Sauces, Marinades + Dressings

Sauce, marinade, and dressing recipes are a staple in every kitchen. Pairing the right sauce to meats, poultry and seafood can really enhance the flavor of your dish. Sauces also provide an opportunity to add flavor and color to meals. Here is a collection of sauces, marinades, and dressings that will help you elevate your dishes.

5 Reasons to Make Your Own Salad Dressing, Plus Our Favorite Easy + Healthy Homemade Vinaigrette Recipe

Store-bought salad dressing brands are often filled with excess sugar and sodium, inflammatory oils, preservatives and harmful additives like MSG, gums, and artificial colors and flavors. Fortunately, making your own salad dressing couldn’t be easier–this healthy homemade vinaigrette is Paleo, gluten-free, vegan and absolutely delicious! Learn how to make it …

5 Reasons to Make Your Own Salad Dressing, Plus Our Favorite Easy + Healthy Homemade Vinaigrette Recipe Read More »

Homemade Arugula Pesto Sauce Recipe

In less than five minutes, this homemade arugula pesto sauce recipe comes together for a delicious, healthy sauce that’s bursting with nutrition and flavor, perfect for grilled meats, roasted veggies, pasta and salads.  Kate here, reporting for duty with another green sauce recipe that’s as full of nutrients, vitamins and …

Homemade Arugula Pesto Sauce Recipe Read More »

Sauces, Marinades, and Dressings

Marinades are typically used to flavor meats and seafood. A good marinade should be flavorful and acidic in order to break down the meat’s tough fibers. A great marinade will also tenderize the meat while adding flavors like soy sauce, ginger, garlic, or fresh herbs. Sauces are used as a dipping agent or a topping for various foods. You can use sauces as dips for appetizers or as a topping for rice dishes, pasta dishes, chicken dishes, fish dishes, beef dishes and more. Dressing is usually used on salads to provide flavor and texture to the dish. For salads such as Caesar salad or Greek salad, dressings are often made from olive oil combined with other ingredients that include vinegar or lemon juice, garlic cloves; anchovies; mustard; Worcestershire sauce; etc.

Marinades

Marinades are a great way to add flavor to meats, seafood, and poultry. Not only can they transform the taste of your food, but marinades also provide an opportunity to add color.
In order to make a marinade, you need a liquid base like oil or vinegar. You also need seasoning like salt and pepper. Add any spices or additional flavors you may want as well.
Add your ingredients either in a bowl or directly into your pan with the meat. The amount of time you should allow your ingredients to sit will depend on what type of meat it is and how thick it is cut.
For example, thin cuts of meat cooked quickly (like beef stir fry) could have just five minutes while thicker cuts like pork chops would require around 30 minutes.

Dressings

Dressing is a sauce that is used to dress salads, pasta, and other dishes. Dressings can range from oil and vinegar to mayonnaise. Oil-based dressings are usually made with vegetable oils, olive oils, or soft oils like mayonnaise. Vinegar-based dressings usually consist of wine vinegars, balsamic vinegars, champagne vinegars, sherry vinegars and more.
There are a lot of different sauces, marinades and dressings out there, but they all serve the same purpose: they make food more delicious. Whether you're cooking a brisket or pasta, the right sauce, marinade or dressing can make your dish stand out from the rest.
The only issue is that it's hard to know which sauces to pick. That's why we've put together this collection of recipes for you to enjoy. It's time to get cooking!