Cranberry Balsamic Dressing

September 29, 2009 by Michele
Healthy Cooking, Recipes, Salads

I love to use a sprinkling of vinegar as dressing quite often.  We usually have an assortment of vinegars: champagne, cider, orange muscat, red wine, balsamic.  Using only vinegar on a salad produces a light topping with a bit of a bite.

Last week I decided to make salad a main course dish for my husband and me.  With fall’s arrival, I began to think of seasonal foods that would be available.  One of the fall ingredients that I love to use is cranberries.  However, I hadn’t seen any fresh cranberries in our grocery store yet, so I settled with cranberry juice.

To give the dressing some deeper acidity, I decided to use a pomegranate-infused blush balsamic vinegar, which is quite tasty on its own, with the cranberry juice.  Combining these two ingredients provided great flavor but made the dressing a little acidic.  The addition of some honey improved that immensely.  A little olive oil for body and garlic for another layer of flavor, and we had a great fall topping for our salad.

Cranberry Balsamic Dressing

2 Tb. pomegranate-infused blush balsamic vinegar

4 Tb. 100% cranberry juice

1 tsp. honey

1 garlic clove, minced

1 Tb. extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper

In a small bowl, combine vinegar, juice, honey, and garlic.   Whisk until honey is incorporated fully.  Add olive oil, whisking to combine.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.