. This homemade Italian dressing rivals your favorite restaurant version. Served on a bed of greens alongside this low-carb cauliflower mac and cheese, you’ll have the perfect weeknight dinner.Italian dressing is a simple way to incorporate olive oil into your diet.

RELATED: Which Olive Oil is Best for Cooking?

There’s also a great added health benefit to consuming olive oil with your vegetables: carotenoids (beta-carotene, etc.) are best absorbed by the body in the presence of real fats, such as olive oil. You actually get more out of your veggies in a salad by putting fat on it than if you choose fat-free dressing. AND it may even protect brain function as we age. Score and double score!

When I gave up all white sugar for Lent, that nixed any storebought salad dressings for me, unless I was willing to pay an arm and a leg. I’m not. I had to learn to make my own or just use mustard on my salad (which I actually love, but it gets old after a while).

Homemade Italian Dressing

I’m also reading more and more about Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) that are hurting our food supply and our bodies. I’m all about God-Made Food (GMF). Soybeans and corn are almost always genetically modified, and since soybean oil is rampantly overused, it’s in about every dressing on the market. That’s just another reason to avoid manufactured dressing, plus the fact that olive oil is sooooo healthy for you.

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Homemade Italian Dressing

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  • Author: Katie Kimball

Ingredients

Scale


ship kroger


Instructions

  1. Whisk mustard and vinegar together.
  2. Add olive oil in a thin stream, whisking constantly.
  3. Add spices and whisk.
  4. Store in a jar at room temperature, preferably in dark glass or in a dark cupboard, and shake well before using.
  5. Should last at least a month or more, especially if you are more careful about light, heat and air getting to your oil.

Notes

*You can also use balsamic vinegar and similar seasonings for a totally different dressing. My 3-year-old loves “balsamic vig-a-grette” as he pronounces it!

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Is Homemade Italian dressing any Cheaper than the Store Bought Stuff?

Is homemade dressing necessarily less expensive than Kraft or a store brand? With really good sales and coupons, unfortunately not always. 🙁  I bought a gallon of organic EVOO for about $22 online, so that’s still more than $1 a cup. For organic olive oil, though, it’s a good deal. A “deal” is all relative, I guess. That means the Italian, for example, is about $2.50 for 16 oz, the standard supermarket size. However, for the nutrition you’re getting, the expense is still minimal, and avoiding high fructose corn syrup and GMOs is…priceless.

 

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Another tasty olive oil based dressing you should try is homemade Caesar dressing.

What’s your favorite way to use olive oil? Do you have a favorite olive oil based dressing?

Get more salad dressing recipes:

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14 thoughts on “Easy Homemade Italian Dressing Recipe”

  1. I love your take on Italian dressing! I have recipe from my mom that’s super similar (http://wellnessinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/06/italian-dressing-recipe.html), but with oregano and pepper instead of basil and thyme. I’ll be incorporating yours into my repertoire for a little variety though, for sure!






  2. After I started making homemade dressing, we’ve eaten many more salads, enjoyed it more, and used less dressing at a time by tossing it with our salad rather than plopping it on top, than we ever did when we used store-bought. My children devour most salads I make like they’re dessert. Sometimes I vary the vinegar, add fresh citrus juice, use fresh herbs, and/or whole grain mustard instead. My plan for keeping our family well this winter included making lots of good salads with raw garlic in the dressing to encourage robust health. Seems to have worked pretty well. And it’s been delicious.

  3. Katie, just wondering…would this be a good chicken kabob marinade?
    I was thinking maybe I’d use the expellar pressed (non-coconut tasting) coconut oil so that I wouldn’t have to worry about the EVOO when we grill it?
    Thanks!

    1. Beth,
      I would think so! I usually just dump vinegar of some sort, olive oil, and similar spices to this right on the chicken…I don’t know if EVOO would be a problem on the grill or not. This might shed some light: http://www.myhumblekitchen.com/2012/01/how-to-cook-with-extra-virgin-olive-oil-the-right-way-including-an-experimental-video/

      Have fun!
      Katie

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  6. I have read it is a health hazard to store fresh garlic out at room temp with olive oil. Could I just sub garlic powder? thanks!

    1. Anna,
      Garlic powder would certainly add flavor to the dressing as fresh garlic, but fewer health benefits. Because of the vinegar in the oil, it changes things – it’s actually a time-honored method of preserving things like garlic. But I understand if it makes you nervous! I’d use powder if I was in a hurry, anyway. 🙂 katie

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  8. beth@redandhoney

    Thanks for this awesome recipe… it’s my new favorite. Even my hubby will eat it, and he’s never liked anything but caesar until now!

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