Orange Vinaigrette

Before I share this rather delicious recipe for Orange Vinaigrette, I need to dispel a couple of myths.

Myth #1. While our family eats a pretty healthy diet, we have, by no means, arrived at the perfect plan. I will still choose a cheese puff over a carrot, a hot cup of coffee over a glass of water, and I still believe that chocolate is the most important of the food groups.

Myth #2. Because we eat well 80% of the time, it is assumed that we have no health issues. Wrong. I'm still fat, my Mister still has bad knees, and the majority of children still in our house are on some type of medication for one thing or another. We are a work in progress with the hopes to be healthier, not perfect.

One of the improvements that we made to our diet was to incorporate more salads into our meals. While that was easy, finding salad dressing that wasn't toxic was not. Face it, the garbage in the grocery stores are filled with preservative-laden ingredients; the sole purpose of those is to keep the product looking nice in the bottle for a long period of time.

High fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean/vegetable oil, and MSG are in most.

MMMMM...genetically modified corn syrup, rancid fats and a preservative that makes most people sick...sounds good to me.

If it were up to me, I would rename the salad dressing companies to reflect their actual products. How about Hidden Death Valley, Wishin' For Something Better, and Krafty Killers?

Think they'll hire me for their ad campaign?

Orange Vinaigrette

The players: Champagne vinegar (citrus infused if you can find it), extra virgin olive oil (orange infused if you can find it), 2 organic oranges, raw honey

Using a zester, zest 1 orange into a small bowl. Cut the ends of the oranges off. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the peel and pith off of the oranges in a downward motion.

Using the knife, cut the orange segments out by cutting on the inside edges of each section. Leave the membrane.

Squeeze the juice from the remainder of the orange into the small bowl with the zest.


Add 3 Tb. EVOO, 2 Tb. champagne vinegar and 1/2 tsp. raw honey to the orange juice/zest. Whisk well. Cut the orange segments into smaller pieces and add to the vinaigrette.

Pour over salad greens and serve.

*I found the citrus champagne vinegar at our local Safeway store and the blood orange EVOO was found at Whole Foods.

Please visit Fight Back Fridays for more real food recipes.