The easiest and most delicious dressing there is
Mel's Staples: The must-haves in your pantry & fridge Part 1
I promised it, and here it is: The first blog post in my new series, Mel’s Staples - Your no-excuse-recipe-guide.
Dear like-minded epicurean, dear reader.
Honestly, I was unsure how to start that series. I know, I wanna provide you with the first staples in your pantry & fridge. And I wanna share some first recipe with you. At the same time, I don’t wanna overwhelm you with too many new things, literally.
First things first: The staples you already have at home
Please check your pantry as well as your fridge for potential staples. What’s there already? Mustard maybe? Some honey or maple syrup? Ketchup & mayo? Olive oil? Vinegar? All purpose flour? Some pasta and rice? Nuts? Rolled oats?
Make a list of all of that you can find. Check on the expiration date, too. Often times, especially when we haven’t done much cooking or baking lately, our staples are waayyy beyond their shelf life. Keep only, what’s still good to use.
Depending on your diet, not everything that you’ll find is gonna go into your future cooking and baking, of course. If you’re like me, oats and nuts are a big part of my breakfast - I’m a big fan of oat meal in the morning, topped with all sorts of nuts and seeds as well as fresh fruits. This is the best part of my morning, my breakfast.
Also, I’m very certain that you own at least salt & pepper and probably some other spices, too. That’s great start!
Your staples: Must haves
Let’s start easy this week. I’m not gonna overload you with a bunch of potentially new stuff and a looong list, that leaves you like:
OMG, now she’s asking me to buy all of those things? Now way!
Instead, I wanna give you 3-4 staples each Saturday. Plus a recipe to give you an idea on how to start using those staples.
As mentioned in last weeks blog post, I’m categorizing the staples into
Must haves
Essentials
Nice to haves
Read more about this in the previous blog post.
Let’s start with your Must-Haves. But beware, with everything that goes into my lists, I try opting for organic products, coming from small businesses preferably.
Olive oil
While olive oil is not ideal for cooking due to the hight temperatures when frying. It is however THE ingredient for amazing dressings. A very good olive oil is also great for topping or dipping. Think fresh bread, some freshly ground salt. Hmmmm…
When I was still living in Germany, I purchased my olive oil from a small company based in Berlin. The owner has connections to Sicily and other parts of Italy and imports his oils directly to Berlin. Until I got to know him, I wasn’t aware of the differences and the amazing properties there are among/in olive oils, depending on their origin.
If you can, try purchasing olive oils from small businesses. With those you can make sure they’re opting for olive oils that have been produced using cold extraction (below 27 degrees Celsius or 80 degrees Fahrenheit) and mechanical processes exclusively, allowing them to be called virgin olive oil.
Honey
Oh, the world of honey and bee keeping is worth a whole article on its own. I’m not gonna dive deep into that now. Just know, as with every natural product actually, the less additional ingredients or additives, such as stabilizer, colorants or preservatives the better.
Every bigger grocery store, especially those stocking organic products, should also have local options from smaller businesses. If you can, find a local bee keeper or honey manufacturer near you to get your honey from.
If you’re used to store bought honey, you may be surprised that honey coming from a bee keeper is different depending on the blossoms that the bees got their nectar from. There’s summer blossoms, there’s spring blossoms, forest blossoms. There’s honey deriving from certain blossoms from certain shrubs or trees.
When it comes to honey, it’s really all about which tastes you prefer and like. Choose one, that you can imagine using for different sweet or savory dishes, such as a summer blossom one or a forest blossom one, which usually is a little more bold.
Mustard
And another world opens when talking about mustard. Same as with any other ingredient, opt for organic, as little additives as possible and maybe even locally sourced.
I’ve never made my own mustard, but I’d love to some day. Mustard seeds aren’t too hard to get nowadays. Plus, I do have a couple recipes to get this going.
As for the mustard that I like to get, I love the crunchiness of the Dijon type, that is a mustard with a distinct mustard flavor and some more sharpness and complexity compared to regular yellow mustard made from brown or black mustard seeds. If you don’t like to have all those seeds in your mouth, Dijon mustard also comes fully ground.
I usually love bolder flavors in my must-have-staples, because when added to a dish, the more flavorful and aromatic it gets.
Apple Cider Vinegar
What can I say, Apple Cider Vinegar or APC is an allrounder ingredient as well as one of the best household and kitchen and health utensil you can get. If it’s organic, it is safe to add to plain water, to drink and soooo good for your gut.
Apple Cider Vinegar is one of my most used staples in my cooking and baking, especially in vegan baked goods, because it helps with the baking process, too. It also adds a milder acidity (malic acid of apples) to many savory dishes, not only salad dressings, compared to the often sharp acidity of citrus fruits for example.
Same as with many staples I introduce here, you can make homemade apple cider vinegar. So far, the process of making it, has been too much of a laborous one for me, so I haven’t tried that, yet.
The easiest and most delicious Dressing there is - to me anyway
Reading through the first Must-have-staples above - olive oil, honey, mustard, apple cider vinegar, you might be guessing it already. The Dressing I’m talking about is, the Honey Mustard Dressing.
I love to add it to a big bowl of garden salad using fresh lettuce or other greens such as kale. I then think of everything else that I have on hand when it comes to fresh produce, veggies or fruits, e.g. beets, baked pumpkin or squash, apples or pears, kohlrabi, cucumbers, depending what’s in season.
This dressing calls for some more earthy (beets), but also sweet (apples) flavors due to the mustard that goes into the dressing. I wouldn’t choose tomatoes, carrots and the like. There’s different flavor combinations as dressing for that, which I’ll happily share with you, in one of the future blog posts.
You can then top your salad with some seeds, pumpkin and/or sunflower seeds.
Mel’s Honey Mustard Dressing
This dressing is made of those four, or sometimes even only three, if you skip the ACV, of the above mentioned staples. Plus freshly ground salt & pepper.
Always opt for freshly ground spices. Pre-ground spices loose too much of their vibrancy and aroma once ground.
I’ll write a blog post about spices, especially pepper, in the future and share my insights with you.
The recipe for one big bowl of salad
Olive oil
mustard
honey
apple cider vinegar (optional)
freshly ground salt & pepper
Use a mason jar (1 pint) as a mixing tool here. Fill 1/3 of the jar with olive oil. Add 1-2 tablespoons of mustard, depending on your preferred sharpness. Add 2-3 teaspoons of honey, depending on your preferred sweetness. If it turned out too sweet, add more mustard, plus some apple cider vinegar. Season with freshly ground salt & pepper. Add some water, if it appears too thick to you. But keep in mind that all the veggies contain water, too, so be cautious here.
Shake well and taste before serving. It is OK, if it tastes quite intense. Added to the salad it’s gonna be perfect. Trust your taste buds here, they know it!
If you like, you can add this dressing to the bow of salad or serve on the side for everyone to take as much as they want. Enjoy!
It’s another month on Mel’s Treats, so next Saturday I’m sharing one of my cornerstone content with you. Recipes and stories from my travels. If you’ve missed last month’s blog post about two raw vegan chocolate treats, here’s the link.
Until then
Yours truly
Mel