cranberry vinaigrette
Hi all, I have just a quick one today. It’s healthy, easy cranberry vinaigrette for dressing up fall and winter salads. You’ll want to keep this recipe handy, since it is a nice way to switch up your usual salad routine and it has tons of flavor. It is also special enough for Thanksgiving or your holiday table. Oops, is it too early to start talking about Thanksgiving?
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I mostly just have photos to show you since this is such a simple recipe. I mean, it is just a salad dressing after all . What is there to say? It is sour and tastes good on greens?
Speaking of photos, like the little wooden bowl? Carey’s dad made it, and she gave it to me when we were working on a photo shoot for EatingWell last week. [Yes I did a little styling, so much for being a recovering food stylist for the time being.] It was a lot of fun to play in the studio for for the day. My tweezers got a workout. But then I had to get back to my office to get the first half of my manuscript off to the publisher. Phew. I am whooped. I am even feeling a little sore throat action going on. Grr.
Anywho, so let’s chat about this cranberry vinaigrette. The cranberries are naturally very tart, so you only need a little bit of vinegar to get the right balance. I chopped some fresh thyme from my garden, and added that to the dressing. I always love a bit of allium in my dressings. In this case I used shallot from the farmers’ market. I also think a touch of agave or honey is nice to balance it out.
It pairs well with spinach, toasted nuts, and sharp cheeses. This would be killer on salad for Thanksgiving.
How to Make Vinaigrette Dressing
If you’re new to the world of homemade vinaigrettes, welcome! For most salad dressings, you can simply add all the ingredients into a jar and shake everything together until combined. But for this cranberry vinaigrette you’ll need to add everything to a food processor since not all the ingredients are liquid.
If this vinaigrette is too sharp for you, add a little more agave or honey, or scale back on the amount of cranberries you use. You could also try adding a bit more olive oil, but don’t add too much!
But like I said, this vinaigrette is super easy to make and tastes good with pretty much any fall dish.
cranberry vinaigrette
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 scant cup 1x
- Category: Salads
- Method: Mixed
- Cuisine: American
Description
This vegan cranberry vinaigrette is made with fresh cranberries, chopped thyme, and shallot. It’s naturally tart, so you only need a little vinegar.
Ingredients
- 1 shallot, peeled, cored and quartered
- ½ cup fresh cranberries
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup walnut oil or flax seed oil
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon agave or honey
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Puree shallot, cranberries, olive oil, vinegar, walnut or flax oil, thyme, agave or honey, salt and pepper in a mini prep, food processor or blender until as smooth as possible. Store in a jar in the refrigerator up to 1 week.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: about 2 tablespoons
- Calories: 127
- Sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: 143 mg
- Fat: 14 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 3 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 0 g
toatlly in love with cranberries right now! yum! 🙂
Good morning! I wanted to let you know I included this recipe in a cranberry roundup post on Chicago Jogger. You recently submitted this recipe. Beautiful photos, by the way!
Sounds great! Thanks for letting me know.
There’s no way I’m waiting for Thanksgiving to enjoy this cranberry vinaigrette! I need to make this asap! It looks so delicious!
★★★★★
Your pictures are stunning! What an amazing recipe, too!
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I love cranberry in any form. I’m brainstorming all the ingredients I’m going to put in my salad and this vinaigrette will be the shining star on top!
★★★★★
I’m going to try this tonight with a brie and cranberry quiche. What does it mean to CORE a shallot?