Homemade Goddess Dressing!

As a followup to our last post about Budget Lockdown, when we were grocery shopping I was astounded at the high price of certain natural foods in a regular grocery store.  We've been a bit spoiled living within walking distance of Glut Co-op, whose motto is “Still cheap, still funky!"  They have a great selection of bulk grains, spices, teas, etc where you can bring your own containers and fill them up with just the amount that you need, and the prices there really can't be beat.  Hopefully we'll be able to find a similar store in the Charlottesville area, although the only commercial establishment within walking distance of home is a gas station that sells just your basic dairy & dry goods.  (That is, until we open the general store, but that'll be another year or two, if it ever happens!)

Anyway, our go-to lunch these days is a super simple wrap containing vegetarian deli meat, salad greens, & Annie's Goddess dressing.  The dressing is a pretty critical ingredient in making this easy & tasty meal, but at the conventional grocery store, the price listed on this particular dressing was $4.50 for an 8 ounce jar, more than triple what we're used to -- that's crazy talk!  When you only have $100 for your entire monthly grocery budget for 2 people, that's just an impossibility.

So I remembered a few years ago when a couple friends had a Goddess-dressing “cookoff" -- trying to see who could come up with the closest concoction mimicking the store-brand.  I decided to give this a go myself, and here's what I came up with.

Homemade “Goddess" Dressing

You'll need:

• 2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup tahini
• salt & pepper to taste
• pinch of paprika

Directions:

1. Combine everything in a food processor.
2. Push the button.
3. Hey presto!

Well, this gets you pretty close, anyway.  Taste it and add more of any of these ingredients if it doesn't taste quite right to you.  The ingredients list on the original Annie's bottle didn't include paprika but did include parsley, so feel free to adapt and use your own discretion with whatever tastes good to you!

When you're done tweaking the dressing, just funnel it into an empty & clean jar/bottle, and store in the fridge.  It will thicken so you may wish to store it upside-down if the jar's not quite full.

Also a quick side note, Chris HATES it when I reuse old bottles/jars without soaking off the labels so he can't tell what's in them.  A typical conversation:

     Bea: Could you get the peach syrup I made last fall?
     Chris: Where is it?
     Bea: In the fridge.
     Chris (sarcastically): No kidding!  I don't see it.
     Bea: Oh yeh!  It's in a jar labeled “Rosemary Garlic Cider Jelly."  But I drew a line through that.  That might've rubbed off though.
     Chris: ARRRRRRRRGH!!!

So my favorite part of this project was pouring my creation back in the empty Annie's bottle and we'll see if Chris notices the subtle difference in flavor (or labeling!)  ;-)