My “House Dressing” Is So Good, I’ve Made a Weekly Batch for 5 Years (It’s Too Easy!)

When life took a dramatic turn in 2020 and we went into lockdown, my family signed up for a weekly produce box from a local farm. This helped support the farm, which had suddenly lost all of its restaurant business, and gave us super fresh produce that had become harder to get at the grocery store. While we loved the juicy tomatoes and strawberries, we had to get creative with some of the veggies we received.

One green that we consistently got in our produce box was kale (and many varieties of it!). I was never a big fan of kale, finding it too fibrous and chewy, especially in salads. But faced with so much kale and running out of ideas for lunch, I decided to grab a lemon from our backyard tree and throw together a dressing with some garlic and anchovy paste. After I massaged this Caesar salad-like dressing into the kale and tossed it with a lot of grated Parmesan, my family (including my 6-year-old daughter) devoured it, and my house salad dressing was born. Five years later, I still make this dressing every single week.

Get the recipe: Christine’s House Dressing

This dressing is so good that we almost always serve that same kale salad when we throw dinner parties. Kale needs an assertive dressing, and this one isn’t shy. Even with garlic, anchovies, and lemon (in the form of zest and juice), it’s bright and balanced — and it doesn’t taste fishy at all. It’ll perk up whatever you put it on. We’ve also drizzled it over grilled or roasted vegetables, as well as simply prepared fish. We have even made it creamy by adding in a spoonful of mayonnaise or sour cream.

1. Prep the lemon. Finely grate the zest of a lemon, then juice the lemon.
2. Chop the garlic and anchovies. Chop garlic cloves and anchovy fillets together until a paste forms.
3. Make the dressing. Whisk the lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, anchovies, Dijon mustard, olive oil, vegetable oil, salt, and pepper together.

• Don’t want to chop garlic or anchovies? Just sub in frozen garlic cubes and anchovy paste to save yourself time (these are also great to keep stocked in your refrigerator and freezer). Both will dissolve beautifully into the dressing as you whisk it up.
• A batch of dressing is enough to make a few salads, but if you don’t finish it within a week, you can freeze it. Just thaw and rewhisk before using.
• I use a combo of olive oil and vegetable oil because using all olive oil makes the dressing too bitter. The vegetable oil has a more neutral flavor and is more wallet-friendly (other neutral oils like safflower and canola are great too). If you’re all out of olive oil, you can go with all vegetable.

Get the recipe: Christine’s House Dressing

This article originally published on The Kitchn. See it there: My “House Dressing” Is So Good, I’ve Made a Weekly Batch for 5 Years (It’s Too Easy!)