It started last summer when my house guest, visiting from Australia, mentioned that we could no longer get Kraft Russian Dressing -- it was discontinued. Kraft is a popular brand and they make many salad dressings. He had been raised here and was looking forward to having his old favorite. I assume it just wasn't a big seller (nothing political, please). We don't even know when they stopped making it, but once reminded, I remembered it.

My friend doesn't realize that you can find anything on the internet, and I like a challenge -- I would recreate the recipe. Okay, easier said than done. I found some recipes and could quickly reject the creamy versions. I examined more and tried to remember what a salad dressing I probably hadn't tasted in a decade looked and tasted like: red, tomato, tangy, floaty presumed onion bits... I was pretty sure ketchup would be a good start -- I hope that doesn't horrify you.

I waited until today to experiment because
I wanted to empty a salad bottle first.

Looking at the bottle of Kraft Catalina, I recalled how store bought salad dressings are not known for being healthy. The issues are usually too much sugar, oils that are high in omega-6 fatty acids, and additives. There it is -- I spotted glucose-fructose, the second ingredient on the label. That's often high fructose corn syrup, bad for you.

Our labels show the contents ordered by quantity and that helps. It's also nice that Kraft mentions the purpose of the additives -- not all are bad. I looked at that list like a recipe and started second guessing it. They took something that is mostly sugar-water then added ingredients to thicken it and added something to boost the flavour because it had been watered down? This is probably one of their most popular dressings.

I decided that since I'm making batches of salad once or twice a week, I will try making batches of salad dressing at the same time and mine will be healthier. We'll see how that goes.

My approach to recreating the dressing was to compare recipes and quantities, tasting as I went along and aiming to make less than a cup. I also wanted a recipe that was simple and didn't need cooking. I knew there are 5 basic components of a salad dressing; oil, something acidic like vinegar/lemon juice, sweetener, salt, spices. There are oil to acid ratios that I know to watch and I rejected things like celery seed and caraway seed that I just didn't remember in the original dressing. Keep it simple.

Russian Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup ketchup (80 mL)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (45 mL)
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (30 mL)
• 1.5 tablespoons sugar (20 mL)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (5 mL)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (2.5 mL)
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika (2.5 mL)
• white pepper
• 2 tablespoons grated onion (30 mL)

I measured the ketchup first, easy since I'm using a measuring cup, and then added all the other ingredients except for the onion.

Notes: When I added sugar, I started with less and quickly realized the dressing I was trying to replicate had more -- I added a little more but I'm just not going sweeter, and I won't substitute. I prefer reduced sugar to any sugar substitute. The ketchup is just tomato paste, sugar, white vinegar, salt, and seasoning -- check the ingredients on yours. I was out of sea salt and used table salt today.

Then I grated the onion while trying not to skin my knuckles. (About now, onion salt seemed like a good substitute.) I whisked it all into submission.

And now it's in the old dressing bottle. Does it taste close to the original? It's pretty good and probably the best I can do without adding more sugar and using a cheaper oil. I've sent the recipe to my friend to see what he thinks.

References

Body Unburdened ~ Why Most Salad Dressing is Unhealthy + How to Make Your Own

Images

All photos from my Canon SX620 HS.

Enjoy!
@kansuze