I rarely purchase fancy salad dressing.  We typically have light ranch and light Italian in our refrigerator, and most of the time I just throw a vinaigrette together.  A few weeks ago, we had our neighbors over for dinner on a Friday night, and I knew I barely had enough time to throw together dinner, drinks, and appetizers, so opted to buy a “fancy” salad dressing instead of taking the extra 5 minutes it takes to make one.  FYI, a “fancy” dressing is one that wasn’t made by Kraft or the generic grocery store brand.  It also lives in the produce section, not in the grocery isle.

I picked a lemon herb vinaigrette from Marie’s.  Never had it before, but it sounded light and fresh so I took a chance.  It was really good!  We ended up going through the bottle in about a month, which I think is quick for a large bottle of dressing.  I think we had it on every salad we ate until it was gone.  Seeing as though I hate spending money on items I can make at home, I wanted to attempt to remake this dressing at home.  A simple read of the ingredients, minus all the stuff I can’t pronounce, and I’d have a good idea of where to start.

The weird thing was that the dressing didn’t include ONE herb.  Funny, seeing as thought it was called lemon herb vinaigrette.  I took some liberties and added some herbs, and I really, really liked this dressing in the end.  It actually tasted quite similar to the store-bought brand, and in my opinion, better.  Maybe that was because of the addition of fresh herbs 😉

And yes, I stored the dressing in an old olive oil bottle.  Maybe some day I’ll bother to take the label off!

Lemon Herb Vinaigrette

Source: Inspired by Marie’s Lemon Herb vinaigrette
Servings: Makes about 1/2 cup

Ingredients:

2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp xanthum gum (optional – don’t go out and buy this if you don’t have it.  It’s just nice because it’ll thicken up your dressing so it’s not so watery and resemble a store-bought dressing more closely)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tbsp fresh chives, minced
1/2 tbsp fresh basil, minced

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine vinegar, lemon juice, Dijon, onion powder, garlic powder, turmeric and xanthum gum.  Whisk in olive oil.  Stir in chives and basil.  Salt and pepper to taste.