Zesty French Dressing

By Addie

"'The ingredients in this special French dressing are ones you likely have on hand,' assures LaVonne Hegland of St. Michael, Minnesota. 'Whip up a batch whenever you need it.'"

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup vinegar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed

Preparation

Step 1

In a blender or food processor, process all ingredients until smooth and thickened. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Shake well before serving.
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Comments:

This is my absolute favorite dressing. I agree with the other reviews regarding cutting down the sugar by about half. To add an extra little "kick," toss in some blue cheese crumbles and some fresh parmesan once it has been all fully mixed in the processor. I usually just hit the button on the processor a couple more times to get it mixed without totally obliterating it! Delicious.

I followed this recipe exactly as stated and it was DELICIOUS! This is my new favorite dressing.

This was really good. I have always used the dressing that called for more ketsup. But I think we found a new favorite!

Love this dressing! I add onion powder instead of fresh onion. I also add extra ketchup until it's the redness I like. I haven't bought French dressing since I started making this. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

Too sweet and too salty. For me, salad fixin's are a vehicle to transport dressing from the salad bowl to the mouth in a civilized manner. In most cases, it's the dressing I care for, not the greenery! I think you are on the right track, LaVonne Hegland, and I thank you for your work. On the second try, I reduced the sugar to 1/4 cup and the salt to 1/2 teaspoon. That handled the salt part, but the sweet was still a bit too much and there wasn't the "zing" I was looking for. Next time I think I'll try omitting the sugar completely and using cider or white wine vinegar for both the little sweetness needed and the spark in flavor.

Very good! Used smoked paprika and 1/4 cup sugar instead of 1/2 cup. This dressing had great flavor even before letting it sit. Thanks for the recipe.

Nice recipe - certainly better than bottled dressing. Made first batch as specified in recipe - WAY to sweet for our taste buds; made 2nd recipe cutting sugar back to scant 1/3rd cup and dropping salt to 1/2 t - still pretty sweet, but better. Will make again, but I think I'll completely eliminate the added salt, drop sugar to 1/4th cup, and maybe add some lemon juice to freshen it up. Nice base to start and play with :) Thank you for recipe.

You can't go wrong with this one!

This was very good. My husband loves French dressing but the ingredient list on bottled dressings is scarey. This was very tasty and he enjoyed it too.

Very nice. Easy to put together. Makes a nice quantity of dressing. This is my second time making this.

Among the best french dressings!

I prefer making homemade dressings where I can control the ingredients and not have to be concerned with what type of oil is in it and not have to worry about too much salt. This recipe fits the bill. Tasty and easy.... and like other reviewers have said, much like boughten Catalina Dressing without all the bad stuff.

This dressing is awesome. Used half the sugar and it was great.

Well, I've tried a few Catalina and French dressing recipes, looking for the perfect one. So far, this recipe is the best that I have found. Perfect consistency and great taste..

Yummy! At first I thought 2 Tble of ketchup seemed too little for a French dressing, but I went ahead and made it as the recipe dictated. Glad I did. Not only is the flavor excellent, the consistency was really nice. Great recipe - thx.

This is indeed zesty, it's tangy, it's exactly what I was looking for. Give it a try if you like zesty french dressings.

This really is a great tasting recipe. I decided to give it a try since I was out of dressing and had all the ingredients for this on hand. I will never use store bought dressing again!!

This was very good. I made it a little lighter by using 1/2 c. olive oil and 1/2 c. Splenda. I was kind of hoping it would have tasted like Western Dressing, but it wasn't close.

Delicious French Dressing! I needed some for a recipe but don't often care much for bottled and this was a wonderful replacement. The only thing that I did differently was to use celery salt in place of the celery seed and salt since I didn't have either. I just put about a teaspoon of it. I did it in the food processor.

I LOVE French and Catalina dressing so I consider myself somewhat of an expert on them....This dressing is up there at the top of the top. It was SO good and really easy to make! I was making a "homestyle" dinner of home-made mac n cheese and bread and blueberry pie and I thought a home-made salad dressing would be a nice touch. I already had my food processor out so it was just a matter of throwing in the ingredients (all of which I did have on hand) and whipping it up! I halved the recipe and it was just enough for my family. Next time I'll double it to keep more on hand! NOTE: I tried to double this recipe and it made WAY too much and just didn't taste right. Just make a single batch at a time!