John Burns - 9/5/2019 09:55

First you buy some dry pre-made Italian seasoning mix available where the salt and pepper is sold.

Or you make your own out of the following.

2 Tablespoon Basil

1 Tablespoon Thyme

1 Tablespoon Oregano

That is the Italian seasoning mix or substitute pre-made

The salad dressing:

1/2 Tablespoon onion powder

1/2 Tablespoon Garlic powder

1/2 Tablespoon Salt (we like Redmond Real Salt)

1/4 Tablespoon black pepper

1 Tablespoon (or more to taste) of the above Italian seasoning mix or store bought mix

My wife grinds it in a small spice grinder to blend it all together but all you would need to do is mix it thoroughly.

The above dry mix combine with:

about 1/8th cup Avocado oil (Avocado oil is nice because it tastes good and is stable at refrigerator temperatures. You could substitute other oils)

about 1/8 cup coconut vinegar (you could substitute red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar or even regular vinegar. The coconut vinegar is very mild and tastes good)

I say about 1/8th cup each because it depends on how intense you want the Italian flavor. If you want mostly oil and vinegar then increase the amounts of those ingredients. If you want less of that and more intense flavor then decrease the oil amd vinegar content. That is the nice thing about making your own, you can tailor it to taste. You could also add any other spice in place of the Italian to easily make other dressings. You can add Bar-B-Q spice instead of Italian for a meat basting sauce to increase the fat content for example. Experiment. If a person is worried about not getting enough fat in the diet, use this dressing liberally as the fat in the avocado oil is a very good fat source.

The advantage of avocado oil over olive oil is it is stable at refrigerator temperature, so you can make up a larger batch and store it in the refrigerator. Olive oil will get solid at refrigerator temperature so you either need to make small batches at a time so it will not go rancid at room temperature before it gets used or remember to take it out of the fridge long enough before hand so it liquefies again. That makes the avocado oil a better choice. Avocado oil is expensive, but no more expensive than buying pre-made salad dressing and you do not use huge amounts of it. You could use vegetable oil if that is your preference.

John