Lemon Vinaigrette

If you are trying to reduce the amount of your sugar intake in your daily diet be sure to check the ingredient list of your salad dressing. I've read the back of a few bottles of dressing, and not recognized an ingredient or two. Now, I'm on a quest to make tasty, good-for-you salad dressings with fresh ingredients.  Most of my favorite homemade dressings (that are blog worthy) are listed in the salad category. This lemon vinaigrette is now my favorite basic salad dressing. I like to make a big batch of this lemon vinaigrette because it lasts for at least a couple of weeks in the refrigerator, and it's easy to add other spice blends to a small amount of the dressing to make quick and easy variations (for instance, Greek and Italian spice blends).

Lemon Vinaigrette
Enough lemons to yield 1/2 cup of lemon juice (2 large juicy ones did the trick for me)
2 medium shallots, minced
1 handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 1/2 cups of quality extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons of low acid rice vinegar
salt
pepper


1) Squeeze fresh lemons until you get 1/2 cup.

2) Mince the shallot - I probably could have chopped mine finer, but I was hungry.

3) Mince the parsley.

4) Put it all together in a bowl: oil, lemon juice, parsley, shallots, and rice vinegar.  Stir until thickened and salt and pepper to taste.

5). Be sure to use quality olive oil.  A friend gave me a bottle of Bariani Olive Oil as a gift and I'm hooked.

NOTE: you can easily adjust the amount you make by basically keeping a 3 to 1 ratio of the oil and acid.  For example:  3/4 cups of olive oil and 1/4 cup lemon juice.