Dinner Tonight: Thousand Island Dressing
Salads tend to be a casual affair. A little bit of whatever is in the fridge, all topped with a simple vinaigrette. But searching for a way to use some big beets, I came across this old-school recipe for Thousand Island dressing. I can't really remember the last time I put a creamy dressing on a salad, and it had way more ingredients than my normal salads do. I actually had to go shopping for some of them.
Which led me to the biggest issue with this dressing: if the recipe only needs one tablespoon of cooked beets, what do you do with the other 90-percent of the beet left over? Same thing goes with, well, nearly every other ingredient including the onion, dill pickle, hard-cooked egg, pimientos, and parsley. The answer? Leftovers work extremely well in the actual salad. Iceberg lettuce is apparently the traditional base, but I had some baby spinach, which was a fine substitute, if not quite the real thing.
I have to say I was surprised. I've only tasted bottled versions of this dressing, and they usually just taste like a mix of mayonnaise and ketchup. But this has real depth, thanks in part to all the little tart chunks of chopped vegetables. Not the easiest salad to whip up, but one of the best I've had in a long time.
About the author: Nick Kindelsperger is a freelance writer in Chicago. He is the co-founder of The Paupered Chef and spends most of his time playing with the new cooking gadgets he got from his wedding.
Thousand Island Dressing
- serves 4 to 6 -
Adapted from Saveur
Ingredients
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoon chili sauce or ketchup
1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon dill pickle, finely chopped
1 tablespoon cooked beets, finely chopped
1 tablespoon hard-cooked egg, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped
1 tablespoon pimientos, finely chopped
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
Procedure
Combine all the ingredients except the salt and pepper in a large bowl and gently fold together with plastic spatula until the dressing turns a light orange or pink. Then season with salt and pepper to taste.
Author's Note: If you need to cook the beet just wash it and then wrap it in aluminum foil. Place in a preheated oven set at 450°F. Cook for 40 to 50 minutes, or until tender enough that a knife can easily slip in and out.
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7 Comments:
Lost me with the mention of the beet. Can't stand them. I always make my T.I. with ketchup, mayo, sweet pickle and dill pickle relish, hard cooked egg and capers. My husband is a T.I. junkie. He takes a salad every day for lunch and about 75% of the time it is T.I. He also loves it on his pastrami reubens.
dhorst at 7:49PM on 11/14/08
I live in the Thousand Islands region of Canada where this dressing was invented - I'll have to look up the original recipe.
Maureen at 8:15PM on 11/14/08
Oh thank you, thank you, thank you. I knew there was a good recipe for this somewhere. This is the first from-scratch one I've come across. Imagine, TI dressing not out of a bottle and not containing, carageenan, maltodextrin and presoivatives? I'm kind of giddy about this.
BITTER at 9:44PM on 11/14/08
oh, eggs a la russe - at least that's what my mom called it..
hard boiled egg over shredded lettuce (iceberg of course) with a dollop of russian dressing...
oh, are russian and thousand island pretty much the same?
Nonny at 10:51AM on 11/15/08
Nonny - Yeah, they actually are. The biggest difference is that Russian Dressing uses yogurt instead of mayonnaise.
Nick Kindelsperger at 6:37PM on 11/15/08
with the rest of the beets, make harvard beets.
dearrie at 11:31AM on 11/16/08
I love beets in a salad but would not put in a dressing - there's a bit of an earthy taste to beets. This is my favorite TI dressing recipe. I make it with regular mayo sometimes. The one ingredient I've learned to omit is the red bell pepper which I think gives the dressing a metallic tang. and I put just a little of the relish in as I don't like it tooooo sweet.
Low Fat Thousand Island Dressing
1/3 cup low-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon minced onion
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
a pinch of cayenne
1/4 cup water
In a blender or food processor blend all ingredients and salt to taste until smooth, adding up to 2 tablespoons additional water if necessary to thin to desired consistency. Dressing keeps, covered and chilled, 1 week. Serve dressing with crisp lettuce, sliced tomatoes, or seafood salad. Makes about 1 cup.
Each tablespoon about 12 calories and 0.3 grams fat (22% of calories from fat) Source: Gourmet May 1996
annzee at 4:34PM on 11/17/08