Weekly Spotlight: Making and Using Creative Vinaigrettes for Pasta and Salads!

Vinaigrette is a dressing that uses olive oil and vinegar. It can be used over vegetables, salad, and even pasta salad. The dressing adds a beautiful tang to your salad, which is perfect to enjoy as the weather gets warm. There are many ways to spice up your vinaigrette using seasoning and diced onion or shallot. If you’re looking for an oil-free option, this Kale Salad with Oil-Free Balsamic Vinaigrette by Maggie Wescott is a perfect salad with a delicious vinaigrette to go along with it. Check out this guide to learn the many ways to enjoy vinaigrettes in your salads and pasta.

Pasta salads usually feature bowtie pasta, rotini, or fusilli, and because of their grooves, they’re able to hold flavor and a light sauce like vinaigrette well. Also, the longer you leave a pasta salad, the more it’ll marinate and create an even more flavorful dish.

You can use mustard or citrus to enhance your vinaigrette and add another delicious dimension of flavor to your pasta and salads. Citrus adds a bit of extra sweetness, despite being acidic, and mustard also adds an earthy taste to your vinaigrettes.

We also highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App  — with over 20,000 delicious recipes, it is the largest meatless, vegan, plant-based, and allergy-friendly recipe resource to help you get healthy! Don’t forget to check out our Weekly Meal Plan Archives! 

This week, we’re bringing simple, easy ways to enjoy vinaigrettes in pasta and salads!

Enjoying Vinaigrettes

Source: Insalata Mista With Lemon Poppyseed Vinaigrette

Here are a few salads that are perfect with vinaigrette. These salads are all refreshing and are perfect to make as a side to your meal. You can add other fresh vegetables to your salads such as broccoli and cauliflower. Feel free to add them in raw or roast them up before adding them in. Either way, they’ll add a delicious texture to your salads.

• Butternut Squash Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette by Rouxbe
• Broccoli and Olive Orzo Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette by Alison Edmund
• Sheet Pan Cauliflower With Crispy Onions and Caper-Parsley Vinaigrette by Umami Bomb by Raquel Pelzel
• Spring Beluga Lentil and Beet Salad With Coriander Vinaigrette by Claire Ragozzino

Using Mustard in Vinaigrette

Source: Pasta Salad with Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette

You can use vinaigrettes on pasta salad to add a flavorful sauce that brings the salad together. Pasta is great to use with vinaigrettes because they take on and hold the flavor well. If you leave the pasta to sit in the fridge a bit, the flavors will marinate and deepen, giving the final result a delicious and flavorful pasta salad. These recipes work as a side to your main dish, or as a dish to bring to share with friends.

• Pasta Salad with Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette by Louise and Nico
• Apple Cider Dijon Vinaigrette by Wendy Irene
• Spring Pea and Arugula Pasta Salad by Caroline Doucet

Using Citrus in Vinaigrette

Source: Green Pea Fusilli Salad with Orange Citrus Vinaigrette

Citrus adds acidity, which can add another dimension of flavor. You can use citrus vinaigrette in salads, pasta salads, and even over citrus itself like this Green Pea Fusilli Salad with Orange Citrus Vinaigrette! It’s perfect to enjoy for a refreshing meal!

• Green Pea Fusilli Salad with Orange Citrus Vinaigrette by Julie Zimmer
• Blood Orange Vinaigrette Dressing by Desiree Rodriguez
• Tricolore Salad With Capers, Walnuts, Orange, and Lemon Shallot Vinaigrette by Lisa Dawn Angerame

Oil Free Vinaigrettes

Source: Oil Free Balsamic Vinaigrette

For people who are oil-free, you can still enjoy vinaigrettes despite oil being the main ingredient. We’ve listed a few oil-free options here that you can drizzle over salads for an amazing meal. Like usual vinaigrettes, you can use them on pasta salads and fresh salads! Here are a few ways to make oil-free dressings!

• Greek Dressing by Helyn Dunn
• Greek Pasta Salad with Oil-Free Dressing by Kathy Davis
• Oil Free Balsamic Vinaigrette by Maggie Wescott

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