I just love when the summer vegetables start coming in from the garden! I love planting them, nurturing them, and spoiling them with “treats” of epsom salt and Miracle Grow! That stuff really does work, doesn’t it? My plants are HUGE this year already.
And lookie at my first tomato! One of the prettiest tomatoes I’ve grown since we moved to the east coast!
Which also inspired this salad dressing!
My hubby is NOT a big salad lover. He’s not big on veggies in general, let alone raw crudités! I don’t know that he’s ever even touched a raw carrot or came within 10 feet of a veggie tray!
But the one time of year that he sparks up over veggies, is when I start bringing in fresh, homegrown tomatoes and peppers straight from the deck!
So I promised to make him some spectacular salads that would change his mind about “rabbit food”!
The one mistake I was NOT going to do, was make a gorgeous salad and then pour bottled dressing all over it.
Yuck.
I just can’t do bottled dressings anymore. To me, they taste awful. REALLY bad.
So I asked my hubby what he loved as a kid. Especially when you went to a restaurant, you had about 3-5 choices and you always knew what you wanted. I was a Thousand Island kid, and he said he always loved French.
French is easy to make, so French it will be! 😀 I already had everything on hand, and you should, too, as there’s nothing in it that you have to trek to the store for. It’s stupid easy.
6 simple ingredients plus salt and pepper, a blender or small processor, and you’ve got homemade French salad dressing. Not kidding.
There’s just no excuse not to just make it homemade.
It starts with half of a small sweet onion, sliced into wedges and then cut into thirds making large chunks. It’s hard to picture what someone means when they say a “small onion”, I know, so I took a pick of how much I used as I always just usually eyeball it.
Above is a rounded 1/3 cup of coarse-chopped sweet onion. Just make sure you use a sweet onion, or at least mild, and just don’t overdo it or it could end up tasting too strong of onion.
Simply add all of your ingredients to your blender except the oil.
*I just use plain ol’ “salad” oil. A light canola oil. But you can even use vegetable oil, or half salad oil and half olive oil. If your olive oil is mild tasting, you can go whole hog wild and use all olive oil. But it can take on a funky flavor if your oil isn’t super fresh and very mild tasting. So choose wisely. You shouldn’t be able to taste the oil in the end at all, so, regular salad oils are simply best for this. Expensive oils are a waste of money that’s unnecessary for this recipe.
Give the first addition of ingredients a nice blend until very smooth and the onions have been completely processed.
Remove the little center piece on the lid, place the lid back on, and turn the blender on low. While the blender is running, slowly stream in the oil.
(*You may need to stop halfway, stir, and then continue on high until all of the oil has been added.)
And presto!
You have a decadent, clean and simple, classic creamy French salad dressing just like that! 😉
Once you try this, and see how easy and economical it is, you’ll never buy another bottle again!
You’ll get a full 20 ounces of salad dressing that should be enough for 8 side salads! 10 if you’re light on the dressing, and 5-6 generous servings for (large) chef salads!
It really goes a long way!
And you won’t believe how delicious it is!!
It’s one of the quintessential dressings for summer salads, because there’s enough flavor that it tastes good, yet it isn’t overpowering, masking the wonderful flavors of the garden-fresh vegetables.
A perfect match!
I never cared for French dressing when I was a kid, and the only French I’ll eat to this day is homemade. Maybe it’s all the funky additives and preservatives that companies add that I’m sensitive to? Maybe too much vinegar? Short on flavor? Too watery??
I don’t know what it is exactly, but I’m glad.
Homemade is always better. No doubt about it. 😉
Creamy French Salad Dressing
Ingredients
Instructions
Patricia Gualdoni
Friday 27th of December 2019
Make this every year for Christmas. The whole family loves it.
Andi
Monday 10th of December 2018
Just stopped by once again to get this recipe. It is my very favorite. Thanks again, Kelly!
Kelly
Tuesday 11th of December 2018
Awww, thank you, Andi!! This was the salad dressing that convinced my hubby that salads are not evil!!! LOL!! ;) :D So glad you love it, too! :)
Cheryl Burgess
Friday 31st of July 2015
My mother used to make this when I was a child. When I inherited her recipe box (the trusty shoebox), the recipe was missing. Thank you for this. Can't wait to make it once again.
Kelly
Saturday 1st of August 2015
You are so very welcome! :D Happy that I could help!! :) Hope you enjoy! :D