The Importance of the Right Container – Pesto Vinaigrette

The dilemma of taking salads to work or school for lunch is how to carry the dressing without it becoming a tragic mess. It turns out to be even more complicated when your child throws their salad into a backpack for extra jostling, even if it’s contained in a lunchbox.

For years I prepared salads for my wife and me to eat for lunch most weekdays. We both dutifully carried them to work. When my children were in high school, I started making salads for them too.

It was all well and good, except for the dressing. No one wants to dress their salad ahead of time, lest it become a limp, soggy mess. The problem, therefore, was finding a proper container that could hold the dressing. It had to be small since you don’t need much to cover your salad, and it needed to fit inside the larger container, wedged in among the greens. In addition, the lid had to seal securely so it wouldn’t open during transport. That was the hardest criterion to satisfy.

We tried numerous vessels, but none were satisfactory. Many were too big, and a few too small. Some were too flimsy and wouldn’t last even a handful of cleanings. And none had a lid that fastened tightly and held suitably during the journey from home to work or school.

Then one day we got takeout from a local sushi restaurant. They had to figure out a way to provide soy sauce without spilling as customers took their food to go. I suppose they could have provided packets akin to those used for ketchup or mustard, but they didn’t. Instead, they packaged it in these little plastic containers. While meant to be disposable, they had enough heft so they wouldn’t easily crush. In addition, they were strong enough to withstand the dishwasher. However, at the top of the list, they closed with a satisfying click, ensuring that nary a drop of liquid would spill.

I immediately realized these small containers were the answer to our salad dressing dilemma; I had finally found the right container. The holy grail. Yet we only had a few and I wasn’t sure frequently ordering sushi for these little receptacles was worth the cost. I became obsessed and began to covet them.

I usually prepared our lunch salads twice a week so they didn’t sit around for too long. With only a few of these new dressing containers among us, they would have to be washed each evening for use the next day. It was frustrating although it worked well enough as long as we all brought the used containers home for prompt washing. Apparently, that was too difficult for my daughter to handle.

Ariana didn’t always follow my rules when she was in high school. She didn’t care if her father freaked out about missing plastic containers; it was far too trivial for her. After all, she had bigger problems to solve. She wouldn’t bring them home for days and on one occasion the dressing container never returned, along with the salad Tupperware and her whole lunchbox. She never revealed if she lost it, inadvertently tossed it with a few remaining salad scraps, or discarded it after discovering an uneaten salad sitting rotting in her high school locker. I’m sure we will never learn the truth.

Over the years whenever we wanted sushi to go, we ordered from the same restaurant. As a result, my stock of little dressing containers built up. I now have dozens of them, more than I will ever use, especially considering I no longer carry a salad to work and Marci mostly works from home. But I still sweat if one of these little plastic containers is damaged or lost. I think the panic sets in because that sushi restaurant no longer uses these perfect containers; they switched to what I assume is a less expensive alternative. Luckily, my stash is big enough to last a lifetime.

Pesto Vinaigrette

We eat salads so frequently we easily get sick of them. One way we deal is by changing up the dressing. Oil and vinegar is standard, however, when we need a break we switch to Emilio’s Creamy Balsamic, a honey mustard vinaigrette, a lime centered dressing on Middle Eastern Fattoush salad, creamy white dressing when we’re eating Shawarma, lemony tahini dressing, an Asian-inspired dressing, one with sweet-tart pomegranate molasses, or even one imitating an expensive Asian dressing that I recreated just for Ariana.

This pesto vinaigrette is one I developed relatively recently. It’s a cinch to make as long as you have left over pesto or some stashed away in your freezer from the summer basil harvest, and it adds to the variety of salad dressings available when you get tired of the usual suspects. It’s also great on a piece of grilled fish.

makes about a half cup, 5 minutes

2 Tbsp. pesto, defrosted if frozen

¼ cup olive oil, more if needed to thin to salad dressing consistency

2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

½ Tbsp. lemon juice

½ tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

• Whisk all ingredients together in a steel bowl until well combined. Add more oil, if needed, to thin to proper salad dressing consistency. Taste and adjust adding more pesto, oil, vinegar, lemon juice, or salt as needed.

Please like and share this post: