Do you like fruit in your salad? I normally don’t like it. Apples in chicken salad, raisins in tuna, strawberries in spinach is all just wrong in my mind. I find it incredibly irritating to go to a restaurant and they charge $19 for a plate of lettuce with flour blackberries on it. Craziness, I tell you. However, I do get why people do it. Sweet and savory together can be oh so delicious. If it were not true we wouldn’t see so many salads with combos like blue cheese and candied pecans and the like. Where I like to add the touch of sweet is the dressing. Not only can I use fruit past it’s prime for a dressing, I can also stretch the fruit further. It doesn’t take much to add a touch of sweet to the dressing. And it doesn’t even require sugar.
With blueberries in season up here right now, they are dirt cheap as far as berries go. My kids love berries, as do I , and we try to take advantage of seasonal fruit since there is not too much of it this far north. My new favorite salad dressing at the moment is blueberry vinaigrette. This is so simple, yet so delicious.
Blueberry Balsamic Vinaigrette
- 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/4 olive oil
- 1/4 cup good quality balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tablespoon dried minced onion
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Ground pepper to taste
Toss it all together in a blender, magic bullet, cup with a stick blender, or even a mortar with pestle. Blend until it reaches the consistency you like. I just do a few pulses so that there are still chunks of blueberry skins in the mixture.
You can make it fresh, or a day ahead of time. I would recommend only keeping it in your fridge for three days since the ingredients are fresh. You might be able to keep it longer if you use a more acidic vinegar. Please note that the natural pectin in the fruit will react a bit with the vinegar and if you leave it to sit out, it will gel. If it turns solid, just whisk it or mix well with a spoon and it will return to a thick dressing. This slightly sweet dressing is really nice on a more bitter green salad. Although it is also excellent on fruit salads and especially grilled chicken.
