Ranch-less Salads or How I Finally Discovered that Vinaigrettes can be Yummy

I've always been a big fan of ranch dressing: on salads, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, dip for pizza or veggies, you name it. But it had to be Hidden Valley Ranch. Or the ranch dressing from the BYU Creamery (yum!).  However, I recognize that ranch dressing is not the healthiest condiment around and since it's not allowed on GAPS or Paleo I needed to find a substitute.

I've tried vinaigrette dressings before, but always been underwhelmed by them. The sharp, overly acidic flavors didn't complement the salad and didn't entice me to want to keep eating salads that were not topped with ranch.

That all changed last week when Mr M brought home some peach and pear elderflower vinegar from a guy he works with. He mixed it with some olive oil and drizzled it on some salad, and Yum! What a difference! We tasted the vinaigrette by itself and it even tasted good alone.

Mr M's co-worker also told him about a store (Oil & Vinegar) nearby that sells a wide variety of vinegars and olive oils. After realizing that vinaigrettes can actually taste good and would help us in our quest to eat healthier, we decided we had to stop by and see what they had to offer.

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They have a wall with large glass flasks full of vinegars and oils. The guy who helped us was super helpful and let us taste different combinations to see which ones we liked. The problem was that we liked them all :) We had a hard time narrowing down our choices.

LMS was partial to the strawberry balsam vinegar and the chocolate vinegar. The chocolate vinegar was interesting: very reminiscent of a chocolate tootsie pop. This wasn't a bad thing, just a bit… different.

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We ended up picking the blood orange olive oil and strawberry balsam vinegar and cranberry balsam vinegar. If they weren't on the pricey side, we'd have brought home some of each- they were that good! When we finish these, we'll go back and choose some different flavors.

We've actually been eating salads every night, something we've struggled with in the past, and we're all enjoying them, even LMS, who was also a firm believer in the tastiness of ranch dressing.

Even though the oils and vinegars are more expensive than the standard options available in the grocery store, we feel they are well worth it. The higher quality and wider variety of choices makes such a difference in taste and nicely complement the flavor of the veggies in out salads.

What are your thoughts on vinaigrettes?