Ahh summer time…the time for eating all the fruit and dinners that don’t require a lot of kitchen work. I’m a big fan of salads in the summer time, primarily because they require very little effort and as far as dressings go, I love me some raspberry vinaigrette. Raspberries are in season from about May to Late June, so right now you’ll notice there are lots of sales on them and they taste even better than usual. Hint: if you want THE best tasting raspberries, find out if there is a local farm where you can pick them yourself. If your in the Illinois suburbs, I love to visit Heider Berry Farms. In fact, I’m planning my annual trip there soon!
An easy and delicious way to use raspberries in a recipe is to make a dressing with them. Particularly because, most store bought raspberry vinaigrette don’t even list raspberries as the top four ingredients. Here are the ingredients for a store-bought, popular raspberry vinaigrette dressing (I won’t disclose the brand because that’s not how I roll):
Water, Sugar, Red Wine Vinegar, Vinegar, Soybean Oil, Contains Less than 2% of Salt, Red Raspberry Juice Concentrate, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Dried Onions, Spice, Natural Flavor, Poppy Seeds, Potassium Sorbate and Calcium Disodium EDTA (to Protect Flavor).
What?! That’s just crazy to me! It should at least be in the top TWO ingredients. Yikes. So I looked into it a bit, and it’s actually very easy to make your own vinaigrette. I created my own version with ingredients I already had in the house. You literally throw the ingredients in a blender and poof, dressing in 30 seconds. No preservatives needed. I like to store mine in an airtight mason jar in the fridge, so that it lasts a bit (I recommend using within 2 weeks). Tangy, flavorful, and perfect to go on a light summer salad!
Here’s one of my lunch salads I used this dressing on and it was delicious!. I love balancing the tangy-ness of this dressing with soft cheese, chicken, and some crunchies on my salad. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 4 oz raspberries (about 3/4 a container)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp dijon musteard
- 1 tsp trifecta (alternatively used 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, and garlic powder)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Put all ingredients in a blender and blend together. So easy right?!?
- Store in an airtight jar. (I store mine in a mason jar in the fridge.)
YUM! I’ve been looking for a tasty dressing recipe without all the crap in it. This one looks so good- I will try it this weekend. Your blog is beautiful!
Thank you, enjoy!
Wow I love how easy this is! We love raspberry vinaigrette, but a lot of the store bought kinds are sooooo sweet. I’ll be trying this soon!
This looks amazing. I have quite the sweet tooth so I know I will love trying this out. I will but the ingredients over the weekend and give it a go. Thanks for sharing.
I hadn’t thought about making raspberries vinaigrette. I love a good salad during the summer so I will have to give this a try since we always have raspberries in the fridge.
This sounds amazing! I’m going to pin and make your recipe soon.