Salad dressings, what's your go to?


#22

Walnut oil is so yummy. I am in a walnut area in France so they are often on the menu. It is common to serve a simple lettuce salad with walnut oil and walnuts with the cheese course - its yummy :smiley:

I forget where I discovered adding water. I don’t always but a splash often just tones a rather wild dressing down a notch! A really really good shake emulsifies it too. Oh, that’s another thing that can be nice - just a splash of cream.


(Bob M) #23

Only problem with walnuts:

https://proteinpower.com/drmike/2016/07/27/are-nuts-paleo/

If you’re not losing weight, I’d consider dropping the walnuts. If you’re OK with how you’re losing or at maintenance, then some of them are likely OK.


#24

Oh my word, his section on the processing of walnuts is utter bollocks. How do I know this? I harvest them myself. I also sold most of my crop to a local coop. The only processing they do is run them through a drier. Some farmers wash them (with water) and dry them themselves and also pick through to weed out the smaller ones to get a better price. I just harvest and dry them in my attic at home and take them in and get whatever the going rate is that year. The whole black slime and chemical processing thing is just garbage. You get the odd one that falls and stays in its casing and rots. If you are picking them though you simply break them out of the green casing and they are lovely and clean inside. Most walnuts fall clear of the casing and you simply pick them up off the ground. This did give me a laugh though so thanks for that!

As for being high calorie - you can probably guess what I think of that. OK so if you are someone who can’t control themselves around walnuts then maybe. I am a nut fiend but actually find walnuts pretty self-limiting.


(Bob M) #25

That may be your walnuts, but not the variety that are near me (US), which are exactly like shown in his pictures. In fact, we have a tree just like that at my dad’s place, and I’ve never attempted to open the walnuts, as they are too hard.

It’s not that they are high calorie, it’s that they are high in PUFA. PUFA cause your fat cells to be insulin sensitive, meaning your fat cells are sucking up insulin and blood sugar. You’re getting fatter.

By contrast, saturated fat causes your fat cells to be insulin resistant, meaning they cease to take in insulin and blood sugar. You’re getting thinner.

Read the article again with this in mind. He has these points: (1) it’s hard to get a lot of calories for paleo man from the walnuts of the type near him; (2) we freak out about the PUFA differences between grass-fed and grain-fed steak, when you can get hundreds of times more PUFAs via nuts like walnuts; (3) PUFAs cause insulin sensitivity of your fat cells:

“We discussed how the FADH2:NADH ratio can be a switch flipping on a little insulin resistance. If the FADH2:NAHD ratio gets above a certain threshold, reverse electron transport takes place through Complex I in the mitochondria and produces a bit of superoxide, which drives a little local insulin resistance.”


(Bob M) #26

Oh, and PUFAs drive the FADH2:NADH ratio, thereby turning on the switch to insulin resistance.


(Bob M) #27

GAH!!! Should be “Oh, and PUFAs drive the FADH2:NADH ratio, thereby turning on the switch to insulin SENSITIVITY.”

It seems like no one on this board actually understands this theory. It IS a theory, but has tons of evidence behind it.


(KCKO, KCFO) #28

Champagne vinegar and a drizzle of EVOO or walnut oil. We also keep a batch of Dump Ranch dressing around, as DH doesn’t like vinegar. Home made mayo also works well on many things, like a bacon, lettuce and tomato salad.


(KCKO, KCFO) #29

I think he is referring to Black walnuts a native of New World, not English walnuts, a native of the Middle East. Two different things for sure. Black walnuts will blacken your hands horridly, and they are darned near impossible to crack.

The only time an English walnut is black is when they have been picked to late and are overly ripe.

Walnuts have a good omega6, to omega 3 ratio for a plant. I love them, English ones that is.


#30

My standard breakfast is a salad. The meat, veggies, and seeds change, but my formula for dressing is almost always the same:

1 avocado
1/3 cup olive or coconut oil
1-2 tsp ACV
Seasonings of choice- a great variation in taste is created by changing up the seasonings used (ie. garlic salt, onion powder, turmeric, rosemary, curry powder, cinnamon, sage, oregano, nutritional yeast, ginger)


(Jane) #31

I have a black walnut tree on my property and can testify about how black your hands will get if you try to remove the outer skin of the nut!!!

And nothing will grow near it, either.


(Jane) #32

I make my own ranch dressing using Penzey’s buttermilk dressing spices, buttermilk and my own homemade mayo.

Or MCT oil and vinegar and a package of Good Seasons dressing mix.


#33

Ah OK fair enough. Interesting - I googled to see the difference. What I still question though is the assertion that they are ultra processed to produce what looks exactly like the walnuts I am used to. This is where I think he is playing with the truth. According to the know-it-all Google, most walnuts produced in the States now are the English type because consumers prefer them. You can get black ones but not easily. This also makes financial sense. Why on earth would you grow a variety that is harder to crack and stained so then needs bleaching when you could grow one that is easy to crack and is good to go? It’s nuts :smiley:


(New Keto Friend) #34

Only a very good extra vierge olive oil and salt. I like simplicity :wink:


(Doug) #35

The two best things of my past food year are this salad dressing - aiming to taste like Olive Garden’s - and how good sous vide pork chops can be.

1.5 cups Olive Oil 350 ml
1/2 cup Water 120 ml
2/3 cup Vinegar 160 ml (I think any vinegar is fine.)
1/2 tsp Lemon Juice 3 ml
1 tbsp Mayonnaise 15 ml (or more, to taste).
1/2 tsp Salt 3 g
1/2 tsp Pepper 2 g
1 tsp Garlic Powder 5 g
2 tsp grated Parmesan Cheese 10 g
2 tbsp/1 oz spice mix 30 g - Oregano, Parsely, Basil, Thyme, Sage, Celery Seed. Add or subtract, to taste - very forgiving recipe.

  • Fresh peppers or dried pepper flakes can be added.
  • Fresh peeled garlic cloves can be added. (I’ve put as many as a dozen big ones in - gives a beautiful ‘bite.’)

Blend it all together at high speed.


(Laurie) #36

I experimented and found that I preferred it with water. My formula is 2/3 cup oil, 1/6 cup vinegar, 1/6 cup water. The kind of vinegar depends on what kind of dressing you’re making, or what you have on hand.

To one cup of the above liquid, I added 1 teaspoon of mix (see below). I use the past tense because I don’t make salads any more. I still use the mix for tomato sauce though–so easy! No chopping, no sauteing, etc.

Italian dressing (or sauce) mix

4 Tbsp garlic powder
4 Tbsp Italian seasoning (or oregano or similar herb)
1 Tbsp basil
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper (or paprika if you don’t like it hot)
4 tiny spoons white stevia powder

SteviaSpoon


(Marianne) #37

The drug kind was quite good - back in the day. :grin:


(Dina sha) #38

One green capsicum
6 green chilli
One lemon juice
One clove garlic
1/4 cup dill
1/4 cup coriander
Olive oil
Salt

Blend all together
Keep in glass container in the fridge .

Fresh and healthy


(Jane) #39

This recipe sounds delicious… but why would you need to refrigerate an oil and vinegar dressing? What can spoil?

And if you make it with olive oil it will solidify in the fridge so you would have to remember to take it out to warm it up.


(Jayne Quinlan) #40

I made my own for years…vinegar, good oil, garlic, and parm. This round, I bought Tessamae’s. Great ingredients. Tastes wonderful. Nice change of pace…


(Jody) #41

For some reason I hate making dressing, I just use olive oil most days.