Italian Dressing Mix
Ever since going gluten free I have had to read labels, lots of label. Well, reading labels has made aware of how much junk is in salad dressing, so I am trying to make it from scratch more often.
As much as a like the idea of making my own salad dressings, in reality it hasn’t worked out so well. It’s hard enough to get dinner and a salad on the table at a reasonable time most weeknights, let alone whipping together a nice salad dressing the entire family will eat.
So, I am sure you can imagine my excitement when I recently came across a recipe for an Italian Salad dressing mix recipe on allrecipes.com, you just mix together the spices and store in an air tight container. When you need some Italian dressing you take out a couple tablespoons and mix it with some vinegar and oil. Sounded easy enough, so I gave it a try.
Of course, like most recipes I try, I made some modifications, particularly omitting 2 tablespoons of salt; seriously, it is plenty salty from the garlic salt and celery salt. I was quite pleased with the results and plan on keeping this dressing mix on hand. Not only is it great for a green salad or pasta salad, but I think it would make a nice rub or marinade for meat. And it would be a nice addition to a gift basket.
And one of the benefits of making food from scratch, you can seriously adjust the recipe to suit your dietary restrictions or tastes. Although it tastes great as is, I think red pepper flakes or canned Parmesan would be great additions.
Italian Drssing on a pasta salad.
Italian Dressing Mix
- 1/2 TB garlic powder
- 1/2 TB garlic salt
- 1 TB onion powder
- 1 TB sugar
- 2 TB dried oregano
- 1 tsp ground black pepper (you might want to reduce this if you use a spicy, freshly ground pepper. I use about 1/2 tsp)
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1TB dried parsley
- 1/4 tsp celery salt
- In a small jar or bowl, mix together all ingredients and store tightly sealed.
- To prepare dressing, whisk together 2 TB of the dry mix with 1/4 cup white vinegar and 1/2 cup oil (you could use up to 2/3 cups oil, but I don’t care for really oily dressing). Shake or stir to combine. * I think almost any vinegar could be used here and canola or vegetable oil in place of the olive oil if desired.
