Zesty Tahini Salad Dressing (and why it’s critical we make the switch from processed dressings)
Go from this…
To this…
Read on to improve your health with this easy one-step salad dressing recipe.
A salad is only as good for you as the dressing you use on it.
An ultra-processed dressing can easily ruin a big, beautiful bowl of greens.
Most packaged salad dressings contain seed oils. like soybean oil, canola oil, or sunflower oil. These oils have gotten a bad rep, and for good reason. They mess with our cellular health and metabolism, causing us to gain weight and become sick and inflammed.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, packaged salad dressings are typically sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, and cane sugar. Not to mention the thickening gums, emulsifiers, artificial colors, and chemical preservatives that make their way onto the ingredient list.
Wishbone Ranch (the #1 salad dressing in America) doesn’t sound as appetizing when I put it like that, right?
So, how do you get around all this?
Make your own salad dressing!
You can easily concoct a salad dressing recipe using the following formula:
Healthy fat + acid + salt + pepper + herbs
Healthy fat: extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, sesame oil, macadamia nut oil, etc.
Acid: apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, lemon, lime, etc.
Herbs: rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil
My favorite salad dressing lately uses a tahini base with a pinch of salt and lemon juice. It’s so delicious, so simple, and so good for you!
Here are the ingredients for my ultra-creamy, tart, and smooth Zesty Tahini dressing:
2 tablespoons tahini (sun olive oil or avocado oil)
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice (or vinegar)
Pinch of salt, pepper
Optional: herbs & spices
Instructions:
Whisk all ingredients in a bowl, pour liberally on a bowl of lettuce, and stir.
It’s that simple. Can you believe it?
It’s almost as simple as going to the grocery store and picking a dressing off the shelf. But here’s why it’s better:
Why Making Your Own Salad Dressing is Better
Packaged salad dressings are convenient… in the short term.
But in the long term, the cost of purchasing packaged food products, like salad dressing, is much higher.
Regularly consuming processed food items that contain seed oils, high fructose corn syrup, emulsifiers, and artificial ingredients will eventually cause gut irritation, metabolic dysfunction, weight gain, insulin resistance, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic illnesses.
In that case, the “convenience” tradeoff doesn’t sound so attractive anymore, does it?
The Tradeoff: Convenience for Connection
Even though many people know that processed food items are bad, they’re still afraid to take the first steps toward swapping them out for better options.
But consider this: when we remove processed food from our diet, we might be losing convenience, but we are gaining so much more. We are gaining nourishment and the art of being connected to our food again.
Learning the fundamentals of nutrition, like knowing how to source, prepare and cook our own food, read ingredient labels, and identify where problem foods hide, is so much easier than battling chronic illness later down the road.
And do you know what the tradeoff is? Not having to worry about your health or having it threatened by chronic illness in the future.
A Good Reminder
I think that simple and easy recipes like this are a great reminder that eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive, hard, or complicated.
It just takes a little extra time and attention. And if we’re willing to devote that time to prepare and connect with our food, it will pay off in leaps and bounds with a longer, happier, more vibrant life.
Sending love and kindness,
Taylor
