Tony Zentgraf
Do You Love Garlic and Shallots?
Roasted Shallot and Garlic Vinaigrette is amazing toss this vinaigrette with garden fresh vegetables, your favorite salad greens or even use it as a marinade.
Roasting Shallots and Garlic mellow the flavors and bring out the sweetness. This is the backbone of this vinaigrette. The sweetness of the vinaigrette is enhanced with honey. Boosting the flavors with lemon juice, white wine vinegar and dijon mustard makes this a nicely balanced vinaigrette.
Vinaigrette vs Dressing
The two terms may be seen as interchangeable but they are technically different. A vinaigrette is a type of dressing. Vinaigrette coming from the French vinaigre, contains an oil, an acid and can be further flavored with additional ingredients.
A dressing becomes more complex because of additional ingredients such as, mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk or other additions to create creamy or intense flavors. Popular salad dressings you are probably familiar with are ranch, blue cheese, caesar, creamy italian and more.
Vinaigrette Basics
The basic ratio to make a vinaigrette is 3 parts oil to 1 part acid. Depending on the vinaigrette, there may or may not be an ingredient that emulsifies the ingredients.
If you do not use an emulsifier, the vinaigrette will still look emulsified but eventually will separate again.
Emulsifying ingredients include but not limited to –
- Mustard
- Dry Mustard (if enough is used)
- Egg Yolks (shelf life is 3 days)
- Blue Cheese
- Honey
- Mayonnaise
- Avocado
- Miso
- Tahini
- Roasted Garlic
The amount of an ingredient needed to be an emulsifier depends on the ingredient. For example, you may need only 2 tsp of dijon mustard for one vinaigrette but if you are using dry mustard you will need more to create the same emulsification.
In this recipe, there is a combination of ingredients that act as an emulsifier. Dijon mustard, honey, roasted garlic and the shallots can act as an emulsifier in the mix of ingredients.
How Oil is Added Makes a Difference
When mixing a vinaigrette in a bowl with a whisk, you first want to add the ingredients without the oil. Minced raw garlic,herbs, salt, the acid such as red wine vinegar and the emulsifier such as dijon. Mix to combine these ingredients. Salt will dissolve easier in the vinegar than in the oil.
While whisking the ingredients with the vinegar, drizzle the oil into the bowl in a slow stream. This will allow the oil particles to get broken apart and the vinegar mixed with the emulsifier will coat the small particles keeping them from rejoining.
If you were to add all the oil into the bowl and try to whisk together the oil will not break into small enough particles to emulsify the entire vinaigrette. It will stay separated.
Blender, Immersion Blender or Food Processor
Using a blender or immersion blender the speed of the blades are so fast that this is where adding oil in a larger amount can break the particles apart in the oil. Food processor blades do not move as fast as a blender so it will not break apart the oil into small enough particles to emulsify easily. It also depends on the volume of liquid you are trying to mix together.
In all cases I still recommend to drizzle in the oil to ensure emulsification. A chef I used to work with had a saying, “Make it nice so you don’t have to make it twice.” This is one of those sayings that stuck with me over the years. Do the correct steps to make sure it emulsifies so it is correct.
Find Other Salad Dressing Inspirations in the Dressing Category
Enjoy the Roasted Shallot and Garlic Vinaigrette on salads or as a marinade.
Roasted Shallot and Garlic Vinaigrette
Print RecipeEquipment
- 1 Tall Storage Container
Recipe Multiplier
- 4 ea Medium Shallots
- 6 ea Garlic Cloves
- 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
- ⅓ cup White Wine Vinegar
- 2 tsp Honey
- 1 ea Juice of Lemon
- 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- ½ tsp Kosher Salt
- ½ tsp Black Peper
Instructions
Roasting the Shallots and Garlic
- Trim the ends of the shallots and cut in half.
- Peel the Shallots. Cut each halved shallot in half again.Try to keep the pieces of shallot together to roast.
- Toss the Garlic and Shallot pieces with some olive oil to coat.
- Roast them on a sheet pan for 15 minutes. Check to see if the garlic and shallots are tender.Garlic will be slightly browned and the shallots should have some browning as well.If they are not tender, roast for 5 additional minutes.Remove from the oven when soft. Let cool to room temperature.
Assembling the Vinaigrette
- Cut the shallots into smaller pieces so it is easier to puree.
- In the tall container, add the garlic, shallots, honey, dijon mustard, white wine vinegar and lemon juice.
- Using the immersion blender, puree the ingredients in the container.The ingredients should be smooth.
- Drizzle in the olive oil, as the immersion blender is running.
- Adjust seasoning with Salt and Pepper, or additional honey to additional sweetness.
Delicious!