Why You Shouldn’t Dilute Your Salad Dressing With Water (and What to Use Instead)
You don’t have to make your own salad dressing all the time—bottled ingredients can come in handy, especially if you like trying new flavors. However, there are times when a personal touch can truly transform a store-bought headband. Namely, a sleek look. You know the type—too thick to pour out, so you’ll have to use a knife to fish it out. Well, there’s an easy and delicious way to change the consistency of an overly thick salad dressing, and it doesn’t involve adding water.
Salad Dressing Ingredients
It’s no surprise that water dilutes salad dressing. This dilutes the taste and degrades the texture. The dressing turns into something I can only describe as “grey” (both in color and flavor) and drips off all the salad ingredients. Instead, choose a liquid ingredient that will add flavor to the dressing. To do this, we first need to consider what salad dressings are made of.
This is where the practice of making your own dressing really comes in handy – you get an idea of the main players: acid, oil and emulsifiers. ( Read here for the only guide you’ll ever need to make your own vinaigrette.) Regardless of whether the salad dressing is an oily dressing or a creamy dressing, they all still use these three ingredients. The acid can be lemon or orange juice or apple cider vinegar. The oil can be olive, rapeseed or nut oil. The emulsifier can be mustard, tahini, egg yolks, or a ready-made emulsifier such as mayonnaise.
How to thin out salad dressing
To thin out a sticky salad dressing, you just need to choose an acidic or oily ingredient that will help thin it out. This will improve the consistency and preserve the original taste of the dressing. If you don’t know where to start, look at the list of ingredients on your bottle of salad dressing. The first two or three ingredients will definitely give you the main acid or oil in their recipe. For my bottle of Trader Joe’s Goddess Sauce, which is too thick for my taste, the first ingredients are canola oil and apple cider vinegar. I have a choice: I can add a little heat with vinegar or mellow it out with canola oil. I usually prefer vinegar, but if you only have oil, this is the perfect choice.
To thin the consistency of the entire bottle
If this is a new bottle, remove some of the dressing to leave room for the added liquid ingredient. This is probably what you’ll need for emergency salads. For an eight-ounce bottle of dressing, take two tablespoons of the dressing as is and place it in a bowl or small jar with a lid. Add one tablespoon of oil or acid of your choice directly to the bottle. Close the lid and shake well. Check the consistency. If you want it thinner, add another tablespoon of liquid. If you need to go even further, you can continue this way, but note that the increased acid or oil ratio will begin to significantly affect the flavor of the original dressing.
Diluting a Single Serving of Salad Dressing
Start with two tablespoons of the thick dressing in a bowl or small jar. Depending on the initial thickness of the dressing and your personal preferences, you will have to gradually adjust its consistency. Start by adding one teaspoon of your chosen acid or oil. Use a whisk to stir it, or if you have a jar, put the lid on and shake it. Add more if you need. For two tablespoons of medium-thick dressing, I add about a teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar to get the desired result. If you get too thin, you can always add a little more of the original dressing to take a step back.
This trick also comes in handy if you’re trying to stretch the end of a salad dressing bottle or something like that. Now you have no reason to eat salad with thick dressing.