For a marmalade vinaigrette, put 2 tablespoons of Meyer lemon marmalade in a jar with 3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar, a teaspoon of Dijon, a minced shallot and salt. Shake until the marmalade dissolves, add ⅓ cup of olive oil and shake again, five minutes in all.
The sweet part of a vinaigrette is usually honey. Love and Lemons' honey mustard dressing whisks a tablespoon of it into a mustardy dressing and credits its lightly creamy texture to the honey and mustard emulsified with the oil. RecipeTin Eats shakes its version in a jar with honey and Dijon in equal measure, a quarter-cup each. Marmalade can fill the same seat: the orange marmalade dressing from Food Network Kitchen uses 2 tablespoons of it to ½ cup of oil and ¼ cup of white wine vinegar, with shallot and Dijon. The recipe below follows that lead with a lemon jar and a little less oil than Food Network's, for a sharper dressing that suits bitter leaves.
We list salad dressings first among the uses for our Meyer Lemon Marmalade. It's made from Meyer lemons with cane sugar and water, and the peel gives the dressing small tender flecks where honey would give none. Compared with a tablespoon of honey, 2 tablespoons of marmalade brings about the same sweetness plus a slight bitter edge from the peel, and it carries the lemon aroma a recipe would otherwise get from grated zest.
Does marmalade hold the dressing together?
It helps, but don't drop the mustard. Pectin is what sets marmalade, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, and the FDA lists pectins as emulsifiers as well as thickeners in 21 CFR 184.1588. That doesn't make a spoonful of jam a stable emulsion on its own. All three recipes above keep Dijon in the jar, and so does this one.
Dissolve the marmalade in the vinegar before the oil goes in. RecipeTin Eats gives the same cue for honey: shake until none is left sitting on the base of the jar.
Marmalade vinaigrette recipe
Makes: about ⅔ cup (160 ml), enough for 4 side salads · Time: 5 min, no cooking
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) Meyer Lemon Marmalade or another mild marmalade
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
- 1 tsp (5 ml) Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp (10 g) finely minced shallot
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- Black pepper
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) olive oil, extra-virgin
Steps
- Snip long peel shreds in the marmalade down to the size of a grain of rice.
- Put the marmalade, vinegar, mustard, shallot, salt and a few grinds of pepper in a jar with a tight lid.
- Shake for about 15 seconds, until no marmalade is left on the bottom of the jar.
- Add the olive oil, close the jar and shake again, vigorously, until the dressing turns cloudy and even.
- Taste on a leaf of lettuce, not a spoon, and adjust with salt, vinegar or ½ tsp more marmalade.
Notes
- Storage: keeps up to 1 week in the fridge. Olive oil firms up when cold, so let the jar sit at room temperature for a few minutes and shake before using.
- Whisking instead: whisk everything but the oil in a bowl, then drizzle in the oil while whisking.
- Sharper or softer: for hearty vegetables go toward 1:1 vinegar to oil; for tender lettuces, 3:4 (the range Love and Lemons gives for its lemon vinaigrette). This recipe is a little oilier, closer to Food Network's.
- No marmalade? Use 1 tablespoon of honey in its place and keep everything else the same. Grate in the zest of half a lemon if you miss the citrus.
Nutrition (estimate): about 190 calories per 2½-tablespoon serving, enough for one side salad, worked out from USDA values for the ingredients as listed. Brands and portions vary.
What to dress with it
Try it on butter lettuce with orange segments and toasted pecans. Because the dressing is lemon, it also meets fresh cheese well: on our California marmalade page we match Meyer lemon marmalade with fresh goat cheese and burrata. For marmalade on the stove instead of the salad bowl, our holiday cooking roundup glazes a ham with it. Crumbled goat cheese over bitter greens, dressed with this, makes an easy winter plate.
