Salad sauces - general principles and methods of preparation
The sauce can make the simplest and most uncomplicated salad a real masterpiece, a unique and inimitable dish. The long and colorful history of salad dressings begins in the ancient world and continues to this day. It has been established that sauces not only emphasize the natural taste of products, but also protect the beneficial substances of its components from destruction, enveloping products with a thin film of fat. Vitamins that are magically protected from oxygen are not destroyed. The dish remains useful for a long time. Even a few drops of vegetable oil, added to the salad immediately after slicing, allow you to save more vitamin C.
Dressings and salad dressings are divided into two types. Some of them are made on the basis of a mixture of oil and acidic products. These can be various options for vinegar, lemon or berry juice and vegetable oil. Most often they are used for light summer vegetable salads with lots of greens. Another option: thick sauces, more nutritious, made on the basis of cream, sour cream, egg yolks. Together with them, meat, poultry, fish or winter cooked vegetables are easier to digest.
Salad Sauces - Product Preparation
The basis of any dressing is usually vegetable oil or dairy products. Additives can be mustard, vinegar, lemon or other fruit juices, honey, finely chopped herbs, various spices. A small amount of alcohol is often used, as a rule, it is a home-made wine with a deep taste. Just a few movements - and a good dressing will completely change the taste of the dish, make it tastier and more aromatic.
Salad Sauces - The Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Salad Dressing - Mayonnaise
Shop mayonnaise can even be tasty, but not bring any benefit - only extra calories and harmful nutritional supplements. Whether business is a real homemade sauce. Homemade mayonnaise cooked in a blender is tender and airy, appetizing and very healthy.
Ingredients: Eggs (1pc), olive oil (225 g), dry mustard (1 tsp), sugar (1 tsp), salt, white pepper, lemon juice (1-2 tsp).
Cooking method
Of course, it is best to mix the mixture with a blender, the main thing is to take products at room temperature and add them in a certain order. First, break the egg into a cup, add mustard, sugar, salt, a little olive oil. Beat, pour in a thin stream half of the remaining olive oil and lemon juice. Another minute - and add the remaining oil, whisk until the mixture thickens.
Homemade mayonnaise is good in that its taste can be enhanced with various additives. For example, add 100 grams of nuts crushed with a little butter - we get an unsurpassed nutty mayonnaise. Or another option - mayonnaise for raw foodists: add to our base 1 teaspoon of grated onion, 1-2 cloves of garlic and a little juice of greenery - radish or turnip tops. Use this beauty immediately after cooking.
Recipe 2: Italian Pesto Sauce
This very popular green sauce comes from Italy. Italians use it not only in salads, but also for fish, meat or spaghetti.
Ingredients: Basil (4 bunches), parmesan (or any hard cheese, 100 g), garlic (5 cloves), pine nuts (150 g), salt, vegetable oil.
Cooking method
Wash and dry the basil, chop finely. Grate the cheese on a fine grater. We heat the nuts in a pan and cool. Combine everything in a blender and beat until small crumbs, salt, add vegetable oil in small portions. Beat until a paste is obtained. There is a little secret for storing the sauce: to keep it in the refrigerator for a long time, put it in a jar and pour vegetable oil a little higher than the level, about 2 cm.
Recipe 3: French Sauce
Probably there is no more popular salad dressing in the world than French sauce. The most uncomplicated products in a harmonious combination give a wonderful taste, and if you strengthen it with aromatic vinegar, you can truly achieve a stunning result. You can change and adapt this sauce to your taste, but remember the main thing: carefully dose the spices to only enhance and not interrupt the main taste of the salad ingredients.
Ingredients: fresh lemon juice (or wine vinegar, 1/3 cup), olive oil, preferably cold pressed (1 cup), garlic (4 cloves), salt, ground pepper, spicy mustard (mustard powder, 2 tsp.).
Cooking method
Mix lemon juice in a deep bowl with olive oil, using a whisk. Add the remaining components, mix and pour into a beautiful bottle with a wide neck. Such a sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time, insisting its taste only improves. An hour before use, take it out of the refrigerator, mix well and let stand at room temperature. Just a little French sauce can turn your salad into a mouth-watering and easily digestible product.
But French homemade sauce would not be so practical if it could not be changed and modified. This time we’ll do this “trick” - add 1 grated shallot and half a red onion + one spoonful of honey. Replace the vinegar with a rarer, balsamic - we get a completely new taste, spicy, delicate, soft, giving our salads mystery and charm.
Recipe 4: Curd Sauce
Fruit salads also require a sauce that will give harmony to ordinary sliced pieces and combine them into a single self-contained ensemble. For this purpose, tender and airy, sweet curd sauce is the best choice.
Ingredients: cottage cheese (200 gr), milk (1 cup), sugar, salt.
Cooking method
Rub the cottage cheese with a wooden spoon. Wipe the cottage cheese through a sieve, add milk and sugar. The amount of milk is determined by the fat content of the cottage cheese. For dry curd, a little more fluid is needed.
And now let’s give vent to imagination: pungency and piquancy can be added with a pinch of caraway seeds and mustard, tenderness and taste - vanilla sugar. Want to enhance the fruit flavor? Add a little orange juice or grapefruit - all remedies are good in order to achieve the desired effect.
Salad sauces - useful tips from experienced chefs
- Dissolve the salt previously in a small amount of water or wine, successively add other ingredients - the taste of the sauce will be more even.
- Wine vinegar is quite appropriate to replace with fruit, and even better with lemon juice. Ordinary vinegar can be diluted with wine and water at a rate of 2: 1: 1.
- Salad sauces for protein foods are prepared from vegetable oil, cream, herbs and lemon juice. For carbohydrate foods, dairy products (kefir, yogurt, yogurt) are more suitable.
