Salad Dressing

Silken tofu is the base of this dressing, creating a punchy sauce that's creamy and silky. Bryant Terry uses it to dress a hearty grain salad with celery, persimmons, and chopped nuts—but you can also drizzle it over grilled vegetables, or use it as a dip for crudités.

In Amy Chaplin's salads, the vegetables are in the dressing. This is just one version of the raw beet dressings from her book Whole Food Cooking Every Day, where she combines sweet beets with cashew butter and red chiles to create a rich, creamy sauce.

This is just one version of Amy Chaplin's raw vegetable-based dressings from her book Whole Cooking Everyday. Made by blending vegetables with herbs and citrus juice until creamy, they are light, super flavorful, and addictive.

When it comes to vibrant whole food meals, dressings are the key to success. This is just one version of Amy Chaplin's raw zucchini dressings from her book Whole Food Cooking Every Day. The multi-flavored sauces are rich and creamy, and offer a fresh new take on standard dressings and vinaigrettes.

This simple dressing is wonderful as is, especially on a simple green salad, but it also makes a fantastic starting point for more elaborate dressings.

Heavy cream, alone or in conjunction with oil, can be added to vinegar and mustard, producing a vinaigrette that is excellent with delicately flavored salads. Because of its subtlety, creamy vinaigrette can be flavored easily with herbs such as mint, chives, or chervil. It is also excellent for showcasing a special vinegar.

Don’t believe the hype that every vinaigrette recipe should have one part acid to three parts oil. This more assertive ratio brings a lot more flavor to the table.

This condiment, called nam pla prik, is found on virtually every home and restaurant table in Thailand.

Toss this simple dressing through an easy summer salad.

This dressing is creamy, savory, and perfectly balanced. Put it on udon noodles—or just drink it.

This dressing is delicious on a colorful cold noodle salad with shrimp.

This savory, addictive dressing will taste good on just about anything, including cold noodle salads.

The two flavors, miso and mustard, make an unlikely but incredibly delicious pair.

Chef Ignacio Mattos of Café Altro Paradiso and Estela in NYC inspired this puréed lemon dressing with olive oil, miso, and honey—the ideal base note for pleasantly bitter radicchio.

From here grow all other vinaigrettes. Use your instincts to vary the basic recipe. My everyday dressing almost always includes a bit of mustard which helps emulsify the dressing while adding tang.

An unbeatable basic dressing that's equally delicious on a rice bowl, a pile of wings, or a crunchy carrot salad.

Along with a classic vinaigrette made with sherry vinegar and red-wine vinegar, this is an all-purpose dressing I turn to time and again.

I think we all play favorites in the kitchen; I know I do. At this writing, this is my most loved dressing, and I drizzle it on everything I can get my hands on!

Try this tossed with cooked soba noodles or drizzled over seared salmon.

Try this drizzled over roasted potatoes or as a sub for mayo in chicken salad.

When you leave lemon peels behind on the cutting board, you're (literally) throwing away free flavor. The peel adds a mild bitterness that we love, plus a bit of texture that instantly makes a salad dressing interesting. This whole-lemon vinaigrette can take on much more than Bibb lettuce: It's substantial enough to go head to head with blistered string or flat beans, smoky grilled meats—you name it.

Serve this ultra-creamy tahini sauce with grilled meats or roasted vegetables, or use it as a base for a silky avocado dip or an herby salad dressing.

Toss the first juicy, sweet cherries of the season into this salad, along with rotisserie chicken and a vibrant creamy horseradish dressing.

This all-purpose dressing brightens whatever it touches, like Snap Pea Salad or Greek salad. It proves that three simple ingredients can become something extra-special when they're combined in just the right proportions.