The go-to Italian salad dressing

By Sari Huhtala

At the checkout in the supermarket the other day, the young cashier shared she was in awe of her friend who makes her own food – she even makes her own salad dressing, she said, as though it were a remarkable feat. If you are still buying Kraft salad dressing, cut it out. This recipe has only three ingredients and versatility to write home about.

If you’ve never read the ingredient labels on grocery store dressings, like Kraft Italian dressing, here’s a news flash: with each serving of conventional Italian dressing you get a dose of genetically modified soybean oil and canola oil, high fructose corn syrup, the chemical additive potassium sorbate and calcium disodium EDTA.

This homemade dressing you can mix up on a whim within 60 seconds, or make ahead of time and store in a sealed bottle in your pantry for months.

Although you can easily swap out the white balsamic condiment, or white condiment for apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar, I find the subtle sweetness in white condiment (due to the fact it is made with white grapes) smooths out the flavour and is the best. I have found white condiment at stores like Food Basics, and there’s also a President’s Choice brand. Creating the dressing with white balsamic vinegar is most exquisite, but don’t be surprised if you can’t find it under that name. Legally, it can’t be named white balsamic vinegar, instead you will find it under terms like white Modena vinegar or white Italian condiment.

Italian salad dressing

• ½ cup olive oil (look for cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil)

• ¼ cup white condiment

• 2-3 tbsp Italian seasoning

(Make your own Italian seasoning by combining 2 tbsp garlic powder, 2 tbsp onion powder and 2 tbsp dried basil, oregano and marjoram. Store in jar.)

For the dressing, pour olive oil and white condiment into a glass jar. Add Italian seasoning. Shake and drizzle on salad. Store covered in pantry.

This dressing is flavourful in all types of salads. My favourite health-boosting salad is simply made by combining organic greens, grated raw beets and carrots, then drizzled with dressing.

This dressing is great for pasta salads, as well as in quinoa, on rice or chickpeas.

Sari Huhtala is the publisher and editor of Alive and Fit Magazine. She has over 25 years experience in journalism. She is a mother of 3 adult children. She has spent over 20 years navigating a healthy path for her family, one health hack at a time, as a single mom feeding her kids healthy on a shoestring budget. She also has over 15 years experience as a certified fitness specialist and personal trainer, 10 years experience as a reiki practitioner; she studied Shamanism and is currently completing yoga teacher training certification.