Basil Vinaigrette

A simple basil vinaigrette salad dressing that is wonderful on everything from salads to chicken, fish, beans and even boiled potatoes! Homemade goodness in a jar!

If you are one of those lucky green-fingered people who can keep plants alive longer than five minutes, I salute you: you are doing much better than me. I have long suspected I am toxic to plants as they appear to wither and die after a spectacularly short time in my presence. It is therefore with supreme optimism (or foolishness) that I regularly buy new basil plants after the previous one has succumbed. I just can’t resist that delicious basily-ness despite knowing what the outcome will be for the poor little plant.

I was more cunning this time, though. I had my sights set on making a basil vinaigrette salad dressing, so I whipped most of the leaves off my latest little green friend before he had a chance to expire. He is now sitting here, denuded and forlorn. Try not to feel too bad for him though; his sacrifice was not in vain.

And yes – I’m anthropomorphizing my plant. Don’t judge.

This simple vinaigrette can be made up super quickly to provide a much healthier and tastier alternative to shop-bought salad dressing. (Seriously – have you seen some of the ingredients in those things?) However, it’s not just salads that can benefit from this beautiful sunshine-in-a-jar; basil is ubiquitous in a whole range of Mediterranean dishes and it also makes a lovely sauce to drizzle over fish, tomatoes, beans and even pizza, chicken and boiled potatoes. It would be a perfect addition to my Turkish Shepherd’s Salad, in fact.

So get your blender out and start whizzing!