In episode 027 we are making a Fresh Basil Vinaigrette. Susie shares this amazing dressing and a bunch of different ways to use it… from salads and pasta to chicken and veggies! This is a great recipe to use up an abundance of garden (or potted) basil!
Transcript
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Intro: Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich, and I’m so glad you’re here.
Susie Weinrich: Today I have a super fresh and delicious dinner idea for you that you are going to be able to put together in about five minutes. It’s not a full dinner, but it’s a start. We’re talking about fresh basil vinaigrette. I think when we all think about fresh basil, we automatically think about just basil pesto. In episode 16, we talked about how to make a fresh basil pesto, but this time we’re going to make a vinaigrette and it is extremely tasty.
This is going to be a very simple vinaigrette that you probably have a lot of the ingredients already in your kitchen, except for maybe the fresh basil. It’s going to come together in about five minutes, and then at the end of this episode, I’m going to tell you some different ways that you can use your basil vinaigrette.
Tips and Tricks: A couple of tips before we get started on the full recipe. This recipe calls for extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin and regular olive oil are not the same thing. I mean, they’re both olive oils. Extra virgin though, has a very different flavor profile than your regular olive oil. The extra virgin is going to have a little bit of a spicier and more pronounced olive flavor, which I actually love in this vinaigrette recipe. If you don’t love the extra virgin olive oil flavor, or you don’t have it and you don’t really want to buy it, you can absolutely just use olive oil or canola oil in this recipe.
The other tip that I have for you is when we’re talking about fresh basil if you’ve never used fresh basil in your kitchen, it’s usually going to come on a large stem, and then it has all the leaves that come off of that large stem. You can use the leaves, you can use the small stems, but then there’s going to be a really long woody stem in the center. Don’t use that part in your vinaigrette. It will be way too coarse and not break down enough into the pesto. No, we’re not making pesto. Into the vinaigrette.
Basil Vinaigrette Recipe: One piece of equipment that you’re going to need for your vinaigrette is either a blender or a food processor. So make sure you have those to get started with this recipe. You’re going to take all of your ingredients and put them together in your blender or food processor. You need six tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and two tablespoons of red wine vinaigrette. One tablespoon of shallot that’s been chopped. One small garlic clove that’s been chopped, one tablespoon of water, one teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and then 15 to 20 large basil leaves. A quarter teaspoon of kosher salt, and then just a pinch of black pepper. You basically just blend that all up until it’s nice and smooth and pureed.
Now if your blender won’t get started, you can always add an extra tablespoon of water. As always, I recommend tasting the dish before you serve it. Vinaigrette can tend to go very tart. If you like it just a little bit sweeter, you can blend in a pinch or two of sugar or honey and it will help balance the flavors for you.
So this vinaigrette can be stored in the fridge for up to a week, or you can use it right away. If you do store it in the fridge, some of that oil may tend to solidify. You just need to let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes and then give it a good shake. It will emulsify right back into the dressing.
All right, so let’s get to the good part. Let’s talk about how you’re going to use this basil vinaigrette to make dinner. If you already have a garden going, it is excellent over fresh summer tomatoes that have been sliced. Drizzle the vinaigrette over top and then put a little coarse sea salt or kosher salt or flaky salt over top. It’s delicious. It’s also wonderful served drizzled over roasted fennel or over roasted radishes. Have you ever made roasted radishes? They’re delicious. They actually taste like potatoes. It’s wild. I have a recipe for both the roasted fennel and the roasted radishes that I will link in the show notes for you.
Or you can replace whatever your favorite pasta salad recipe is. You can replace the dressing with this basil vinaigrette, and it makes a delicious, really summery pasta salad that has really fresh flavors.
Now, those are kind of some side dish ideas. If you want to use this more as a dinner idea, you can use it drizzled over fresh grilled chicken, is wonderful. Now if you love a big old salad in the next episode, episode number 28, I go over how to use this vinaigrette in a big Italian salad. So pop over to the next episode if you want to make that for dinner.
That does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. As always, I will link all of the recipes I talked about right in the show notes so you can find them when you are ready to make dinner.
If you’re loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow whatever your preferred podcast player is. That way you’ll just be able to find all of the new episodes right in your podcast feed.
Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.
Tips Shared
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil and regular Olive Oil are not the same. The Extra Virgin has a nice spicy flavor that is olive forward. It pairs really well with the fresh basil. If you don’t like that flavor or don’t want to purchase you can definitely use regular Olive Oli or Canola Oil.
- Don’t use the woody stem of the fresh basil in your vinaigrette. Only use the leaves and attached small stem.
- Keep the vinaigrette in the fridge for up to a week. If the oil solidifies in the fridge let it sit at room temp for a few minutes and then give it a good shake. It will emulsify back into the dressing.
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