How to Make the Perfect Vinaigrette

Featured Pro: Tyler Florence
Category: Cooking
Time: 1:36


TYLER FLORENCE: Hi. I’m Tyler Florence here with a GMC Trade Secret.

You know, a simple addition to any great homemade meal is a salad dressing. Now, we’re going to make a classic French vinaigrette. I’m going to show you how to do the whole thing.

We’re going to get a couple of ingredients right here. I’m going to show you how to blend it where it’s really delicious and really easy.

Now, a vinaigrette is a great, very inexpensive way to really kind of impress people, and it’s very easy. The whole thing happens in a blender. And we’re going to balance it out with three parts oil and one part vinegar. Now, I’ve got a couple of different vinegars here. Either way, all of them work out really well. A little bit of balsamic apple cider would be great. I’ve also got a little bit of rice wine. So it’s three parts oil, one part vinegar. And then I like a little bit of Dijon mustard just to kind of smooth the whole thing out. And it’s also going to make it a little spicy.

Now we’re going to season this with some fresh minced shallot right on top, probably one shallot, and then some fresh herbs. I’ve got some parsley and I’ve got some chives. Now, you can season this any way you want. You can take a fresh apple, grate it up and put it into the vinaigrette. That’s really delicious; crumbled bleu cheese, any way you want to go. That’s the base of the whole thing.

All right, we’re going to take some salt, add it around top, some fresh cracked pepper, all right, and give it a good buzz. Two seconds later you get a really delicious homemade vinaigrette. Two seconds later it’s nice and creamy. It’s thick. The mustard has bound the two together, the oil and vinegar. And take a look at that. It’s absolutely delicious. You can put this into a jar with a lid. It’ll stay fresh for a week in your fridge. And that’s it. You’ve got a delicious vinaigrette.

I’m Tyler Florence, and that’s my tip on salad dressing.