For Simpler Weekly Meal Prep, I Make My Salad Dressing This Approach

Whereas store-bought salad dressing is an plain comfort, it is also a frequent salad-killer—there’s simply no evaluating a bottled French dressing to a great, primary do-it-yourself one. To save lots of myself the trouble of getting to whip up dressing once I’m hungry, I at all times preserve a batch of my favourite lemon French dressing available. However I additionally go one step additional and preserve it in a squeeze bottle, able to go.

It’s not simply any squeeze bottle, although: It’s one which I label with a marker to point how a lot oil and acid I ought to add. This protects me from having to tug up a recipe and soiled measuring cups; once I’m able to make a brand new batch every week, all I’ve to do is wash and dry the bottle, use the markings on the it to measure out a brand new batch of French dressing, then shake all of it collectively.

Marking one in all these labeled squeeze bottles is a fast and straightforward two-minute trick that can prevent time every week. For a easy French dressing, you’ll wish to use three elements oil to 1 half vinegar. To correctly mark the bottle, first measure your vinegar and add it to the squeeze bottle, utilizing a everlasting marker to attract a line on the skin of the bottle on the high of the vinegar stage. Subsequent, with the vinegar nonetheless within the bottle, measure and add the oil, marking the oil stage as effectively. It is useful to do the vinegar first after which the oil, as a result of that is how they settle attributable to their differing densities.

If wanted, you’ll be able to scribble salt, pepper, and mustard on the backside as a reminder so as to add them, however since their portions are so small, there isn’t any option to mark their whole quantity on the bottle the way in which you’ll with vinegar and oil. When you fill the bottle with the oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and mustard, simply shake it to mix the whole lot. 

Whereas it is a baseline recipe for French dressing, you’ll be able to swap among the elements to your liking. (Too little mustard, although, might lead to a dressing that gained’t emulsify as effectively.) Experiment with oils like avocado, olive, or grapeseed, and vinegars like balsamic, sherry, white wine, or apple cider. (For an instance of tips on how to riff on the essential components, try Kenji’s two-oil, two-vinegar balsamic-soy French dressing.) You may add seasonings like dried oregano to offer your French dressing Italian aptitude, in addition to aromatics like very finely minced shallots and garlic. (In case you’re together with these chunkier elements, make sure that the tip of your squeeze bottle is giant sufficient for them to come back out of, snipping off the highest with a pair of scissors to enlarge it.) 

Additionally be aware that including elements like garlic to the French dressing considerably reduces its shelf life, taking it from kind of shelf-stable even at room temperature right down to just a few days within the fridge. That is as a result of garlic can produce botulism toxins when saved in oil, whether or not refrigerated or not.

In case you’re not a fan of plastic, this may even work on a glass jar, however you’ll wish to use an oil-based paint marker as a substitute of a everlasting marker. (Glass is a non-porous floor, making it troublesome for Sharpie ink to stick to.) In my expertise, a everlasting marker stays on plastic bottles however a paint marker adheres higher to the glass jar—however both approach, you’ll wish to wash every by hand so the markings don’t fade. If fading does happen, you’ll be able to at all times reapply the markings. 

As soon as assembled within the marked bottle, the French dressing will be refrigerated for weeks and weeks if it solely comprises vinegar, oil, mustard, salt, and pepper, however just a few days if it comprises garlic and different botulism-prone elements. It makes meal prep a breeze—and can guarantee your salads will not be simply good however spectacular.

January, 2025