Dressing Up Salads With Vinaigrettes

Renee Erickson Greek salad

A chef I was working for once told me that a vinaigrette should be as crisp as fresh-picked lettuces. A bright and bracing dressing should elevate a salad rather than weigh it down.

“Like oil & vinegar” is an age-old expression which is often a way of saying certain things don’t go together. Well, vinaigrettes are classic emulsion (a way of combining said oil & vinegar) that has commonly bound these two said ingredients to create sharp dressing for salads of bitter ruffage and starchy root vegetables alike.

The name “vinaigrette” comes from the French word for vinegar (vinaigre), and while a 3:1 ratio of oil to acid is still a solid rule of thumb, a vinaigrette is not limited to a specific type of acid. There are lighter rice vinegar-based versions and heavier red wine vinegar types. What matters is the pairing — deciding what’s in your salad bowl should dictate what vinegar you use.

Renee Erickson portrait

Some of my favorite salads have been served at chef Renee Erickson’s Sea Creatures restaurants in Seattle, places like The Walrus and The Carpenter and The Whale Wins. Her love of vinegar is found well beyond vinaigrettes, extending its acidity to raw seafood ceviches and earthy lentil dishes. Erickson is excellent at toeing the line between letting the ingredients shine without overpowering them with acid. While ceviches need a gentle touch, lentils could use more of a punchy vinaigrette to enhance their nuttiness. But for Erickson, “nothing is better than a summer Greek salad with a delicious red wine vinaigrette”. “I’m a big fan of Volpaia,” says Erickson, referencing a remarkable line of wine-based vinegars (made by a winemaker!) from the Chianti region in Italy, and L’Estornell red wine vinegar, made from the Garnacha grape in Spain. But most of the time, she’s concocting her own [vinegar] with leftover wine from her restaurants.

Renee Erickson A Boat A Whale & A Walrus cookbook cover

Erickson’s first book, A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus, is a bible for her perfect Pacific Northwest cuisine, showcasing a smooth and creamy anchovy vinaigrette that coats grilled treviso radicchio, a brown butter vinaigrette for roasted turnips, or a walnut oil vinaigrette that brings a snappy celery, kohlrabi and apple salad to life!

Recipe reprinted from Salad Freak: Recipes to Feed a Healthy Obsession by Jess Damuck, published by Abrams. Text © 2022 by Jess Damuck. Photography by Linda Pugliese

Another author that’s been bringing brightness to the west coast is Jess Damuck’s Salad Freak! Damuck, a Los Angeles-based food and prop stylist, producer and writer, wrote this testament to dressing (a salad) . For Damuck, “the perfect salad balances each bite, with something tart enough to twinge your cheeks, something sweet to balance out the bitter, and something with a little salty crunch to finish”. In many cases, that twinge is thanks to some variety of vinegar.

Damuck’s pantry stocks such staples as Camino red wine vinegar, her “guilty pleasure,”made by chef Russell Moore, who started making vinegar as a side project in his former Oakland restaurant space, and an array of O Olive Oil & Vinegar selections, including their standout California yuzu rice vinegar. Her current favorite though is white balsamic. “It’s funny, I never used it [white balsamic] until Nick Curtola [of Four Horsemen in Brooklyn, NY] was using it in a salad and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was,” remembers Damuck, “it was perfect acidity and sweet without adding any sugar or honey — such a nice way of highlighting [a salad] without overpowering it”.

Jess Damuck portrait

“I tend to stick to the basics,” says Damuck, “I will use a whole grain mustard, maybe with white balsamic or apple cider [vinegar] on a kale salad.” Once all the pretty leafy greens are gone from her garden, she starts to roast up veggies tossed with the same vinaigrette she’d used with them in a raw preparation. And although she doesn’t always go for sweet salad dressings, Damuck admits to using maple syrup to balance out a vinaigrette in the early fall.

When it comes down to it, Damuck’s key to a perfect salad is balance. “You can always add more [dressing], but you can’t take it away,” Damuck cautions. “I go more on the conservative side,” further instructing salad makers to put a vinaigrette on the bottom of the bowl and gently toss to coat rather than drench softer lettuces. Drizzling a vinaigrette on top is reserved for composed salads, suggests Damuck, “the heavier it [the vinaigrette] is, the faster it can make the salad mushy/overdressed.” Keep your salads light, and bright!

Recipe reprinted from Salad Freak: Recipes to Feed a Healthy Obsession by Jess Damuck, published by Abrams. Text © 2022 by Jess Damuck. Photography by Linda Pugliese.

Fall Greens, Apples, and Cheddar

By Jess Damuck, Salad Freak

Serves 4, as a side

This salad combines some of the best things about fall on a single plate. There used to be a wonderful restaurant in Alphabet City when I lived there, Northern Spy, and I woke up early every weekend to stand in line and wait to get the kale and Cheddar salad and biscuits.

Then I moved to Bed-Stuy and by some sort of miracle I was near Fancy Nancy, where they served the same salad. I could order it to go or sit at the bar and never have to wait in line. Put two fried eggs on top of this salad, and it could be brunch. Serve it with a side of biscuits with apple butter or maple butter and a cup of hot coffee and just forget it.

PRODUCE

½ pound (225 g) sweet potatoes

1 bunch kale

1 bunch Swiss chard

1 apple, something tart and crisp like a Granny Smith or

Honey Crisp

1 lemon (optional)

DAIRY

¾ cup (about 85 g) sharp, crumbly, really good Cheddar (like Cabot clothbound), broken into pieces

PANTRY

Extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and

freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon grainy mustard

1 teaspoon real Vermont maple syrup (the darker the better, I think)

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons toasted walnut or almond oil

½ cup (50 g) whole almonds, toasted

COOK:

Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Slice ½ pound (225 g) sweet potatoes into ¼-inch (6 mm) rounds and toss with olive oil and salt and pepper on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until deep golden brown on both sides, flipping once about halfway through, about 25 minutes.

PREP:

Remove the stems of 1 bunch each of kale and chard, slice the leaves, and give everything a chop—it’s hard to eat this if the greens are too much of a tangle.

MAKE THE GRAINY MUSTARD, MAPLE, AND APPLE CIDER VINAIGRETTE:

5 Chefs Share Their Favorite Vinegars & Tips for Using Them

Combine 1 tablespoon mustard, 1 teaspoon maple syrup, 1 tablespoon cider vinegar, and 2 tablespoons toasted walnut oil in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.

ASSEMBLE AND SERVE:

Add the greens to the dressing. Slice 1 apple (lemon juice can be used to prevent browning) and add it, along with the roasted sweet potatoes and ¾ cup (about 85 g) crumbled Cheddar. Toss together. Transfer to plates or a platter. Chop up ½ cup (50 g) toasted almonds and sprinkle on top.