Infused olive oil and vinegar contain herbs and other ingredients for added flavor.
Infused oil and vinegar salad dressings provide a flavor-packed punch to salads. You can make your own infused oil and vinegar dressings in a variety of flavors with spices and other ingredients in your kitchen. These dressings offer a delicious, homemade and inexpensive alternative to store-bought salad dressings to enhance your own meals, and they can also be given as gifts. While herbs from the grocery store make a tasty addition to infused oils and vinegars, fresh herbs from your garden add even more flavor.
Instructions
Infused Oil
1. Fill a pint-sized glass jar or bottle with olive oil to an inch or two from the top. This allows space in the bottle for added ingredients.
2. Garlic adds a strong flavor to infused oils.
Add three to four fresh garlic cloves or the peel of 1/4 of a lemon to the olive oil. Allow the garlic or lemon flavor to infuse into the oil for 24 hours, while storing the oil in the refrigerator. Keep infused oil with water-based ingredients such as lemon peel and garlic cloves in the refrigerator to prevent bacteria growth.
3. Flavor your olive oil with dried rosemary. Gardeners can pick fresh rosemary from the garden and lay it in the sun to dry before placing the dried herb in the olive oil. One sprig or 1/2 tsp. of dried rosemary is enough to add flavor, but you can add less or more for a more subtle or more pungent flavor.
4. Press lemon peel or in an olive press while holding the press over your bottle of olive oil. Doing this forces the flavor of the garlic or lemon into the oil through the juices, but prevents the bacteria-causing, water-based portion of the ingredient from going into the oil as well.
5. Allow the flavor to infuse overnight, and store infused oils in the refrigerator for up to a week. Remove the herb, lemon peel or garlic cloves from the bottle upon first use if you do not want the infused flavor to get any stronger.
Infused Vinegar
6. Fill a pint-sized glass bottle or jar with apple cider vinegar up to an inch or two from the top of the jar.
7. Fresh raspberries offer a sweet alternative to salad dressings.
Add 1/2 cup of fresh raspberries to your jar of apple cider vinegar. Seal the jar and allow the flavor to infuse for at least 24 hours to create your own fresh raspberry-flavored vinegar.
8. Scoop 1/8 cup of dried herbs such as rosemary, thyme or oregano into a bottle of apple cider vinegar. Store the vinegar on a counter out of direct sunlight or in a cupboard.
9. Allow flavorings to sit in the apple cider vinegar for two weeks. Shake the bottle or jar daily. Strain your herbs or flavoring ingredients out of the jar and discard before using the dressing.
Tags: apple cider, apple cider vinegar, cider vinegar, garlic cloves, flavor infuse, infused oils, lemon peel