Quick and creamy salad dressing with lemon, garlic and ginger

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Make this super-simple, quick and creamy salad dressing with lemon, garlic and ginger to dress your next green salad. My son Timothy says it’s his favorite salad dressing ever!

The raw ingredients for a sublime salad dressing: garlic, lime, ginger, Dijon mustard, olive oil.

What do you take to Easter dinner?

Every year my family gathers to eat a sumptuous Easter dinner together, catch up on life, and munch on as many Easter chocolates and jelly beans as we like.

We hide big plastic cups, labeled with everybody’s names and stuffed with Easter grass and candy, all over the place. You feel clever if you find your cup early in the search. The hunt starts after dinner, and if you’ve stuffed yourself already with Dad’s delicious ham, Anne’s frog eye salad, Mom’s cloud rolls, and my big green salad, you’ll maybe not overdo it on the candy.

That’s the idea.

Some folks might say that a big green salad will get overlooked when there are so many lovely dishes to choose from at an Easter buffet. But if you make a popular dressing like this quick and creamy salad dressing with lemon, garlic and ginger, nobody skips the green salad.

I’ll never forget the first time I served green salad with this dressing.

The day the quiet kid spoke up

I have greens aplenty growing in my hoop houses, and my friend Gene fills in whatever I might be lacking, greens-wise, bless him. So I serve a lot of big green salads to my family.

Years ago when I was experimenting with new salad dressing recipes, for dinner one night I presented this new one to my family. It was a simple, yet delicious combination of some of my favorite things: fresh garlic, grated ginger root, Dijon mustard, olive oil, and lime juice.

Timothy–our quiet kid–tasted a forkful of the salad, chewed thoughtfully, then put his fork down. He sat up and cleared his throat to speak. We all looked–surprised–at him. I never would have expected to hear the words that next came out of his mouth. It surprised me to the core. To the core, gentle reader.

To Wit:

“I think this might be the best-tasting salad dressing I’ve ever eaten.”

*gasp*

You could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

Everybody swiveled their heads around to gape at him.

We were all rendered speechless for–at least–a full minute.

Though you can’t see his face very well, I do love this photo of Timothy today, with his two littles. (photo credit Catie Miller)

This introverted, smart, accomplished, and above all quiet son of ours didn’t make such superlative statements often, or ever. (He’s more talkative now, now that he’s married and is raising a couple of young-uns of his own.)

When Timothy said something, it was usually important. And nobody in our family, at that, tosses out compliments carelessly.

As a rule, even today, Timothy doesn’t chatter on like that, ever.

Once the dust cleared . . .

. . . and we all got over the shock of Timmy’s outburst, I knew that this new quick and creamy salad dressing recipe was a keeper. A miracle salad dressing. Superlative. Nonesuch. All these things.

It was, and remains thus: the salad dressing that brought out my quiet son’s chatty side.

I sat and stared at Timothy, and then I stared at the jar of salad dressing, in turn, for a full minute or two. Wow.

And because, clearly, that wasn’t enough, directly afterwards I clambered up onto the rooftop and shrieked in the direction of town:

“I MADE THE BEST SALAD DRESSING TIMMY HAS EVER EATEN! HE JUST SAID SO!!”

Flushed, disheveled and a bit scratched, I made my way back down off the roof, back into the house, and composed myself. Pleased. Flushed. Scraped.

You know how it is, gentle reader, when the quiet kid speaks up. It doesn’t happen often, and when it does, you listen, you savor, and you remember. It’s an event that you sock away into your hippocampus so you will recall it later.

Above all, you try not to make a big hairy deal of it, lest the quiet kid decides never to speak up again.

You then immortalize this event by writing about it on your blog, if it’s a quiet, respectful, introspective, serious type of blog, as this one is, of course.

I whipped up more of that quick and creamy salad dressing the next night, to be sure. And it wasn’t a fluke. It really was that good. I deemed it special enough to present to the upcoming Easter dinner groaning board.

And thus, history was made–family history, the best kind.

Best. Time. of. the. Year.

I love the fresh newness of spring, and the reminder of Christ’s triumph over the grave! He is risen indeed! Death has no control over Him! I dearly love that.

Each day holds something new to see. The bluebirds are back! There are buds on the fruit trees, and glory glory, purple martins are checking out the martin house! Mom, there are wild ducks on the pond—come see, quick!

