I have seen anything and everything on the net on how to supposibly make a vinaigrette, some recipes have lemon juice, some add sugar, some use olive oil, I even read a recipe with some water inside…. so let’s get back to basics, here is the no nonsense, back to basics, real French dressing recipe…

The ingredients: For one whole salad…

1 tbsp of French mustard (Dijon)
1/2 1 cup of salad oil (No olive oil but sunflower, safflower, flaxseed, rapeseed or walnut oil)
1/4 cup of red wine or white wine vinegar (No balsamic vinegar)
1 garlic clove
1 Shallot or a small onion
Salt
Black or white Pepper

Those measures are just an indication as the taste is really up to you, you may prefer your vinaigrette to be more spicy and add more Dijon, you may want it more acidic and add more vinegar, you may want more garlic, etc…

One thing is sure though, this sauce will be diluted within the whole salad, maybe there will be a bit of water left in the salad, therefore if you want the salad to taste, the vinaigrette on it’s own will have to be fairly strong.

There is a specific order to follow if you want a nice creamy vinaigrette, so here we go…

Step 1:

Place the mustard on the bottom of your salad bowl (The one you will put on the table with the salad in it) and start adding the oil very slowly.

Now at this point you should mix the oil “in” the mustard, like when you make a mayonnaise. Mix it “in” gently and when you do not see the oil anymore, add more oil, etc… the more oil you put the thicker it will become.

Step 2:

Add Slat, pepper, the chopped shallot and the chopped garlic. I cut in big chunks, so that if a guest does not like onions or garlic, it is easy to remove.

Mix again and add the vinegar. At this point you are finished. take a salad leave and dip it (not too much) in the vinaigrette, than decide if you want more vinegar, more salt or more pepper.

You could also add some fresh herbs, like choppes parsley, shives or spring onions.

TIP: Only add the salad to the bowl just before serving, otherwise the vinegar in the dressing will “cook” the salad. For a more visual effect you can also pour it on the top of the salad.

TIP: Why not make more vinaigrette and keep it in a jar or a bottle in the fridge? It can easily stay up to one week in a refrigerated sealed container.