Nothing ruins a great salad like a commercial salad dressing. Bottled dressings don’t contribute anything to the health benefits of a salad. In fact, they’re full of processed, artificial ingredients, and loaded with unhealthy fats and preservatives.
By contrast, homemade dressings provide a great opportunity to add nutrition to an already healthy meal. The addition of kefir and yogurt provide a tasty way of getting more probiotics into your diet. Plus, they’re both loaded with calcium. If you use homemade mayonnaise, you’ll enjoy the extra enzymes it adds to your diet.
Dill, like most herbs, also packs a punch. It has antibacterial, anticarcinogen, and antioxidant properties. Additionally, dill contains trace minerals our bodies need, as does the sea salt. Not to be outdone, garlic is one of the most powerful spices on the planet, known for its ability to fight bacteria and stimulate the body’s natural healing mechanisms.
This dressing is a snap to whip together (you really don’t even need a recipe), so the next time you’re craving a bottle of Kraft, consider making your own!
Creamy Kefir Dressing
½ c. each:
Milk kefir (may substitute buttermilk)
Mayonnaise*
Greek yogurt (or strained regular yogurt, or sour cream)
2 t. dried dill
¼ t. garlic powder
½ t. sea salt, or more to taste
Pepper to taste
Squeeze of lemon to taste
Optional:
½ c. very finely diced cucumber
2 T. very finely diced onion
Combine all ingredients until smooth. Keep refrigerated.
Serving ideas: drizzle over fish, use as a substitute for mayo on sandwiches, as a topping for baked potatoes, or as the dressing in my Creamy Quinoa Salad recipe.
*Homemade mayonnaise works very well in this recipe. However, you may need to adjust the seasonings because each batch of homemade mayonnaise is a little different depending on what kind of oil you use, etc. For quality control purposes, I also tested this recipe with store bought mayonnaise (Hellmann’s, or Best Foods) to ensure that the ratios were correct. Enjoy!