One needs to go out . . . one simply must sacrifice a few minutes of never-ending housewifery a few times a day–at least!!–and just look about and absorb the unfolding splendor of Spring. God is so good to us to present such delicate sweetness in the spring, after a barren grey winter.

If we’re lucky on Easter, the weather will be fine, and we’ll play games outside. If the weather is less than ideal, there are always board games, guitars, the piano and the mandolin and other things that we can amuse ourselves with indoors.

We take lots of photos, and if we remember, we take a sibling photo.

Tomfoolery does crop up, though

Sadly, Matt was not only absent at this occasion, but we didn’t even have a faux Matt to photograph! Here we’re being nice . . .

There are five of us siblings in my family: Mark, Anne, Matt, Mollie, and me, and our adopted sister Anne will be there with her family too.

It’s not wise to miss Easter dinner (or any family event) in our family, because of this deal we started years ago. If any sibling does not show up, we make a “faux” sibling, complete with a life-size photo of his or her face, and take pictures of them in strange places and positions, and then make public these photos. (Heed this appropriate use of social media.)

And here’s the thing: in our family, no matter how many challenges we might have weathered collectively during the previous months or year, when we all get together, Tomfoolery always shows up. And he is a welcome guest (hehehe).

Now back to the quick and creamy salad dressing with lemon, ginger and garlic (a keeper!)

Ready for the recipe?

But first, a picture of our kitty.

So.

Enough.

Here’s the recipe. You’re gonna love it too, I think. This dressing takes just minutes to whip up, and it has all the six flavors that your tongue is longing for: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, pungent and astringent.

Especially if you serve it on a salad that has lots of flavors and textures in it, as I’m sure you’ll do, whenever possible.

You’re savvy like that, I know. 🙂

Originally, I found a recipe on this website and I tweaked and I fiddled with until I liked it better, as is my wont.

This is the salad dressing you need

and this quick and creamy salad dressing is so easy to make.

This is all you need:

• Juice of two large lemons or three limes
• 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 large cloves of raw garlic, smashed and diced
• fresh ginger, peeled and grated (to taste, depending on how much you like ginger!*)
• 2 tsp honey, or to taste also (taste, and adjust)
• 1/2 cup virgin olive oil

Here’s how you make it:

1. First, smash and dice your garlic and stir it into the olive oil.
2. Squeeze the lemons (or limes) and mix the juice with the mustard and the honey in your blender.
3. Add the garlic oil in a stream to the blended juice mixture, while blending on “low,” emulsifying it.
4. Pour into a jar and grate as much ginger as you’d like into it, stirring to incorporate.
5. Taste and adjust seasonings. If it’s too sharp tasting, add a bit more honey. Bland? Add more ginger.

What can you add to your big green salad?

• baby kale and purple mustard
• cabbage, shredded very fine
• chopped carrots
• strips of colorful bell peppers
• grated cauliflower (do you ever grate it? It’s very cool that way!)
• chunks of cucumbers
• blue cheese crumbles (feta would be good, too)
• chopped green onions
• chopped fresh parsley
• freshly ground pepper and salt
• anything else fresh and crunchy that you might find while rooting around in the ‘fridge

Just before your group sits down for dinner, toss the salad with the dressing, using a light hand (you don’t want to repeat that time you put on way too much dressing: sog-o-rama!)

Then strategically place some quartered boiled eggs and halved cherry tomatoes on the top, and you’re all set. Ready to shock the socks off the masses.

Maybe the quiet kid in your family will even speak up. Who knows? It could happen.

Ta-daa! Now prepare yourself for lavish compliments, you clever, clever thing!

Best Green Salad Ever, with this healthy, creamy, gingery, garlicky, lemony salad dressing!

Have a sweet and happy Easter, you all!

*hugs*

*I like lots of fresh ginger root!

You may want to check out these other yummy salad dressings:

• Love capers? So do I. This creamy caper & herbs dressing is amazing.
• Light, sweet, and perfect for new lettuces and fruit: try this honey salad dressing!
• Garlic, parsley, and bleu cheese all whipped together makes this fabulous dressing. It’s snappy and addictive!

Here when we’re being naughty (well–some of us).

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Thanks for popping in, my friend. I hope you’re doing well.

xoxo

Amy

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