104: Our Secrets To Quick and Easy Oil Free Salad Dressing

Anita: 0:59

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INTRO: 2:14

You're listening to the Smarter Healthy Living podcast where we firmly believe that getting healthy should never feel like torture. We're your host, Jarrod and Anita Roussel. We're college sweethearts, and health professionals who help you redefine what getting healthy looks like using a whole food plant based lifestyle. It's time to hear from the experts and learn the best tips and tricks that helped others get beyond the overwhelm, to create a vibrant life they love. If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, you're in the right place. So pull up a virtual chair, grab your matcha latte. And let's get started. Now, there's a reason that when we come up with something great, and we're going to tell somebody how we made it, we call it the secret sauce. Today, we're going to give you this secret sauce. There's a reason for that, because you got to have great sauce to make stuff taste great. Now, I know a lot of times you can say that it doesn't have to do with food. But I was just thinking about that today. You know, we're gonna give you the secret sauce for salad today one of our favorite dressings and I just want you to wrap your head around if nothing else today, how simple how delicious eating this way can be seriously it's almost laughable Jarrod is actually laughing.

Jarrod: 3:29

I'm over here laughing because I'm thinking about the name salad sauce. We call it the secret sauce. The Secret dressing, but it is it's quite amazing. I feel like I'm giving away some kind of treasured secret here. Like something you would hand down through the line within your family for generations. But never tell us all you let them eat it. But don't tell them the recipe. It's a secret.

Anita: 3:53

Yeah, and this is the truth that but you don't want to keep this a secret. Because these are the kinds of things that you can pass on as your legacy to your, to your children to your grandchildren, showing them how to whip these things up. And seriously, we were just also talking about this. This way of living is so easy that even our nine year old or nine year old daughter does this on a regular basis. She goes in the kitchen cooks for us. And she knows the recipes. It's not hard. This one were shot showing you today, honestly, it's the hard part of it is knowing what to do and making the mindset shifts. If you can learn how to make the mindset shifts and the formulas for making these things that Jarrod nine are known for giving you and known for teaching inside the membership, you've got to learn the formulas. Once you can learn the formulas and be surrounded in the right environment by the right people. And it's gonna work and this is what happens. So today, we're talking about one of the easiest dressings Now why does it matter that you know how to make a dressing. I don't have time for that I'm so busy. You don't have time not to it's one of those things that you just don't have time not to not to do it because it sets you up for success.

Jarrod: 5:07

Well, there are a lot of times with salads where you don't have to have a dressing. I mean, there have been times that I've eaten it because you have so many different things that you've added on that they have so much flavor in and of themselves that you don't really need it. But sometimes you do. Sometimes it's just nice to have a good salad dressing, a good comfort food and we're all about that trying to help recreate in a healthy way, those old favorites that you love, but in a much, much healthier way right creating a food that you love that loves you back.

Anita: 5:36

And I'm going to start up here because I believe you absolutely do have to have dressing because I don't like salad without dressing. But I'm a big sauce girl. So we're coming at it from two different two different perspectives. But I am going to agree with Jared and miss you don't even have to make it. I'm going to show you how to make it today and show you how to make this dressing in a way that's really really easy. But if you think in your mind, you have this mindset block right now that's gonna keep you from making the drill, I don't have time for that, you just put the ingredients straight on your salad and store it in, you don't even have to have a separate bowl, you don't even have to have a little NutriBullet, which we're also going to talk about, because that's one of our favorite things of all time than the VitaMix. But for dressings, I always reach for the NutriBullet. Why? Because it's smaller, it's easier to use for smaller amounts of things where the Vitamix just is a little harder to do that, because of the bigger container unless you maybe have the single serve one. Some people do have that. And maybe you can use that for this. And that would work great. For

Jarrod: 6:36

ours, though our craft is a one and a half quarts. And it's so powerful, it kind of kicks the liquid up to the sides, whenever it's spinning super fast, I think it almost pushes the air down and kind of pushes a liquid off to the side. So it's not really going to effectively blend those types of things in the smaller volume. Exactly.

Anita: 6:54

So I could use it to make bigger volumes of dressing if I want to store it. But dressing is so easy to make. Honestly, I make it every time that we have to sell, we don't store the store writer door. And let's talk about how much cleaner and neater our refrigerator stays. Because

Jarrod: 7:08

when you have six people and you have to store certain food items, you just don't necessarily have the space to try to store bottles and containers of dressing

Anita: 7:17

and why don't you want to have those bottles and containers, even the healthier ones, I want you to start looking at those ingredients that are in there. Tons of oil. We've already talked about this before. If you're trying to clear out your vascular system, you don't want oil clogging it up. Trust me on this, okay. vascular disease is a huge part of the problem behind many diseases out there. They're even linking it with Alzheimers, okay, it's it's rampant, the different diseases that it causes. It's unbelievable.

