Salad dressing with mustard and orange

Salad dressing with mustard and orange is an easy, delicious and healthy salad dressing to make at home. This dressing is special as it uses components in the citrus juice and the mustard as natural emulsifiers to create a stable (olive) oil in water emulsion. You find this emulsion rather viscous and a few quick stirs with a fork will make this dressing homogeneous again the next day. And you are the master of the ingredients! Fresh juice with vitamins, fresh dill, healthy olive oil and no additives!

the art of making a salad dressing with mustard and orange

This dressing is a classic olive oil in water phase emulsion. The emulsified oil will give the dressing a thicker consistency and will cause the dressing to adhere to the salad leaves. In the South-East Asian kitchen, salad dressings often miss the oil and consequently end up at the bottom of the bowl quickly. The watery phase consists of fresh orange or mandarin juice, a shot of red balsamic vinegar, honey, a spoon of mustard and dill, freshly ground pepper and some salt. To this the mustard is added and mixed. The sequence of addition is not important. When the mixture is well homogenized, add a half of this volume as olive oil. Stir with a whisk or a fork.  You will find this dressing has sweet, bitter and fresh citrus notes, and is surprisingly stable and thick.

Special equipment

• none

Salad dressing with mustard and orange

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Prep Time 8 minutes mins

Total Time 8 minutes mins

Course Sauce

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

  

Ingredients for the dressing

• 2 tsp mustard Dijon
• 1 1/2 tsp honey
• 2 tbsp fresh orange juice or mandarin juice
• 2 tsp red balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp fresh dill replace by 1/2 tsp dried dill tops
• pinch of salt
• pinch of freshly ground pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

 

Making the dressing

• Squeeze the mandarins or orange and drain the juice through a sieve
• Mix the citrus juice with the mustard, honey, vinegar and the dill, salt and pepper
• Mix with a whisk or a fork
• When homogeneous, add the olive oil and keep whisking vigorously. A rather thick and stable emulsion will form.

Notes

Method: cold mixing

Food allergy & intolerance information: none

Keyword dill, fresh orange juice, honey, mustard, olive oil, red balsamic vinegar, salad dressing,

Remarks

1. If you need to apply to a salad with sweet ingredients such as dates, figs or raisins, you may replace the fresh orange juice by fresh lemon juice in the dressing formulation, making the dressing with a bit more citric acid flavour.
2. If you have fresh dill, by all means use it. Ensure to use the tops only and slice these fine. But dried dill tops also work quite well.