I've written before about making homemade salad dressings but I don't think I've ever written up this one. In one of my career incarnations I used to teach English to foreign college students who came to the US to improve their English so they could apply to American universities.
One of my French students introduced me to the deliciousness that is adding a heaping teaspoon (or so, she didn't measure and neither do I) of flaked nutritional yeast to my homemade dressings and I now rarely make dressing without it. I get lots of compliments on my salad dressings and I think it's because of my "secret" ingredient. It ads more depth of flavor to the dressing—a little earthy/nuttyness that goes well with the mustard and honey, especially. (You can find nutritional yeast in the bulk section of most any health food store and at Whole Foods. It looks like yellow fish food.)
I prefer to put orange juice in my vinaigrettes instead of lemon juice, but when tangerines are in season, this is definitely the way to go. If you like your dressing with a little more acidity add a splash of white balsamic, sherry, or white wine vinegar.
TANGERINE SHALLOT SALAD DRESSING
Place all these ingredients in a salad shaker or glass jar and shake well to combine. Let stand at least 30 minutes to blend flavors.
- 1/4 cup of fresh squeezed tangerine juice (about 2 juicy tangerines)
- 1 shallot very finely minced
- splash of vinegar if desired (described above)
- 1 heaping teaspoon of Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon of nutritional yeast (I like a heaping teaspoon)
- 1 teaspoon of honey
- 1 cup of good olive oil
- salt to taste (I prefer to add fresh ground pepper directly to my salad)
Image credit: zoomyummy (a fun blog which you all should check out!)
