Throughout the summer I eat a lot more vegetables, fruits and salads. I’m not a fan of dressings and usually have a plain salad or put on a little bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, at most, on a salad. I was thinking about the salad dressings my mother would make. Always some kind of vinaigrette with various herbs and spices shaken with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. That’s when the idea making a tea leaf salad dressing came to mind. I wanted to try and make a creamy dressing so I found this basic creamy dressing base and stared playing around with adding tea. I tried steeping tea and adding it in resulting in watery dressing. Eventually I settled on just adding the tea leaves and I think the result isn’t too bad. I will keep working on different salad dressings, creamy and vinaigrette and see what I can come up with. I think the type of tea used is quite flexible. All teas will result in a lovely flavour and compliment to any salad.
Ingredients:
- ½ c mayonnaise
- 3 tsp milk
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp dried green tea leaves
Directions:
- Combine the mayonnaise, mike, salt, balsamic vinegar and dried green tea leaves. Blend with a hand blender or put into a covered jar and shake. Then serve!
Modifications for future versions: This recipe was made by modifying the “Easiest Salad Dressing” recipe given in the references. So the type and amount of tea leaves added can be adjust to taste. As can the balsamic vinegar. I may also consider adding in some kind of sweetener like honey or maple syrup, again to taste. But the basic base of the creamy salad dressing is the mayonnaise and milk.
I did another modification by adding in 1 tbsp of olive oil. This made for a smoother, less thick dressing. For this version I used black tea leaves, the CTC, cut, tear, curl processes leaves so very small and it actually worked out quite nicely. There was almost a smoky, nutty flavour to the dressing. Really nice.
Creamy black tea dressing
- ½ c mayonnaise
- 3 tsp milk
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp black tea leaves
Alternate tea choices: I think there could be any number of alternate tea choices. Any one of Berry Yummy, Refreshing Lemon Ginger or Detoxify from Lemon Lily I think would make a wonderful refreshing tea leaf salad dressing.
Note: I’m no cook, chef or baker so everything I make is based on the enjoyment of creating something new, cooking, baking and especially tea! I hope you enjoy the recipes, both making them and the tasting the results!
References
- Easiest Salad Dressing, All Recipes, URL: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/49750/easiest-salad-dressing/
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