Healthy Raspberry Vinaigrette Recipe

I see a lot of people eating salad thinking they’re being healthy, and then the dressing that they pour on the salad is full of poisons. Even organic bottled salad dressings are often harmful to health. This healthy raspberry vinaigrette recipe is so much better than anything you can buy.

Is Salad Dressing Bad For You?

The standard salad dressings that you buy at the store are full of unnatural additives, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and sodium. In addition, many salad dressings contain hydrogenated oils and inflammatory oils like soybean, canola, or refined seed oils. What’s more, these oils are often rancid, further contributing to inflammation in the body.

When you make your own salad dressing, you can control the oils and other ingredients that you consume. Also, by adding herbs a little bit at a time, here and there, into your food like your salad dressings, it adds up. You start to activate herbal medicine as part of your family’s kitchen culture.

Working with herbs in your kitchen everyday engages your senses and your body. This helps you digest your herbal learning in a completely different way than just reading about herbs in a book or online.

Healthy Raspberry Vinaigrette Recipe

We are wired to make beautiful foods that nourish, heal us, and make us feel good! Every time I make this healthy raspberry vinaigrette recipe, people ask me for the recipe. Here are the six healthful ingredients it contains:

Raspberries

Raspberries don’t just give this healthy salad dressing an amazing pop of color, flavor, and natural sweetness. These heart-healthy berries contain antioxidants, flavonoids, and key nutrients like vitamin C and potassium.

Rose Geranium

Rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) harmonizes the recipe. This beautifully fragrant herb is rejuvenative, replenishing, and opens the heart. Use the leaf and flower without the stem.

Rose Petals

Rose petals are an amazing nerve tonic. You can use any color rose petals you want as long as they’re organic. Don’t use the roses from the florist. They’re full of chemicals and pesticides.

Apple Cider Vinegar

The acidity of apple cider vinegar adds brightness to this healthy raspberry vinaigrette recipe. Vinegar is also great at extracting constituents and minerals from the herbs. When you go to buy apple cider vinegar in the store, read the label because a lot of “apple cider vinegar” is not really apple cider vinegar. It’s white vinegar that’s been stripped of all the minerals with caramel color. You want to make sure you’re getting real apple cider vinegar.

Honey

Honey gives the salad dressing a little sweetness. When looking for honey, you want to try to find honey that’s locally produced, raw, unpasteurized, and unheated. You want a raw, uncooked honey so it has all the enzymes, making it a powerful antibacterial, medicinal food.

Olive Oil

You want to use a good oil in your homemade salad dressings. Olive oil is anti-inflammatory, full of antioxidants, and a great source of essential fatty acids. Look for olive oil that is organic, extra virgin, and cold pressed. Do your research on the kind of olive oil you use and don’t be afraid to call your distributor or ask the store manager to make sure you’re getting real, quality olive oil.

Ready to seriously herbify your kitchen pantry? Check out My Herbal Kitchen

Print Recipe

Raspberry Vinaigrette

Author: Kami McBride

Ingredients

Vinegar

• 1 cup whole fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh rose geranium
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh rose petals
• 3 cups apple cider vinegar
• Honey to taste

Salad Dressing

• 1/4 cup olive oil

Instructions

• To make the vinegar, fill a glass jar with the raspberries, rose geranium, and rose petals. Pour vinegar over the ingredients, filling the jar to the top with vinegar. Make sure that the vinegar covers the ingredients by at least a couple of inches. If you are using a metal lid, cover the opening of the jar with two sheets of wax/greaseproof paper, and then put the lid on, or use plastic lids. Store the vinegar in a cool, dark place for 1 month.
• To strain the vinegar, place a funnel into the opening of a clean, sterilized jar and lay muslin over the top of the funnel. Pour the vinegar through the muslin. Don't squeeze what is in the muslin, just let liquid drip through.
• Once decanted, add the honey to the vinegar.
• To make a salad dressing, mix 2 tablespoons of this vinegar with 1/4 cup of olive oil.

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I’d love to hear from you! How do you keep your salads healthy? Have you made your own salad dressing with herbs? Share in the comments!