I’m Going to Let You in on My Secret to Tastier Salads
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For as long as I’ve been cooking, I’ve been making my own salad dressings. I know people are busy, and I’m not opposed to pantry assists, but I’ve always been adamant that a quick whisk of a few ingredients is far and away better than anything you can buy off the grocery-store shelf and worth the extra couple of minutes and extra couple of dishes it takes to pull together.
Needless to say, I was skeptical when Julia Sherman — author of the cookbooksSalad for PresidentandArty Partiesand writer of the SubstackSalad for President— launched her new CPG company, also called (you guessed it)Salad for President. This time, she’s making gluten-free and vegan powdered salad dressings.
There are three kinds: Miso Ginger, Lemon Poppy, and Umami Caesar. Each comes in a packet with instructions on the back to add liquids: always a splash of water, a squeeze of citrus, and some form of fat. Of course, there’s room to play with swaps and add-ins. You can whisk everything in a bowl or else put it in a jar and shake it up. If you’re thinking,Doesn’t that require the same level of work as making a simple vinaigrette?, you’d be correct. But here’s the thing: These pack a distinct punch.
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Now I love a simple vinaigrette. Often it’s really all I want. But on occasions when lunch or dinner could benefit from a more involved dressing, we’ve entered into taking-a-decent-amount-of-time territory — grating garlic, chopping shallots or herbs, pulling out a second form of acid. These powders are shortcuts for all of those tasks and pretty good ones at that.
The Miso Ginger, into which you mix lime juice and toasted sesame oil, is far and away my favorite. The ginger is pungent but not overwhelming. It’s deeply savory and perfectly salty. I poured the entire thing over a big bowl of cold rice noodles with summer vegetables for a full meal (with leftovers) for me and my husband. In the future, I plan to toss it with smashed cucumbers and blanched snap peas, use it for green salads and coleslaw, and — as Sherman suggests — repurpose it as a dry rub for grilling, where I think it would work well with pork, chicken, and shrimp.
I like the Lemon Poppy, too, though it seems a little less exciting than the Miso Ginger. Here you add lemon juice and olive oil. It’s bright but substantial, studded with poppy seeds, and has a satisfying viscosity you normally only get in a dressing where you’ve added a ton of mustard or another thick emulsifier. Sadly, I wasn’t very impressed with the Umami Caesar, into which you mix lemon juice as well as mayonnaise. I had high hopes since I’m a big Caesar fan, but this one was overbearingly intense with nutritional yeast. It tasted funky and very “dusty” to me. Now I normally like nutritional yeast fine, but I’m not an avid user of it as an ingredient in my everyday life. But I know some people go crazy for it — so if that’s you, you might feel differently.
One especially smart use case: I took the Lemon Poppy on vacation to a poorly stocked Airbnb where I knew I would be cooking one night. I used it on a grain salad to serve alongside our main — a more dynamic dressing than I could have otherwise whipped up there, without my usual swath of ingredients. But even at home, I genuinely plan to buy and keep packets of the Miso Ginger in my pantry. This one in particular feels like a fast-track to a flavorful dinner in the same way a great jarredtomato sauceor simmer sauce is with high reward for little effort.
More pantry favorites to use for salads
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Hailee Catalano’s preferred red-wine vinegar.
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