I love salads. Salads are a huge part of my meals, especially dinner. I eat a salad every single day. Maybe it’s because I’m from Florida where it’s hot so much of the year. Perhaps I’ve grown accustomed to eating a cool, crisp salad in the evening as a refreshing closure to a hot, sticky day. I don’t know how it started for sure, but I know I love them. And I almost always enjoy them – with one caveat. Salad dressing. Salad dressing is key! If the dressing is bad, the salad is bad. Certainly the quality and condition of the greens are important too, but the salad dressing makes or breaks the salad. You know I’m right. So when we began our WHOLE30 journey a big concern for me was “what the heck am I gonna use to dress my salads?”

After some internet research, we found Tessemae’s All Natural Dressings , several of which are WHOLE30 approved. According to Tessemae’s website, their products are available for direct order from the company and at a number of retailers like Whole Foods and Amazon.com. Prior to starting WHOLE30 we made the trek to the nearest Whole Foods and bought a couple bottles of their Zesty Ranch (which is delicious, but which we finished all too quickly). But we were disappointed to learn we couldn’t purchase the mayonnaise at any of the retailers listed in our area (and believe me, I’ve been to all of them in the last few days). Now, I could just order some mayo online, but for some reason that seems lazy to me. For some reason I believe I should be able to make my own mayo, like they did in the olden days or something. There’s plenty of recipes online for homemade mayo so I assumed mayo-making is an easy thing to accomplish. Not so, my friend, at least not in my experience. (In case you’re wondering, I felt compelled to have mayo available because it’s required for yummy things like tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad etc. And mayo can be used as the base for my favorite salad dressings including ranch and Caesar. But it’s nigh on to impossible to find a mayo in your grocery that is NOT made with soybean oil or other nasty ingredients shunned by WHOLE30.)

So I dove in using this recipe as a basis, replacing the vinegar with lemon juice and equal parts EVOO and liquified coconut oil (e.g. the coconut oil that has been modified to remain liquid at room temperature). I then decided to dismiss Hubs’ offer to assist me, convinced I could whip up a brilliant mayo very quickly using a stick (immersion) blender just like Alton Brown. Sadly, I got a little off balance as I tried to manage the blender, slowly drizzle in the oil drop by drop and hold the large measuring cup I was using to hold the emulsion. Not sure exactly what happened but suddenly half my concoction was all over the counter top and I was screaming. Disaster! Hubs sprang into action and helped me rescue most of the wayward emulsion. We transferred it to a more appropriate bowl and continued drizzling in the oil and used a more appropriate hand mixer to finish whipping the mixture. Here’s my result:

Tastes great, but a little thin

Unfortunately, the mayo never reached the expected thickness. I’m not sure which of my missteps caused this result. I’m confident I can still find a usage for my “creation.” But I’m also sure I’ll be purchasing some more Tessemae’s Dressing soon. Life’s too short and WHOLE30 is too hard to go through this again!

Lessons Learned:
1. Use a bowl and not a measuring cup when making mayo.
2. Ask for help instead of trying to do it all yourself.
3. Coconut oil is always a health choice. But in hindsight, the modified liquid version may have prevented the end result from thickening as expected.
4. There’s no shame in simply ordering approved products online. WHOLE30 is challenging enough. Why make it harder on yourself?

Recommended Resources:
1. Shop Tessemaes Online
2. Tessemaes on Amazon

Thought for the Day:
Where there is no [wise, intelligent] guidance, the people fall, But in the abundance of [wise and godly] counselors there is victory.
~Proverbs 11:14 (Amplified)
Read more here.