Like a good rug ties a room together...

... so should a good dressing tie your salad together! 

While there are a few good bottled salad dressings out there (Annie's Naturals made a few tasty drizzlers last time I checked) there is really nothing more simple than whisking together a little vinegar or citrus juice, a good quality oil, and a little something extra (more on that later) to toss or top your salads with. 

I know summer is winding down but if you're like me, you eat salads year round, it's just the toppings that change. Roasted squash or sweet potatoes in the winter, fresh tomatoes in the summer (and ONLY in the summer), grilled apples in the fall... you get the picture.  Oh I could go on and on with increasingly poetic and flowery speech for the love of salads but I'll gently remind myself to stop thinking about the sweet citrus meat of a grapefruit in January as it pairs with the smoky creamy chartreuse of a ripe avocado drizzled with honey, sherry vinegar and olive oil... Dressing! Right! Back on track. Here are two super simple recipes for vinaigrettes I use almost daily and sometimes twice daily.

Citrus-Shallot Vinaigrette

1 small shallot, minced finely

2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed orange juice 

2 Tbsp. red wine or sherry vinegar

2 - 3 tsp. orange zest

1/3 cup good quality olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Whisk together all ingredients except the olive oil. Let rest (resting the shallot in the vinegar mellows out its flavor, which is a good thing) while you prepare your other salad ingredients. Return to whisking the mixture when you are ready to serve the salad, slowly drizzle the oil into the whirling mixture to the oil becomes emulsified and the dressing looks viscous and slightly creamy. Taste for seasoning. Alternately, you can also put all ingredients together in a small jar and shake it like crazy. Then you have it all in a container ready to save for leftovers, if there are any!

Salad suggestions: My favorite (and the one pictured here) is a combo of roasted beets, chickpeas, feta, orange sections, and avocado. This dressing works well with slightly sweeter salad ingredients: fresh corn, cucumbers, raspberries, goat cheese, radishes, sugar snap peas, watercress, etc.

Balsamic-Dijon Vinaigrette

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Whisk together ingredients, as above. Taste for seasoning. If it is too acidic (perhaps you are a miser like me and you buy the cheaper option of balsamic which is often unbearably tangy) you can add a pinch or two of brown sugar or a little squeeze of honey to mellow out the flavors.

Salad suggestions: fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, roasted squash, sweet potatoes, peppers, baby potatoes, spinach with strawberries and almonds, kalamata olives, green beans, etc. This dressing is a nice contrast to savory ingredients with a little more heft. Try it on a salad of spinach, albacore tuna, roasted red peppers, feta and olives.