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Your choice of olive, vegetable, avocado or walnut oil whisked with Dijon mustard, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper…
This recipe for a big-flavoured vinaigrette, made with just six ingredients, happened out of necessity. There I was in the city, dead of winter. I picked up some chicken thighs and carrots thinking they’d be perfect for a light dinner, but after oven-roasting them, they needed something more. This DIJON VINAIGRETTE WITH GARLIC AND LEMON was just the thing. It’s now my go-to secret trick to add serious flavour to everything.
Now although we’re calling this a Dijon vinaigrette recipe, we want you to think about other applications. Hint: though it makes a darn delicious dressing for salads, it becomes the secret sauce sensation or marinade you’ve been looking for to boost the flavours of fish, seafood, poultry, beef, lamb and pork. We’re also drizzling it onto vegetable dishes – more about all these uses in a little bit.
Thinking back to the night I first crafted this easy Dijon vinaigrette, I simply gathered a few favourite ingredients I always have on hand. I’ll discuss the types of oils you might want to try when you make this at home, but first a word on the mustard, fresh lemon juice and garlic. We always have those three flavourful ingredients at the ready, right? Two things to note. If in a pinch you can swap the garlic with shallot. Second thing, I prefer the recipe made with fresh lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar or aged balsamic vinegar as it gives it more tang and flavour. Yet, we do understand that substitutes often create unexpected tastes you may enjoy, so feel free to experiment. The key takeaway: keep these handy ingredients at the ready, as you’ll want to make this again and again.
I originally crafted this recipe using a favourite Dijon mustard. Although I haven’t tried it using a yellow mustard, I did try a honey-Dijon vinaigrette made using honey mustard. It ended up having too much sweetness for my taste, but your taste may differ. Because mustards are usually so well seasoned, we suggest waiting to add the kosher salt and black pepper to taste at the very end. Same goes for fresh herbs. Sometimes mustards are made with basil, tarragon, thyme or parsley, so feel free to add more fresh herbs as a garnish at the end.
Good question! Here’s our tried and tested answer: lots, LOL. We’ve made this simple vinaigrette recipe now using a number of different vegetable, nut and fruit oils. We tried extra-virgin olive oil, corn and vegetable oil, grape seed oil, canola oil, plus avocado oil, walnut oil and hazelnut oil. Each one imparts a different flavour into the finished vinaigrette, so we encourage you to try the recipe using a different oil every time and discover your favourites. One tip on preparation is to make sure you whisk everything together thoroughly in the bowl, incorporating all the wonderful flavours. A shake-up in a mason jar will also work in a pinch too.
Some of you may be wondering about this recipe’s call for three garlic cloves. Repeat visitors to WATC know I always take it a step further by saying “make sure the cloves of garlic are rather large”. In my humble opinion, you can never have too much bold, garlicky flavour. But wait, there’s more! Garlic is also low in calories but high in medicinal properties like it may boost the immune system, and lower both blood pressure and cholesterol. The above photo gives you options on how to prepare it for the recipe whether you use a handy palm-sized chopper, a microplane or a chef’s knife. All work perfectly to chop the garlic finely as the instructions detail.
Best tip we can give you on how to enjoy this DIJON VINAIGRETTE WITH GARLIC AND LEMON is to put it on everything. It works really well on veggie dishes like our OVEN-ROASTED CARROTS, this ROASTED ASPARAGUS side dish or our classic VEGETABLE MEDLEY.
As mentioned off the top, this vinaigrette recipe also doubles as a salad dressing and works well with our CLASSIC COBB and SALAD NIÇOISE as well as a simple green salad.
Finally, it’s a perfect sauce to spoon over this EASY GRILLED CHICKEN or our LAMB CHOPS, BARBECUED SALMON or RIBEYE STEAKS.
This wonderful dressing idea is so tasty, we suggest you PIN it to a favourite salad or side dish idea board on PINTEREST or BOOKMARK this tab for easy access. SHARE it with friends so they can make it too. We’d also appreciate seeing pics of all the delicious dishes you’re making these days. Use #weekendatthecottage when you post those pics on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks!
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