I had an urge to eat salad today so while at the grocery store buying some I saw that there are about 15 salad dressings. I have only tried two in my life (Thousand Island and Ranch). Thousand Island is good, Ranch isn’t very good on salad (its better on pizza). What all salad dressings are good and which aren’t? I didn’t want to spend $15 on a bunch of dressings I’d never use so I just got some thousand Island.
What about Bleu Cheese, Bacon & cheddar, peppercorn ranch, creamy cucumber, honey mustard, zesty blue cheese, etc. I don’t know anything about them or if they are any good.
It’s all a matter of personal taste, but that being said…
I use more Russian/Catalina dressing than any other. Honey Mustard is good, as is French. My all-time favorite is the hot bacon dressing they used to serve at Sizzler. The stuff was as addictive as crack, and about as healthy! Ranch is vile, but the nadir of dressings has to be bleu cheese.
All of the ones you listed there at the end are very good, IMPO, when my mood is right.
My favorite dressing for salad right now is made by that Safeway house brand. It’s an Italian Bleu Ceasar, mixing together flavors of Italian, Bleu Cheese, and Ceasar dressings. Fuggin’ good.
I love the Good Seasons Italian dressing that you make yourself by shaking the contents of the mix envelope in the glass cruet with your own oil and vinegar. I use balsamic vinegar, and the dressing is delicious on sandwiches, meats, and of course salads as well.
I also love honey mustard dressing, but not honey dijon. Come to think of it, I like every salad dressing I’ve ever tried, just about.
Overall, I’d put Thousand Island/Russian dressing as #1. Also goes great on roast beef.
However, a simple oil and vinegar can be heavenly, as long as you use extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar. Good Seasons is OK if you eat it fresh, but gets worse and worse as time goes on, and you don’t need the seasonings, anyway.
I can’t think of a generaly category of dressing I don’t like. I used to dislike blue cheese, but have learned to love it.
I’ve never liked ranch dressing, it tastes of spoiled milk and bad garlic to me. I liked thousand island and russian dressing until they started to taste too sweet for me. Now I usually go for ceaser salad dressing. All the Paul Newman’s dressings I’ve tried are darned good for store bought.
I think that thousand island is the worst dressing of all time. It coats your salad so thick that you can’t even taste the veggies. I call it training dressing because a lot of kids like it and it’s usually the first dressing they try. When you grow up try any of the oil based dressings, they are my favorite. Of course I’m a dressing whore, I’ll try any of the new ones that come out.
Not really crazy about ranch dressing on salads, but it does have other uses - I make a heavenly crab roll using the mix. I love Green Goddess, (sorry, FaerieBeth!) especially on baked potatoes. For salads I like Old Dutch Sweet and Sour.
I don’t like anything mayo-based. I prefer Berenstein’s Italian, Newman’s Own Caesar (NOT the creamy, blllarrgh). Failing either of those just some balsamic and olive oil.
I sometimes will order my salad with both blue cheese and french dressing on it. I drizzle both together over my salad and have a really creamy, sweet, dressing with the bite of blue cheese. It’s really good. Try it, you might like it.
My personal favorite is a mixture of La Masia Vinagre de Jerez and extra virgin olive oil. It is very important to use the “extra virgin” as the regular olive oil just won’t do the job. :rolleyes:
For low calorie I use Annie’s Naturales Raspberry Vinaigrette and another commercial brand that I like is Brianna’s Home StyleAsiago Caesar, Blush Wine Vinaigrette or Chipolte Cheddar.
My all time favorite dressing is the bacon vinegarette at Golden Corral . God , that’s good stuff !
For store bought , I like bacon ranch , and just discovered a poppyseed dressing that rocks . I have found a carmelized onion dressing that is not always available at my store , but I grab it up whenever I can find it !
Don’t buy any Kraft dressings. Blech! Nasty nasty.
I personally loathe French dressing. I think I could achieve a similar taste with corn syrup and ketchup. I’m also very suspicious of Thousand Island. It looks like French in sheep’s clothing.
I go with Ranch for dipping (vegetables, sandwiches, pizza, whatever). Caesar on caesar salads only. For other salads, I like Italian or other oil and vinegar types. If it’s sweet, then the sweetness has to come from dried fruit or balsamic vinegar.
My sister made this awesome dressing once with dried cranberries and lots of cracked black pepper in it that I’ve never been able to recreate. It was soooo good with baby spinach.
Catalina and French are vile, IMO. But SpouseO likes 'em.
For storebought, I tend towards the Ranch and Caesar (creamy) spectrum - I haven’t yet found a storebought bleu cheese (my favorite) I like. Does anyone have any recommendations for bottled bleu?
