Tips for the perfect vinaigrette
While a dressing is often thrown together in a hurry, we prefer to take a little extra time for a good vinaigrette. It’s still ready in a flash, but if you follow these steps, you might just turn a simple salad into the best part of the meal.
Basic ingredients
The classic base for vinaigrette consists of mustard, acid, oil, pepper and salt. When it comes to acid, it’s delicious to combine different types, for example by using lemon and vinegar. White or red wine vinegar are widely used, but also experiment with cider or champagne vinegar. If the vinaigrette is too sour, you can always add a little honey.
I also always add a shallot, which I push through a garlic press. This makes the texture smoother than if you chop it very finely, so it is incorporated into the vinaigrette more effectively.
Salting
Salt dissolves in acid, so first mix your salt with lemon juice or vinegar. That way, you won’t end up biting into coarse grains of sea salt later.
Emulsifying
Next, add the rest of the ingredients, except for the oil, to the dressing. Stir everything together well until a smooth paste forms. While stirring, pour the oil into the dressing in a thin stream so that all the ingredients emulsify. This is simply a fancy term for binding. The vinaigrette becomes thicker and gets a firmer consistency than if you were to stir all the ingredients together at once.
Choosing an oil
Extra virgin olive oil has a powerful flavor that is delicious in vinaigrettes. Using 100 percent olive oil in a vinaigrette can result in an overly intense flavor. For example, mix a beautiful olive oil with sunflower or grapeseed oil. Taste as you add the oil: if the flavor is too strong, add some neutral oil, and vice versa.
Tasting
Important for every dish, and therefore also for vinaigrette: taste as you go. Have you found the perfect balance between all the flavors? If not, add a little more of the ingredients until you do. Honey for sweetness, lemon or vinegar for acidity, mustard for a kick and salt to bring out all the flavors even more.
Tossing
Now that your perfect vinaigrette is a reality, it’s time to toss it through your salad. Make sure your lettuce and other ingredients are thoroughly dry. A salad spinner works best, of course, but you can also put the lettuce in a tea towel and spin it around very hard (outside, naturally).