Jarrod: 7:49

We had even read something when we saw it written in German, but neither one of us read or speak German. So we saw the English translation that Dr. Alzheimer's himself even saw that there were vascular changes. Now he's known for saying that within the brain tissue, there were certain changes, but he had also mentioned that the arteries were clogged. And then somehow that got missed. Until I think in the 70s, when people started noticing, well, you know, maybe there's an association here. So as we said before, blood flow is everything, every organ in your body is supplied with a blood flow, or bloods are right. Because you got to get the nutrient, right, and you got to get the oxygen

Anita: 8:29

and you got to get the trash out.

Jarrod: 8:31

Exactly, you got to take the waste away. So that keeps everything functioning like a well oiled machine.

Anita: 8:38

And so the thing is, is not only is it causing problems with blood flow, now you've got we're just talking about all here, just one ingredient, and it's in almost every salad dressing that I've ever seen on the shelf. And so then you've got that you have a pressed out product. And when I'm going to tell you how they press it out, usually that's really not good. There's chemicals involved with that. Okay, and then the oil has 120 calories per tablespoon. Now When's the last time you just put a tablespoon of dressing on your salad. If you're like me, that never happens. I'm just gonna throw that out there. This is such an easy way to cut calories. Okay, so now we've just touched on a little bit, I mean, we could keep going on oil. But then you look at the other things, the preservatives that should never be in there. The food colorings that are known to cause cancer and other issues,

Jarrod: 9:35

and probably natural flavors,

Anita: 9:36

thick and nerves that do not need to be in there. And you're putting all these things in your body. Why? Because you don't know any better. Well, now you do. And you're going to know after today how to whip up a super easy dressing that requires no oil at all. And I'm gonna give you several different options of the ways to do that. So I love this. I call this the five minute dressing. Honestly, that's really stretching, it

Jarrod: 10:01

may be overstating it,

Anita: 10:02

it honestly it takes two minutes or less to make this dressing. Now, what you want to do is get a small bowl and put about depends on how much dressing you want to make. I'm not even going to give you a recipe I'm going to give you ingredients. You get to tweak it the way you want it. And this is what Jared and I teach. Yes, I have a cookbook. Yes, that's available for you. We'll put a link below. But sometimes, and I want you to know how to do this without a recipe because sometimes you just don't even have time to think I'm going to go pick up the rest cookbook. I'm going to click to the recipe and then I'm going to measure out the ingredients. Sometimes you don't want to do that. Start with a half cup to cap approximately maybe even a quarter cup if it's just you, okay, a balsamic vinegar or night cut. All right, just put some balsamic vinegar in a bowl.

Jarrod: 10:48

That's our secret weapon right there. balsamic balsamic vinegar.

Anita: 10:51

It's amazing. You've got to have the flavors and it's healthy for you. It's great for very

Jarrod: 10:56

healthy,

Anita: 10:56

right. So we've got balsamic and now we're going to add the next ingredient, mustard. Delicious, wonderful mustard. Now, check your masters because masters vary in the amount of salt they have in them. All right, so be sure to check that. And a lot of masters have additives. Get one that's just the mustard seed and usually it's vinegar might have a little salt, the less ingredients, the better put a squirt of mustard in there and take your little whisk or a fork and whisk it up. All right, now mustard is going to make it thick oil, you think oh, I've got to have all I'm addressing, it's gonna make it stick.

Jarrod: 11:37

I think that's why they use it on so many dressings is that it's not just because it's a health food or the flavor is because it helps make it stick to all the ingredients in your salad.

