Roasted Garlic Dressing – OwlCat Designs

Let’s face it, most of us like creamy dressings to go with our salads, at least every once in a while. I have lately been hooked on lemongrass-mint white balsamic from Seasons and could eat salad with just that on it. Yep, nothing else, no oil, just that. It’s especially good on baby spinach with pomegranate seeds. But I digress, back to the subject: creamy dressings. The problem with salad dressing and especially the creamy kind is the caloric impact they tend to have. So you decided to have a ‘light’ lunch, a salad, but guess what, that commercial dressing you just poured on made it have more calories and in some cases more fat than a burger. So what to do? Your ticket is flavor, the more flavor your dressing has, the smaller the amount you need, plus making it at home allows you to control exactly what goes in it. For days like today, when it’s snowing and sleeting, when a cold meals just isn’t the answer you need something hearty that can stand up to a warm winter salad. Greek yogurt provides the creamy texture and garlic and Parmesan the flavor. Slow roasting the garlic makes it surprisingly mellow, totally taking any bite out of the taste. This one will keep in the fridge for about a week (it might keep longer, but it never lasts that long in my house), the only thing is the olive oil gets solid in the fridge, so let the dressing come to room temp before using, or heat like in the recipe above.

Makes about 1/2 cup

Ingredients

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp grated Parmesan
1/4 tsp salt
1 pinch white pepper
3-4 tbsp Greek yogurt
(optional) Pancetta crumbles

Directions

Gently heat oil in a small skillet or shallow pan over low (yes, trust me) add the sliced garlic in one layer. Slow roast until starting to turn golden and beginning to caramelize, about 20 minutes, turning pieces over about half way through. Set aside to cool.
In a mini food processor, combine roasted garlic and olive oil from the skillet, salt, pepper and cheese and pulse to blend, then add the Greek yogurt and vinegar and run the machine until well blended and thick.
If desired, stir crumbled roasted Pancetta pieces into the finished dressing (you can cook them in the same skillet you just used for the garlic, no need to add any oil)