One of the problems with salad dressings is that they often contain either gluten or allergens. In the allergen department the most common offenders in salad dressings are gluten, dairy, soy (soybean oil). Some dressings can contain MSG and other preservatives that some of us try to avoid. We tried a store bought salad dressing that was delightful, but it contained milk! Since my daughter has a life-threatening IgE allergy to milk, it was not something she could even try. After playing around a bit, I came up with this gluten-free and allergen free recipe for a Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette! We love it. To reduce the calories (and sugar), I used a dash of stevia, which makes it more diabetic friendly. If you don't have stevia, then you can use a little sugar to taste.
Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette
1/2 cup pure water
1/3 cup of acceptable oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup roasted red pepper puree
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Dash of black pepper
Dash of xanthan gum
Optional: 1 tablespoon roasted red peppers, finely diced
For the roasted red pepper puree, you can either puree roasted red peppers that you buy at the store, or roast and puree your own red peppers. Blend all ingredients in a blender. This makes about 2 cups of dressing. Here is a picture of the dressing:
The black spec you can see is part of the roasted red pepper. Here is what the dressing looks like on the salad that we ate with the dressing:
It was simply delicious! And everyone in our family can eat this dressing! The irony is that my daughter didn't like it at all! O.K. this was not a big surprise since she really doesn't like red peppers! But my son who loves the roasted red pepper dressing and does not tolerate milk well is quite pleased to have this new recipe in our array of dressing recipes! Enjoy!
Love,
Lisa
Comments