Anita: 11:45

Right. And so what you want to do is get something else that will make it stick well the master is going to give it that creaminess and do that. Now if you don't like to put enough mustard in it to make it thick enough that you feel like it's gonna stick but believe it or not even when it's liquidy it's gonna stick really nicely to your salad. But if you think not just want a thicker, creamier dressing, you're gonna add a little more mustard. Again, if you don't want that tartness of the extra master. I'm going to tell you what to do. But first of all, you're probably wondering what kind of mustard don't go with just the plain ballpark mustard, okay, do something like a brown mustard, or maybe of course radish, horseradish mustard. We love that a nice has a nice flavor to it. And then or you could do something like I said brown mustard, Dijon brown mustard,

Jarrod: 12:33

Dijon mustard,

Anita: 12:34

those are probably my three favorites, but there are a bunch of different kinds of mustard. Again, just check the ingredients. So now we have balsamic and mustard, we're going to mix it together. Alright, now we're going to start getting fancy. So if you want to get

Jarrod: 12:48

fancy myself, the flavors are good the flavors

Anita: 12:52

or maybe just taste fancy, you can stop right there. That's all you have to do. Now I'm going to tell you what I believe is the mistake that a lot of people make in making a dressing like this when they go healthy plant based. There's a popular recipe that's out and it uses maple syrup. Don't put maple syrup in your balsamic dressing. There's way too much sugar already added in when people eat vegan or healthy plant base. And this is one place you can cut it not because maple syrup is evil but because we're all eating for the most part too much sugar. All right, use your maple syrup in a desert, use it in something that you really want to enjoy it in. Save it for that. But it doesn't need to be in the stressing and this is why because balsamic vinegar is naturally very, very sweet. And you're already gonna get a nice sweetness in this dressing. leave out the maple syrup. Okay, it will help you in the long run, the less sugar the better. And there's no need for it here. You just don't need it. You've got to learn flavor profiles and start noticing okay balsamics naturally sweet. I don't need the sweetener. So there's a tip for you when you're using balsamic and something. Think about backing off on sugar. Okay vinegar by nature when you use it especially balsamic, I'll use it sometimes in desserts. We have a chocolate cake it has balsamic vinegar and

Jarrod: 14:11

you would never know it.

Anita: 14:13

You'd never know it but it cuts your need for adding sugar because it's naturally sweet and it gives a really nice flavor to the cake. So this is the tip about balsamic so now what we're going to do is you can take that if you want it creamier and you think it's not creamy enough, you can make a creamy balsamic dressing. And there are a bunch of different ways you can do that. So take a NutriBullet or a blender you can now you can mash these things up with a spoon if you just want to mash them and kind of storm in and it will get kind of sweet. But to get the best result for creamy dressing, invest in a high speed blender. And our favorite lower priced one is the NutriBullet 900. They used to call it the pro I think it's just the new triple 900 now comes in a variety of colors, it pulverizes everything. The thing is amazing and it's a workhorse and it's lasted us for a very long time. Once we learn the secret about not breaking the tabs on it well

Jarrod: 15:09

and also submerging the base were not the motor base, but the base where the blades are don't submerge that in water because it gets up inside where the lubricant is. And it degrades it and and it only lasted for about three months. Once we found out that little gem of a secret. We've had the base for the blades now, at least a year maybe longer, right. And we were able to buy that another little extra tip is we were able to buy the extra blade on Amazon separately. We didn't have to buy a whole new kit for that.

Anita: 15:37

And we also had the children were breaking off the little tabs on the cups

Jarrod: 15:41

because they were just twisting they weren't pushing down and then twisting

Anita: 15:45

right so on the news once we started doing

Jarrod: 15:47

that the tabs have stayed in place.

Anita: 15:50

That's the secret right there. You have to push it down and then twist and when you're releasing the pressure, you have to push it you want to push down again and then twist back And so you won't lose your tabs that way, and it will last you a very long time. Alright, so what do you want to put in there? Well, you don't if you're going to use this method, and you're going to go thicker, and you're going to make it creamy dressing, don't even dirty a bowl, I'm all about making things quick and easy with the least amount of cleanup possible. So you'd make it right there in your cup of your NutriBullet. So you put your balsalmic you put your mustard, and then what you do is you're going to put something to make it even creamier to stick like white veins. What you heard are correctly, white beans, okay, you can just get a cane of white beans, you think, okay, I'm not going to cook white beans, get a can of white beans, throw the rest of them into your salad. They're a great salad addition, okay are drying them off, drying them off, I wouldn't probably put the liquid because you're trying to thick in your dressing. Right? You could if you want to put a low you can, because it is good to keep the liquid

Jarrod: 17:24

or nutrients in it

Anita: 17:25

right. And a lot of the main nutrients can cook out into the liquid. So we always say try to use that liquid if you can, but it just depends on how big you want your dressing. Now, I would say only add them by the tablespoon. So maybe add a tablespoon to start. If it's not thick enough. Add another tablespoon. Just until you get the consistency that you want. I don't like beans. What am I gonna do? Add a few cashews? I can't eat nuts. What am I supposed to do? Add some potatoes. Let me tell you it's like Jared always says it's not that I can't. Don't say I can't I don't know. It's how can I

Jarrod: 18:03

yes, that's when you start looking for solutions. And just because you don't know of the solution yet, doesn't mean there's not one

Anita: 18:10

out there. There's always a solution. Always a solution. You just got to find what it is and it's there waiting for you. Alright, these are only a couple of the ways that you can make a dressing creamy, but I want to move on because we're going to get fancy with the dressing now.

