Greek Salad Dressing

You should know that I am incapable of resisting a salad. This is almost entirely due to my dear, sweet mother’s BIG GREEN SALAD habit. I know a lot of women blanch at the thought of becoming their mother, but this is not a concern for me. My mom is a saint. She’s a nurse who cares for developmentally disabled adults and helps them find jobs. She’s the most generous person I’ve ever met, bar none. She’s hilarious. She makes great homemade pizza and lumpia and hot chocolate. She has a wicked sense of humour. She climbs trees with her grand kids. She’s a phenomenal pianist. She’s a writer. Oh, and she’s pretty easy on the eyes, too.

Well, okay. There’s just this one thing… My mom wears patchouli and a lot of it. I’ll give it to mom, she’s consistent. She’s worn it for years. In fact, I remember walking into a bank in our town and having a teller sniff a piece of currency as she lifted it from the drawer. “Oh! This one came from your mom!” she said as she handed it to me.. The town was small, but it wasn’t THAT small, friends.

And me? Well, let’s just say it’s not my favourite scent. This is one path where my mom and I will always diverge. I prefer edible scents… the ones that make you want to take a bite of something. NOW.

…Like this salad dressing. Oh MAMA, does it smell good. It ought to, though, because it’s the classic Greek Salad topper combo of pure, fresh lemon juice, garlic, oregano, and olive oil with just a touch of Dijon mustard to keep it all together. Ungh. It smells so good it makes my head feel swimmy. Good enough, even, to dab a couple drops on my wrist and behind my ears. Now that’s MY kind of perfume oil!

So what do I put it on besides my pulse points? Any BIG GREEN SALAD will be a grand vehicle for this dressing, but it’s also wonderful poured over grilled meats or fishes of any sort and gyros. Tomorrow, I’ll share another great dish on which to use Greek Salad Dressing. You won’t want to miss it!

Cook’s Notes:

• Use fresh lemon juice here, please! There are a lot of places where bottled lemon juice stands in admirably but this is not one of them. Because there are so few ingredients in the dressing, the freshness of what you DO use is paramount.
• Ditto on the garlic. Use fresh, not jarred, please. The same reasoning applies that we used for the lemon juice.
• Now I’m going to go 180° in the other direction. I actually LOVE dried oregano in my dressing. Maybe it’s a retro thing, but I dig it. You can sub in fresh oregano for the dried, but I actually like the dried better here. I feel like it holds up better in the refrigerator. If you DO sub in fresh oregano, reduce the amount called for by two-thirds.
• I use Dijon mustard as an emulsifier in this dressing. In other words, it helps keep it from separating after you shake it. This is not a permanent fix, you do have to shake it each time you take it from the refrigerator, but it does keep the dressing ‘together’ while you eat your salad and that’s enough for me!

Greek Salad Dressing

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Rebecca Lindamood

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

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Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• The juice of 2 whole lemons
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 large clove garlic peeled and minced or pressed
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Instructions

 

• Add all of the ingredients to a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake. Alternatively, you can add the ingredients to a bowl and whisk. Refrigerate, tightly covered, until ready to use. When properly stored, this dressing is good for up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator.

Important Note:

• The oil will quite likely solidify in the refrigerator. This is not a problem. Take the dressing from the refrigerator 30 minutes before you want to use it OR run the sealed jar under warm tap water until it loosens back up. Shake and serve!

Nutrition

Calories: 36kcalCarbohydrates: 1gProtein: 1gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 398mgPotassium: 11mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 14IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 15mgIron: 1mg

Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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