Mixed berry vinegarette salad dressing

Mixed berry vinegarette sweet-tart vinaigrette, made with simple, wholesome natural ingredients. We blended this beautiful antioxidant-rich dressing with pureed blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries, some fresh herbs, quality olive oil and vinegar. It is a beautiful accompaniment to rich, colorful harvest salads we are enjoying with our September produce. This dressing recipe can be made with fresh or frozen berries. It is a great recipe to have on hand (pin for later) if your berries are past being ripe, and a perfect way to reduce food waste. If you notice your berries getting soft, but are not moldy – whip up this blueberry vinegarette. This blueberry vinegarette salad dressing pairs perfectly with Fig and walnut salad.

Colorful and flavor-rich salad dressings can bring our healthy dishes to a whole new level. And since store-bought products can be loaded with poor quality oils, excess sugar or corn syrup, sodium, GMOs, and preservatives – having a few great dressing recipes on hand will help you 1) Eliminate unhealthy and poor quality ingredients from your diet. 2) Reduce waste by eliminating single-use plastic dressing bottles. 3) Save money by utilizing fresh ingredients you already have in your kitchen.

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Over the summer we had a wonderful experience foraging blueberries. We were on a hike in Switzerland when we noticed a wild blueberry bush. We harvested them for hours in order to collect enough to bring home to Tunisia. There is nothing like a ripe, wild blueberry from the forest. To our amazement, once we started picking berries, we realized that the bushes went on for miles and miles.

 

 

Fresh berries are not something I can often find in Tunisia. We can find them frozen in a bag of mixed berries at Monoprix – so if you’re local, you can pick them up here. We always have a back in the freezer ready for antioxidant-rich smoothies. If you can find fresh berries please feel free to use them.

Blueberry benefits:

Blueberries are the dominate flavor in this recipe and the star of the show. Blueberries are extremely rich in antioxidants, which protect your body from free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules that damage your cells and contribute to disease and aging. Blueberries are believed to have the highest level of antioxidants of all common fruits and vegetables! You’re basically bathing your delicious, healthy salad with a dressing full of incredible benefits. Plus, their taste is very desirable making this dressing appealing even for children and picky eaters.

Benefits of making your own dressing at home:

We always make all of our own sauces and dressings. Not only is it more fresh and delicious, but you have control over all of the ingredients, and when it comes to dips and dressings – this is a must compared to the options in the grocery store.

Several years ago, I was not able to find a single dressing on the market with ingredients I fully approved of for our family. Even when they were greenwashed and would say “made with olive oil” on the front to grab attention, they would often contain a cheap, low-quality oil that we avoid at all costs like soybean or canola oil.

Canola oil is “widely recognized as the healthiest salad and cooking oil available to consumers.” It was developed through hybridization of rape seed. Rape seed oil is toxic because it contains significant amounts of a poisonous substance called erucic acid. Canola oil contains only trace amounts of erucic acid and its unique fatty acid profile, rich in oleic acid and low in saturated fats, makes it particularly beneficial for the prevention of heart disease. It also contains significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, also shown to have health benefits. This is what the food industry says about canola oil. (Source) These days, there are is just two brands we would actually buy – and they are not available in most stores yet. If you are curious about hidden ingredients in salad dressings, I found this post very helpful. 

Yield: 1 bottle of dressing

blueberry vinegarette

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

A sweet and tart antioxidant rich salad dressing

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Ingredients

• 1 cup of blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 3/4 cup quality essential oil
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 shallots
• 1/2 clove garlic
• fresh mint sprig
• 1/3 cup lime juice

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients into a food processor. Blend until creamy and completely combined. Transfer to glass storage container of choice that has air tight storage.

Notes

Use within 2 weeks.