How many people actually use up a bottle of salad dressing?  I know I have them in my refrigerator but they are barely ever used up.  If I have an Italian based flavor, it is usually poured over chicken as a marinade on a grill night.  But what about all the other ones that just seem to sit on the door forever?  Do you ever use them up?  Or do you just look at the expiration date and smell them every once in awhile to see if they are still good?  (And then make a face, put the top back on, and put it back on the door.)

I’ve started to make more dressing from scratch.  It is so nice to have control over the flavor and know that the dressing is going to embellish your lettuce with the freshest of flavors.

The other advantage is quantity.  You can make enough for your meal and not have a bottle taking over valuable refrigerator real estate.  (This is the one form of real estate that has gone up in value over the years.)

This week I was making a grilled chicken salad with grilled corn, oven dried tomatoes and fresh butter lettuce.  I had an avocado that I was going to slice over the top but then I decided I wanted avocado in every bite, not just one or two.

So I decided to turn my avocado into a dressing and let it adorn each piece of lettuce.  It was a nice way to make a basic dinner salad into a jazzy, flavorful entrée.

Avocado Salad Dressing 

Ingredients

1 avocado

½ poblano pepper, grilled, seeded and skinned

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp olive oil

¼ cup to ½ cup buttermilk

2 Tbsp cilantro

1 Tbsp Creme Fraiche (or sour cream)

Directions (Easiest recipe EVER)

Take all of your ingredients and place into blender.  Add only ¼ cup of the buttermilk until you see how creamy your dressing turns out.

If you want it creamier, add more buttermilk slowly.

The big key to this dressing is to chop your greens and put them in a big bowl.  Drizzle the dressing on the lettuce and toss gently so every bite gets coated.  From there add the rest of your salad ingredients and serve.

Like I said above, I served my dressing on some farm fresh butter lettuce.  I added chopped grilled chicken, grilled corn and oven blistered grape tomatoes.  It didn’t need more than that.  (Okay some bacon or pumpkin seeds would have been nice but I didn’t have time to go to the store.)

The key point is that the dressing is chock full of flavor.  Don’t mask the dressing by overloading your salad.  Now go count your salad dressings and let me know how many you have opened right now.  (My number was 4!!!)