Best Homemade French Dressing - Easy

theHubs and I are rabid salad eaters.   And our fave dressing is a certain brand's Country French.  But with inflation and retirement, I try to save money wherever possible without compromising on taste.  

So after surfing the interwebs along with my stash of cookbooks to find out if it was possible to clone the bottled stuff, after trying and combining a whole bunch of different recipes, I think I finally nailed it!

Turns out it is mad-easy to make a delicious French dressing from scratch.   No cooking, peeling or chopping! No weird ingredients either.  You probably already have all the ingredients in your pantry.  The hardest part of this recipe is slooowly pouring in oil to allow the dressing to emulsify and take on that creamy texture like the bottled stuff.

The sugar in ketchup and Worcestershire sauce makes it sweet enough for us, but you can add a tablespoon or so of honey if you like.  I don't judge (much).

Best Homemade French Dressing - Easy
Yield: 1 cup (about 8 servings)
Prep time 5 minutes

Note:  you can replace some or all of the extra virgin olive oil with light olive or additional canola/veggie oil. But do not use all extra virgin olive oil, unless you plan to enjoy the entire batch immediately.  EVOO solidifies when refrigerated ... and not in a good way.

 

2 Tbl. tomato ketchup
3 Tbl. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 

1/4 cup canola or other light vegetable oil

Place all ingredients except oils in a 1-cup narrow measuring cup (that your hand blender, if using, will fit in), or mini-food processor.

Using a hand blender (or processor), blend mixture together.

While blender/processor is running, very slowly pour in oils. This should take about a minute ... do not rush. Then continue to process until mixture looks creamy, about another 30 seconds.

Use dressing immediately, or pour into a tightly covered jar or dressing carafe and store in the fridge up to a week. If dressing separates, stir, or shake the tightly covered container vigorously just before serving.