Fruit vinaigrettes are a great way to add an extra punch of summer to your summery salads! Today I have for you a blueberry vinaigrette which is sweet and spicy and just takes a few minutes in the blender to put together. Summer here we come!
I love this time of year! Strawberries, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, melons…the list goes on of all my favorite fruits. Oh, I do enjoy apples and pears (especially when they are fresh), but summer fruits have my heart.
Last week my daughter and I went strawberry picking at a local organic farm (Langwater Farm if you live in the area). Their setup is that you have to walk about a quarter mile through the fields to get to the strawberry field. So of course we did this mid-day on a hot and sunny day. Because we’re smart. And I have a preteen who has a lot of trouble moving in the morning. It was totally hot and I totally forgot to bring some water for myself. Luckily she brought enough for both of us and I was hydrated enough for the walk back to the car.
I’d include a photo here of our haul, but it also includes the daughter and, at 12 she is old enough to have an opinion on whether I post photos of her. I’ll have to remember to do something artistic and get a partial photo of her next time we go berry picking.
All this picking meant that we now had a MOUND of strawberries to eat. And eat we did! Strawberries by the handful! Followed by the bakening. 🙂 The daughter has been perfecting her crisp making, so she made a strawberry crisp for us. Yum! I tried my hand at strawberry soup and roasted strawberry blueberry shortcakes. Also yum!
We aren’t quite to blueberry season here yet, but the blueberries in the supermarket are getting fresher by the day. And that has me thinking about what I’m going to want to make once we do have local blueberries.
You know, besides blueberry bundt cake or blueberry peach crisp or blueberry mojitos… 🙂
I do get pretty excited about fresh berries!
Once blueberry season starts, we are certainly going blueberry picking too. Blueberries are so much easier to pick than strawberries. I love the highbush berries they have. No bending needed and the farm we go to has the parking right next to the field.
While I do have some sweet treats coming up for blueberries, this time I thought I’d try a more savory recipe. Anything with blueberries is always going to be sweet since they are bursting with sweet flavor, but add in some shallots and mustard and olive oil and you have a great sweet-spicy blueberry salad dressing. Which is perfect for the fruity dinner salad I have coming up next post!
👆 Peach and Blueberry Spinach Salad!
Years ago I had some raspberry vinegar and I used to make salad dressing using the vinegar and orange juice and some shallots and olive oil. It was great with roasted beets and goat cheese. I was thinking of that dressing and looking at some blueberries I had bought when I thought…blueberry vinaigrette would be great too!
It took me a few taste tests to get the balance right. A little more of this, a little more of that, a few blueberries to munch on; until the dressing was spicy without being overwhelming, had enough blueberry flavor that I knew I was eating blueberry dressing, some sharpness from the vinegar, and enough olive oil to make it creamy.
Once I had it right, I poured it over my salad and gave it a thumbs up. I had the perfect sweet-spicy-creamy-sharp summer salad dressing.
– Happy Salad Making, Annemarie
Blueberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp chopped shallots
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed.
- Dressing will separate if left to sit. Shake well before using. Use the dressing within 3 days.
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