The Tastiest Salad Dressing Has an Unexpected Ingredient: You Never Saw This Coming
An unexpected ingredient takes any salad dressing to the next level. And the best news: you probably already have it at home.
Do you always make a simple French dressing with olive oil and vinegar? Or do you go all out with tahini, pomegranate molasses, yogurt, fresh herbs, specialty vinegar and whatever else happens to be on a shelf? Meghan Splawn, an editor at The Kitchn, discovered how to give every dressing, even those standard dressings, just a little extra flavor. Her secret ingredient: a little vanilla extract.
A Dab of Vanilla
The scent and flavor of vanilla make her favorite dressing with maple syrup and mustard a little milder, and a dab of vanilla is also a valuable addition to other sweet-and-sour dressings. Vanilla’s aroma brings out sweet flavors more effectively. But in savory dressings too, vanilla takes the edge off the flavors.
Not Essence
Vanilla extract is therefore not the same as vanilla sugar, which is also very sweet, or vanilla essence, which is mainly very chemical-tasting. Meghan is referring to those dark bottles that look as though they contain medicine. Alcohol extracts all the aroma and flavor from vanilla beans, making it highly concentrated. Of course, you can also make it yourself by putting a scraped vanilla pod into a small jar, pouring alcohol over it and then leaving it alone for a few months.
Experiment
Meghan’s tips: a dressing with lemon, honey, tahini and a little vanilla. Or raspberry vinegar instead of white wine vinegar in the French dressing, with hazelnut oil or walnut oil, plus the secret ingredient. What do you think of this cashew crunch salad with sesame dressing —and a touch of vanilla?
Read also:
- Gordon Ramsay reviews home cooks’ meals and it’s hilarious
- Recipe: Surinamese papaya salad
- Man goes off on Twitter: why are salads so boring? 9 tips for doing it right!
Source: The Kitchn
