Give Store-Bought Vinaigrette A Deliciously Creamy Twist With One Fruit

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Without dressing, a salad would be just a bowl of dry vegetables. Dressings run the gamut of flavor profiles and consistencies that take salads in countless directions. You don't even have to make them from scratch thanks to a wealth of store-bought salad dressings. Still, there are plenty of ways to upgrade these dressings with simple additions. For store-bought vinaigrette, avocados are the fruit that will give them a luxuriously creamy twist.

A crop that originated in Mexico, avocados have been a global wonder food that practically every cuisine has adopted, from sushi to avocado toast. Its buttery, silky consistency and versatile flavor makes avocado the perfect textural agent. Avocados are also a healthy and cholesterol-free fat, making them a great alternative to mayo or heavy cream. Avocados also act as a vegan-friendly way to add richness to vinaigrettes. Plus, the vinegar or citrus juice in the vinaigrette will prevent the avocado from browning, helping to transform your vinaigrette into an aesthetically pleasing bright green emulsion. 

Since mild-tasting avocados won't have much affect on the flavor of the dressing in question, you can add them into any mild or zesty bottle you have on hand. All it takes is a ripe avocado to give your next dressing a velvety edge. Simply add it into a food processor with some store-bought vinaigrette, blitzing until the fruit has completely emulsified. You can also use a tool Amazon Basics' Immersion Hand Blender to get the job done. 

Blending in avocado is just one way to transform store-bought salad dressing that you can use in conjunction with other ingredients. Avocado brings creaminess to vinaigrette, but it might mute some of the zing and tanginess of the vinegar. You could remedy this with a squeeze of lemon, lime, or other citrus juice. Fresh and dried herbs are a great way to brighten up an avocado vinaigrette. Blending cilantro into an avocado vinaigrette would be a great addition in a taco salad, whereas fresh chives, parsley, and tarragon will take the dressing into Green Goddess territory.

If you'd rather not use store-bought salad dressing, you can make your own avocado vinaigrette by blending avocado with lime juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. We also have a long list of homemade salad dressing recipes that would benefit from avocados — take for example, a minty vinaigrette to drizzle over roasted curry carrots. Otherwise, customize an herby lemon vinaigrette for an everyday salad with avocados and poppy seeds to transform it into a creamy and crunchy lemon poppyseed vinaigrette. You can even blitz avocados into a roasted tomato vinaigrette for an umami-rich dressing to toss with cold pasta, olives, red onions, banana peppers, and feta cheese. Instead of topping a kale and corn salad with avocado slices, add them directly into the ginger-lime dressing that goes with it. As you can see, the combinations are seemingly endless.