In winter months, when the ground is frozen and blanketed in snow, I rarely buy and eat fresh greens. But as the soil warms and spring greens sprout in my garden, I start eating salads—daily. The first ones feature mounds of greens and herbs sparsely dotted with other vegetables. When my lettuces bolt and turn bitter, tomatoes, cucumbers, and snap beans take over. Beets, carrots, and kale, plus a small flush of spinach, bump up against the first snowfall.

This type of seasonal salad building means you rarely find a mix of lettuce, tomato, and cucumber in my bowl. But as I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, you can still enjoy flavor pairings produced in different seasons. The secret is simple: make your own salad dressing. Homegrown frozen cherry tomatoes and dried basil have far more flavor than the fresh options you could buy at the store right now. In an easy dressing, they give summery flair to spring greens.

Learn more about making salad dressings and get the complete recipe for Tomato and Herb Salad Dressing in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

If I could convince you to make one change in your kitchen, it would be to toss the collection of store-bought dressing bottles that likely take up way too much room in your fridge. DIY salad dressings are quick, easy, cheap, endlessly variable, and so much healthier and tastier than store-bought options. I explain why in all my salad dressing recipes and in a 1-minute dressing article I wrote for Clean Plates.

I also show just how simple and variable salad dressings are in the hands-on salad dressing workshop I’m teaching this month. With more than 30 options for dressing ingredients on the table, no two participants ever create the same blend, and everyone is swapping their newly created recipes.

At home, I often make vinaigrettes, light dressings with a vinegar-and-oil base. But you’ll notice there’s no vinegar in this week’s recipe, which gets its acidity from the tomatoes instead. It still has a lightness you won’t find in an American-style French dressing, making it more reminiscent of a classic vinaigrette served on a Niçoise salad—and it’s just as delicious tossed with hard-boiled eggs, olives, and tuna as it is with fresh spring greens.

Here are just a few other DIY salad dressing recipes on the blog. You can find more dressings with the salad recipes in the recipe index.

• Creamy Balsamic Salad Dressing
• Green Goddess Salad Dressing
• Raspberry Vinaigrette
• Dill-Infused Yogurt Sauce or Dressing
• Lemon Tahini Sauce or Dressing

You can also learn more about salad dressing bases in this blog post.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.