The great Mark Sisson said that his inspiration for Primal Kitchen Foods came from a failed cookbook he wrote about how to create make-your-own sauces at home. He had had success with his first several books, and ordered several hundred thousand copies for his sauces & dressings cookbook. A decade later, most of those cookbooks are still in a storage locker somewhere.
Homemade sauces & dressings are difficult to make, and more importantly, they’re wasteful.
I’m a huge fan of Caesar salad, and it can be incredibly healthful. Skip the croutons, but keep the anchovies! I make my own Caesar dressing in small batches, usually just enough for two meals. The Caesar dressings in your average supermarket, however, are typically full of seed oils and void of the very centerpiece that makes Caesar dressing unique: the anchovies! I mash my own anchovies and add lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, and a dash of worcestershire sauce. I still end up tossing some of this dressing if I’m not proactive about using it within the first few days.
Hence the problem with sauces and dressings: one cannot make these meal-enhancers on a scale that makes sense for the average household.
The Perimetarian is averse to most AISLE options, yet healthful, shelf-stable meal-enhancers are becoming more available today. Keep these 3 simple rules in mind when shopping the AISLEs:
(1) avoid anything with seed oils in the ingredients – canola, soybean, sunflower, and the like;
(2) avoid added sugars;
(3) avoid emulsifiers (otherwise known as gums).
Happy shopping!