Strawberry-Balsamic Salad Dressing

I love salads, and I always make my own salad dressing. Making a simple vinegar and oil salad dressing was one of my very first kitchen tasks when I was a little kid, and I've been making salad dressings ever since.

My first dressings were pretty simple - vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, maybe a sprinkle of sugar. Maybe some herbs.

When I was a little kid, the only vinegars my mother had were plain white vinegar, cider vinegar, and red wine vinegar. And the oil choices were pretty slim, too. I think it might have been generic vegetable oil.

Now, my oil and vinegar choices are vast, and I've got a whole array of other interesting things I can add. This time, I took advantage of strawberries. I used them in the dressing, and then I also added sliced strawberries to the salad, as well.

As I started pawing through the refrigerator looking for salad makings, I realized that I had a lot of ingredients, in the red-pink range. I used radicchio, baby red peppers, radishes, and strawberries.

If I had red onions, I might have added those, too.

Strawberry-Balsamic Salad Dressing

6 medium strawberries
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar*
2 tablespoons lemon olive oil
2 tablespoons mild-flavored oil
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon agave syrup (or to taste)

Put the strawberries, white balsamic vinegar, oils, and salt in your blender, and blend until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, if needed.

If the dressing is too tart for your taste, add agave syrup (or honey or sugar) to taste.

*Red wine vinegar would also be lovely. Regular balsamic vinegar would taste fine, but would muddy the color of the dressing. Champagne vinegar, white wine vinegar, or any other light-colored vinegar that you like would also work.

Yum