Jarrod: 18:26

I thought we already were fancy we're getting we're gonna get fancier and this is

Anita: 18:31

okay, this is all under five minutes for your dress and then I'm not kidding you. Okay, imagine yourself I'm pouring a little bit of balsamic don't have to measure it. I'm gonna put in a little square to mustard I was start with a mustard a tablespoon at a time. Okay, put in a tablespoon at a time till I get it like I want it and stir it up to this point. If you're not going to add the creamy things don't dirty or each bullet just start with

Jarrod: 18:50

easy

Anita: 18:50

whiskey and put it on your salad. If you think I don't want to dirty another bowl, squirt the mustard and pour the balsalmic straight onto your salad and toss it together. We've

Jarrod: 18:58

done that many times.

Anita: 19:00

Seriously, if you're in a hurry, there's a way to speed it up. There always, always is. And I love sharing these things with you. Now here's the next thing. Always look for ways to get your herbs and your spices. They are a powerhouse of fighting inflammation, fighting cancer, you know, we all have natural cancer cells in our body. We all have that that happens naturally. But our bodies when they're healthy naturally fight them off naturally before they cause any problems. Exactly. So you want to set your body up for success. So what you do is you put a lot of herbs and spices on your food. So to get fancy, you can drizzle a few of these herbs and spices whichever ones you like. I'm not going to tell you which ones I can give you recommendations. I like Italian seasoning in there. It's a mix of things like if you say well I don't have that mixture. I can't find it because it's been a crazy time and it's all gone off the shelves. So what you want to do is think flavor profiles. This is something that we also teach our clients and so what you need to know is Italian flavor profiles, things like time oregano, basil, get those dried or fresh into that salad. You can put them in your dressing and blend them up. You can sprinkle them on top of your salad, it really doesn't matter what's your preference, you get to decide. Nobody has to decide this stuff for you. Okay, you just need to know what you like and do it your way. And that's what makes it so great. Now, my favorite thing, these are two of my favorite things that I add to almost everything except desserts are garlic and onion. That is true. They are fantastic for you get them into as many things as you possibly can put some raw in and then that salad. It doesn't matter what you smell like brush teeth afterwards. I'm telling you it is so good for you. And then if you're using the NutriBullet I highly recommend throwing in a clove of garlic just fresh by boba garlic fresh. take the skin off of it, you know pull the one little clove off the bulb and I've been known to us for five I'm not kidding we love garlic around here. That raw garlic is amazing for you it is also hot it will

Jarrod: 21:09

say it'll bring the heat if you put enough of them on or enough of them in your dressing.

Anita: 21:14

Now if you're cooking it in something you can put a lot more because then mellows out the hate mail is sent out and you don't get that hot, the hot will the heat of the stove will melt out the fiery feeling of the garlic but get a lot of garlic and onion intercepts. So now we've got both Samak, we've got mustard. If we've gotten fancy, we put it in our NutriBullet. And we've either added a little cooked potato, we've added some some white beans, it doesn't matter what, what kind, navy beans, cannelini beans, whatever you like, add it,

Jarrod: 21:47

okay, great if you don't like it, or if it's not your favorite, try something different than next time. Don't get discouraged. This isn't a try at once. And then it fails. No. You get to experiment, get to play around with this stuff. Have fun with it.

Anita: 22:02

Exactly. And it is so easy, really get your kids involved. Let them help you choose which bean do we want to try tonight in the dressing, and then let the children help you decide what you want to do. It really is that simple. They love getting involved. This helps you set start just great habits with them. You're really you're building your legacy and doing this where your children get involved. They're learning how to eat more of the five foundational foods, the wonderful herbs and spices, the nuts, the seeds, silly games, all these things that are good for them. And in the meantime, they're learning why mommy's no longer buying this dressing. You know, you can tell them, this one is actually filled with all let's read the ingredients together in the store. Okay, it has this, this and this. And these are the reasons why we don't want to eat those things. We want to power our bodies. Well, we want to make them strong, so that we can be well to do all the things that God's put us here on this earth to do.

