I have been making a lot of homemade salad dressings. Some are just okay and some are amazing. I love this homemade ranch dressing. We have been enjoying it for months. I won’t be buying it from the store again!
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I’ve tried a couple of caesar dressing recipes that were just okay, and then I tried this one. It truly is the BEST. Now I don’t have to buy caesar salad dressing any more.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 large garlic cloves, pressed
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 1/2 lemons)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups mild olive oil
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Just a couple of notes before we get started. You can probably substitute Miracle Whip for the mayonnaise, but it will not taste the same! The mayonnaise gives this dressing a lot of its flavor.
Actually now that I think about it, when you mix the olive oil with the Miracle Whip it may not give you the desired results because of the different ingredients in the Miracle Whip. I would stick with the mayonnaise.
Use the olive oil of your choice. I don’t think it should make much of a difference. I used extra light olive oil and it worked great.
You will see the that recipe calls for using a food processor to incorporate the olive oil into the dressing. You COULD use a blender, but you may end up with mixed results. I used a food processor and my dressing turned out perfect.
In theory, however, a blender should work. It is essentially the same method I used to make homemade mayonnaise, and I did make that with a blender.
You will need a garlic press to press the garlic cloves. You can buy these inexpensively and they are worth the investment. The garlic also gives this recipe a lot of its flavor. I found my garlic press at my local Goodwill.
To get started, place the mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, garlic cloves, lemon juice (I used concentrate instead of fresh), and salt and pepper into your food processor.
Process until the ingredients are smooth and well blended. Take the food plunger out of the top of the food processor and VERY slowly pour the olive oil into the food processor while the food processor is on.
This is the most important step. You must add the oil while the processor is operating or the dressing will not thicken. If you are doing this with your blender, your blender needs to be running when you pour the olive oil in.
Add the shredded Parmesan cheese and pulse the food processor a couple of times.
That’s it! Your dressing should be nice and creamy and ready to eat. This recipe makes 1 pint (2 cups). It stores well in a pint sized canning jar. Enjoy!
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