Summer Herb Dressing

 

This herb dressing tastes of Summer! It is fresh and tangy and so easy to make. You do need  to get your hands on some fresh herbs though. Unfortunately we don't have any outside space to grow herbs in our little London flat but my Mum came armed with some fresh herbs from her garden last weekend and a recipe for this herb dressing. I have tweaked this slightly, the original recipe uses breadcrumbs from a slice of white bread but I thought I would use ground almonds - they work just as well at absorbing all the flavour. You could have this sauce with pretty much anything, salads, roasted vegetables (my folks have it with their Sunday Roast in the summertime instead of gravy)... I stirred a couple of tablespoons of it through some boiled new potatoes and it made a really tasty potato salad.

 

 

7 TBS olive oil

A good handful of fresh summer herbs (see notes below)

1/4 - 1/2 cup of ground almonds

3 TBS red wine vinegar
2 TBS honey

 

Simply put all of the ingredients into a blender and whizz. Just add more oil or less almonds if you want a thinner sauce and if it is too tart just add a bit more honey.

 

Little Note:

You can use any herbs you like but I would recommend trying to get a high percentage of fresh mint in there as it is this that gives the sauce a fresh and sweet summery flavour. I used oregano, chives (not too many), thyme, mint and sage but parsley and basil would also taste good.

I have put between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of ground almonds because the texture is really up to you. The almonds are quite absorbent so if you want a thinner pouring sauce just add 1/4 cup and maybe another tablespoon of the olive oil.

You could add some different texture to the sauce by adding some finely chopped (as well as the ground) almonds or walnuts at the end.

This probably only really makes enough sauce for one dinner, but it would be easy to just double the quantities and keep the sauce in the fridge (you can loosen it up the next day with a bit more olive oil).

Apple cider vinegar would be a good alternative to the red wine vinegar used here.