Jarrod: 22:56

They'll also start understanding why mommy looks better, feels better, has more energy isn't complaining about those achy joints. And she's going outside and playing with us when she couldn't before and all she could do is just sit on the couch.

Anita: 23:10

That's my story right there. That's it. I mean, that is my heart behind all this. My heart is that hey, I can't wait to teach them a new recipe. I love teaching you new recipes. Jarrod, love sharing these things that we know with you. But what's behind it

Jarrod: 23:25

exactly

Anita: 23:25

what's behind it. Why are you doing this for yourself? Why are you doing this for your family, you're not going to miss the oil, but you are going to miss the opportunities that you can have. If you're hurting so badly like hours that you can't even go up one flight of stairs to take your children into bed at night, you're aching so bad, you can't go out on a vacation and enjoy it together with your family. You can't walk around the city because your joints like so much.

Jarrod: 23:51

And that is going to be what you remember, I mean getting those opportunities to go on the vacations or whatever, cuz you're not gonna remember what you ate a year ago, two years ago, because it's not really about that it's about fueling your body well, so that you are capable of doing like we say everything that you were called to do.

Anita: 24:08

I will say though, that some of these dishes are so good. I do remember. Like, there are certain things that we cook that we still say, Oh, you remember that lasagna? Or you remember that

Jarrod: 24:19

I stand corrected to Shay, you're correct.

Anita: 24:23

I'm just saying I'm not trying to be the contrary in here. But I'm just saying no, you're correct. There are some meals we remember and that

Jarrod: 24:31

we may not remember the exact date that we have them. But we do remember them because we'll say Hey, who wants to have this? And we say, Oh yeah, we love that. That'll be great. So yes, we do remember them because they're, they're delicious.

Anita: 24:42

Eating this way is like anything else. I mean, there are meals that you eat on a regular basis, because you just love them. But the important thing to do is to make sure that you're getting a lot of different nutrients. And you're going to do that not by taking a lot of vitamins and expensive pills. That's the great news. The great news is you're going to do that by getting a wide variety of delicious foods. And I know it seems overwhelming when you're first getting started. And sometimes even after you've been doing it a while, because you just get tired of eating the same meal over and over again. But you need to get in a group where you have inspiration, and encouragement and new recipes coming in where you can answer ask questions and get them answered by others on the journey by somebody who's been there before and experienced it and who understands the research that's behind it. All right, this is what we want for you. This way of living is a game changer. It's absolutely changed our lives. And we know it can change your suit. The truth is it just doesn't have to be difficult. You're going to learn how to build up supplies you're going to learn what do you need to stock in your pantry?

Jarrod: 25:46

And really, once you do this once or twice, it just it becomes second nature. You throw stuff together, and it's going to be seriously a couple minutes.

Anita: 25:53

It really doesn't take long at all our kids on a regular basis make our dinner. Why? Because they enjoy it. And they know how and it is that simple. It's just simple in our nine year old this morning, made granola bars for the whole family and children on kicks where she wants to do that for a couple of days. Hey, can I make granola bars? Sure. I'm not gonna say no, because I know what's in it. I know she knows how to do it. And it doesn't take her very long at all.

Jarrod: 26:20

And on the label on the plus side. These are life skills. I mean, once they become a dress and they have families of their own. It won't be such a shock of Oh my goodness. What are they? What Do what do I? Yeah, what are you, I've never done this before, it's just going to be second nature and they just just flow into it seamlessly,

Anita: 26:38

right? And we're all about being intentional. But I want you to understand that this way of living should be filled with joy. And if you're not joyful, and even doing plant base for a while, there's hope. It doesn't have to be difficult. But I'll tell you what it does have to be it has to be really delicious. It's got to taste good. Get the flavors in there, get your herbs and spices in there. Learn how to make those flavor profiles come together. And you are going to love this way of living, not only because it tastes great, but you're going to feel amazing. It's going to open up the possibilities for you of all the things that we want for you to be able to do. The things that you're dreaming of doing are going to become possible. And we love that and we want that so much for you. We care about you. We want to hear what you need. Make sure to email that to us at

Jarrod: 27:30

podcast at smarter, healthy living calm.

Anita: 27:32

Yeah. And we'll look forward to hearing from you. And we'll get out there what you need. Just let us know. We'll look forward to hanging out with you again on the next episode of smarter healthy living. Have a great day.