Once upon a time, I used to have a food and body blog. That blog is no more, but a few recipes remain. I’ve had a couple requests for this one and thought I would re-post.
This recipe was given to me by my Registered Dietitian friend/ex-colleague. She made it up one day and brought it into the office, and we all thought it was pretty genius. We nicknamed it “liquid gold,” because we found ourselves arguing over the last few drops for our salads.
There are two key ingredients to this recipe that can be tricky to find if you aren’t near a Trader Joe’s and a fancy grocery store or farmer’s market, which make the name even more apt.
The first and primary key ingredient is Trader Joes’ Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar. If you don’t have access to Trader Joe’s, you may be able to re-create this crack by mixing together champagne vinegar, orange juice, and grape juice. It’s worth a try.
The other is fig jam, which I find at Whole Foods. In place of this I have used apricot and it works well also.
The rest is easy:
Liquid Gold Salad Dressing
enough for 4-6 giant salads
- 5T orange champagne vinegar
- 2T extra virgin olive oil
- 1T fig jam
- 1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 tsp jarred)
- 1/4 tsp.-1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
Combine until jam is thoroughly mixed. Enjoy!
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I haven’t made this dressing in a long time. I’ll have to make it soon!!!
I have an avocado dressing from your blog bookmarked that I keep meaning to make! I really want to move away from the bottled stuff.
Totally making this for dinner tonight. We’re bringing pizza over to some friends who just moved into a new house, and I’m thinking I should bring a salad as well. Sounds like the perfect summer salad dressing!
Love that you actually made this 🙂 Glad it was well received, too. You are such a good friend to bring dinner to your friends!
Can’t wait to give this a try! I’ve found that a great salad dressing makes all the difference in the world – It makes me *crave* salads nonstop and when isn’t that a good thing? 🙂
It really does! This dressing makes me really look forward to eating salads!
Trader Joe’s sells a fig butter although it’s more of a jam-like consistency (My husband used it in place of jelly on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich). Do you think that would work in place of the fig jam in your ingredients list?
I do! I know the product you are referring to and I think it would work 🙂 Let us know if it does?!
This is exactly what I used the other night, and it was perfect!
I just made the dressing but since I do not have fig jam I used a raspberry mango jam from my local farmers’ market and it turned out wonderful.
Thanks for letting us know! I’ll have to try it with different kinds of jams now 🙂
Anyone try adding fresh herbs to this? fresh thyme perhaps? I’m excited to make it today!!
I have not, but how could that be bad?! Let us know 🙂
I’ve made this dressing twice now and it’s AWESOME! I used the fig butter from TJ’s and found the dressing needs a touch if sweetness because from my understanding fig jam is sweeter than fig butter. That being said, I added 1/2 – 1 tsp local honey and a pinch of sea salt and it was perfect!! Thx for the recipe. Will be making again and again!
Sounds delicious! I’ll have to try the honey and sea salt!
Oh shoot, I was at the grocery store today and thought “yes, I will finally get the jam for that dressing I want to make.” But I thought it was apricot 🙁
I have used apricot and it is still delicious! Give it a go!
I used the TJ’s fig butter the other night with this and it was perfect. I caramelized the garlic in a bit of olive oil instead of having it raw, just to mellow that flavor a bit, a habit I’ve been using recently for a lot of salad dressings. The salad I made was
* mixed greens/spring mix,
* caramelized walnuts in about 1 T. butter (I used the same pan without cleaning it that I used for the garlic/olive oil), and
* shredded TJ’s Creamy Toscano Cheese Soaked in Syrah.
That was it, just a few simple ingredients for the salad with this lovely dressing. We had a nice Sauvignon Blanc to go with the salad and ooh-aah, Hubby thought the wife was going above and beyond! Haha
Wow, that sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing this. I will try your garlic tip.
I have used this dressing on a holiday salad of shaved brussel sprouts, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, shaved parmesano reggiano cheese and bacon. It was a huge hit!
That sounds delicious!
In your opinion, do you think raspberry jam would work in place of the fig or apricot jam or would the flavors not blend well together?
I think any fruit preserve would work well. It’s the sweetness that we are going for. The orange vinegar is the key ingredient.
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