Healthy and Garlicky Homemade Salad Dressing

Hey there, busy mom!

For today’s Meal Monday, we’re sharing a throwback to our homemade salad dressing. This is super easy, super healthy, and by far the quickest recipe we ever shared! It takes about 15 minutes to make this dressing, and most of the ingredients you’ll need can be found in your kitchen.

So why should we make our own salad dressing? Well, not really should, but there are benefits to making your own and you really don’t want to miss out. Whipping up your own dressing is great when introducing salads to your kids, because you can guarantee that it’s fresh, healthy, and you can make some anytime they want to have some salad.

Here are some of the benefits we are talking about:

• It’s fresh. Homemade dressing is the freshest salad addition you can ever have!

• You can guarantee that there are no unwanted chemicals in your salad

• Affordable! You can make lots of dressing for a lower cost

• Really easy to make and replicate

• You can have salad any day at any time!

• Promotes health and weight loss. That’s right! The more you see healthy food in your fridge, the more motivated you’ll be to consume them

• Controlled calories. Say goodbye to artificial sweeteners and lots of mayonnaise in your salad dressing

Now that we have that covered, let’s talk about this specific salad dressing that we made. The star ingredient is garlic - which is packed with amazing health benefits…

• Promotes lower cholesterol; lower risk of heart disease

• Promotes lower blood pressure

• High in nutrition, low in calorie

• Boosts the immune system

• High in antioxidants, which improves brain function and supports the body against oxidative damage

• Elevates every meal. Really delicious!
  

We are excited about this so let’s start!

You’ll need:

A bottle for salad dressing/ vinaigrette or a mason jar

¼ cup or 4 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

¼ cup or 4 tbsp of olive oil

2 tbsp of honey or maple syrup

2 tsp of Dijon mustard

1 tsp of thyme or 24 herbs and spices mix

¼ tsp of salt

¼ tsp of pepper

1 clove of finely chopped garlic

The procedure is fast and simple. In the mason jar, just pour in some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and honey. Feel free to use maple syrup if that is what you have in your kitchen. With a spoon, mix it all together.

You’ll notice that it’s not coming together. That’s okay, and that’s exactly what the next ingredient is for. Add in the Dijon mustard. This will bind all the liquids together to make the dressing consistent and flavorful.

Now, add in a teaspoon of thyme. If you don’t have that, feel free to use any herb and spice mix that you like. We used a 24-herb and spice mix.

Add in some salt and pepper to taste. Don’t forget to finely chop a clove of garlic and add it to the salad dressing. Cover the mason jar and shake, or mix everything with a spoon.

And we’re done! This will go great with fresh greens like lettuce, spinach, and kale. You may also use it over spring salads full of carrots, onions, radish, topped with some corn bits and crunchy croutons. Feel free to experiment on the salad combinations you’ll use, and just top it off with this dressing for flavor.

If you enjoyed this quick and healthy recipe, head over the full Meal Monday video and leave some love in the comment section. We’d love to hear from you. Enjoy the rest of your week!

- Micah from Mom Training