Hear about each dressing and what they work with – run through your favourite recipe.  

With this being my second to last segment for the year, I want to continue my mission to help make everyone's Christmas food as least stressful as possible. 

So last week, we spoke about brining and cooking our chicken or turkey. So this week I want to talk about dressings, for the all important salads that will be getting served throughout Christmas. 

Dressing is as important as the actual ingredients in the salad, whether it be a simple slaw, charred courgette salad, roasted root vegetables, or the Kiwi favourite: potato salad! 

Dressings and mayonnaise pull all the flavours together and make the salad complete. 

I want to run you through three simple dressings that we use at the school a lot. They are slightly different, pack a lot of punch and are reasonably easy to make. 

• Whole lemon mayonnaise.  

Used as a general salad dressing, the bitter tart flavour of the whole fruit works really well with a green salad of leaves, right through to a tangy slaw. 

• Roasted hazelnut and rosemary 

Super flavour booster! From freshly split avocados that have been charred on the BBQ right through to leftover roast vegetable salad.

• Lime Tahini dressing  

Certainly the easiest of all three, as you simply mix the ingredients together and whamo! I use this dressing a lot with BBQ vegetables, my favourite being courgettes and coriander, maybe with a touch of danish feta.

Enjoy some Xmas cheer!

Hazelnut dressing 

1 x 10cm sprig rosemary  

A pinch of flaky sea salt  

1/2 cup hazelnuts, whole  

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar  

1 tbsp brown sugar  

5 tbsp grapeseed oil  

salt and pepper 

Place in the hazelnuts into a pan and toast in the oven until just golden.  

Then in a tea towel and bunch up the hazelnuts and rub together to remove the skins.  

Crush up roughly in a pestle and mortar.  

Set aside 

Tahini lime vinaigrette 

4 tbsp tahini paste  

4 tbsp lemon juice  

2 tbsp honey  

4 tbsp water  

A pinch of salt 

Starting with the tahini, spoon over the lime juice and then using the back of a spoon, mix through the honey and finally the water to thin the dressing out. Season with a pinch of salt. 

Whole lemon mayonnaise 

3 lemons, juiced and smashed  

350 ml grape seed oil  

1 egg yolk  

2 tbsp cider vinegar  

1 tbsp honey  

½ tsp Dijon mustard  

A pinch of salt 

Place the lemon and oil into a pot and gently heat over a low heat. (not above 60*C) for a couple minutes. Turn off and allow to cool before straining.  

In a small bowl whisk the egg yolk with the vinegar, honey, Dijon and salt. Slowly add the oil until well combined. 

Mike’s website – goodfromscratch.co.nz 

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