Heather's Special Walnut Oil Salad Dressing

Submitted by HeatherFeather

"I rarely use bottled salad dressings, as I tend to prefer homemade versions much more. This is my hands down favorite. It is easy to throw together and is so flavorful. This only makes enough for a few dinner salads - only make as much as you need for one meal, as this only keeps maybe a day. Walnut oil and shallots are the two key ingredients here - you can sub any sweet onion for the shallots, but the walnut oil is what gives this its unique flavor. I may vary what types of lettuces and veggies go into a dinner salad, but if I am using this dressing, I always add some crumbled mild feta cheese to the veggies. Walnut oil can be found in bigger grocery store with other flavored oils or in gourmet markets. Walnut oil needs to be kept in the fridge as it spoils quickly at room temp (but lasts ages in the fridge). People have been asking for this one for a while, and yesterday I finally made this with a pen & paper by my side to carefully measure out the ingredients. This will very lightly dress 4 small dinner salads or 2 much larger ones. Enjoy! NOTE: Walnut oil is an extra virgin olive oil infused with the flavor of walnut and has a unique nutty flavor. You may use other nut flavored oils with good results (like hazelnut or macadamia), but just be sure the oil is infused with nut flavor. Something like peanut oil will not work as a substitute for the walnut oil."

 

• Ready In: 5mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 2

ingredients

• 14.79 ml seasoned rice wine vinegar or 14.79 ml sherry wine vinegar
• 7.39 ml fresh lemon juice
• 4.92-9.85 ml minced shallots or 4.92-9.85 ml other sweet onion, approximately
• 4.92 ml sugar
• salt, to taste (about 4 shakes)
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste (about 10 grinds)
• 29.58 ml canola oil (not olive) or 29.58 ml other plain flavored oil (not olive)
• 9.85 ml walnut flavored olive oil (or other nut flavored infused oil)

• Additional ingredients

• mixed lettuce greens
• assorted fresh vegetable, of choice
• plain mild feta cheese, crumbled

directions

1. Mix all dressing ingredients together (except feta and other salad ingredients) in a mini food processor (or using an immersion stick blender) until creamy in appearance.
2. Drizzle over salad- this doesn't make lots, but is very flavorful; a little goes a long way.
3. Once the salad is dressed, crumble the feta over the salad.

Reviews

[Barb G.]

Yummy salad dressing, love the walnut oil. What a good flavor. I doubled the recipe as DH loves to drown his salad. Served it with Baby greens, avocado,mango and feta cheese. Thanks for the tip on keeping the walnut oil in the refridge. Thanks Heather for posting this yummy salad dressing recipe.

 

[Missy Wombat]

Well I did substitute the walnut oil but with macadamia oil assuming [rightly or wrongly] that it would be a similar swap. Used flaxseed for the other oil. Otherwise I kept the recipe as is. And yeah, it is rather yummy on the feta. 5 star recipe with macadamia oil.

 

[debimunn]

Heather - Love your recipe but wanted to mention that my store carries several brands of "pure" walnut oil, which I'm sure you would prefer. I currently purchase an organic line and all the oils I have are 100% pure nut oil, not olive oils w/ flavouring added. I currently have the walnut, almond and avocado (although guess the latter is a fruit.) :-)

 

[Vino p.o. prn]

Loved this!! Added some mandarin orange slices for added sweetness!! Thanks!