1960's Catalina Dressing

By Addie

I love making homemade salad dressings because they’re just so darn easy to make and you almost always have the ingredients on hand to make them on a whim. Which means, you don’t have to run to the grocery store to pick up a bottle of dressing when you need it.

Catalina dressing is one of the dressings I make the most often. It’s not just limited to a simple salad. We use it in this Sweet & Spicy Chicken Stir-Fry and to top spicy beef Taco Salads. You can also use it as a marinade for chicken before cooking it on the grill.

I’ve been making this recipe for ages and the flavour is spot on. The first time I made it I knew I didn’t have to look any further for the perfect Catalina Dressing. I was sold in that moment and I’ve been making my own ever since.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon onion powder)
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

Step 1

Place first 6 ingredients in a food processor or blender (or use a handheld blender) and process until smooth. Add the oil in a steady stream with the machine running until the mixture comes together in an emulsion. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. Store in the refrigerator for up to one week.

*If you are using onion powder instead of chopped onion you could also shake this up in a jar with a tightly sealed lid.
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REVIEWS:

great recipe! I came home from the grocery store with everything for a taco salad my husband HAD to have but the dressing..so i figured I would head to the trusty internet to try out a recipe...it is fabulous I followed another readers advice and used splenda the second time. I also just used the onion powder and some garlic powder and because I didnt have any paprika I omitted it. I doubled everything but the oil and only put in 1/3 cup of splenda because I ran out. I think this and my taco salad will be a new potluck/ family gathering favorite!

Perfect, I didn't change a thing!

No wonder this is good with all that sugar. I was able to reduce the sugar by half and used dried onion flakes in place of the fresh onion. Extra light virgin olive oil was used for the oil. The dressing was used to make a chicken marinade. I look forward to using the leftovers on a salad. Thanks for posting.

Really good on taco salad! Super fast and easy to make. I used onion powder and just whisked it by hand. Also cut down on the sugar and it was still plenty sweet. Start out with less sugar and you can always add more.

Made this recipe for the first time yesterday. Delicious! I used it on a taco salad and everyone thought it was the best one I have ever made. I did make one change, which was to use olive oil. My food processor does not have a low speed so I used a hand whisk (Olive oil can become a little bitter if beaten too much). Color,taste, consistency; everything was great. It was very sweet, to my taste, so I will experiment with a little less sugar next time. However, do not hesitate about making this one. All my guests loved it as is.

This is a very good dressing. Plus, if you have ever looked at the ingredients on the back of a store bottle of catalina/french, you will appreciate this recipe even more.

This is the best Catalina dressing I've ever tried! Absolutely no more buying it from the store. I halved the recipe, and just like another reviewer did, I used 1/2 teaspoon onion powder. It turned out Great! Thank you for posting this

This is a great tasting Catalina dressing. A little hard to grate the onions, so I minced them and used a blender instead of a food processor and let the blender "puree" the onions. Used it on the old Taco Salad with corn chips recipe and it was great!

This was just what I was looking for. I added a bit of extra ketchup because my kids like it that way. I will never buy the bottled stuff again because this stuff is head and shoulders above it. I made mine in the blender which made for an easy pour spout. MMMmmmm.

Catalina is my DH's favorite salad dressing. We ran out and I didn't want to go to the grocery store. I thought I might be able to pass this off on him. I didn't tell him it wasn't the real thing (i used the empty bottle from the real stuff) until he was done with his salad. He couldn't tell the difference. I chose your recipe because it didn't contain canned tomato soup (which I hate and never buy). I did use onion powder because I didn't feel like grating the onion. Perfect taste & texture Mini thanks so much for saving me some money too!

Really loved this recipe. Mine came out with a very strong onion taste, so I would recommend adding a little at a time if you don't like that sort of thing. Thanks so much for posting!

My grandson licks this dressing from the bottom of his salad bowl... Ok! OK! I confess, I did it. Busted again. Try it, you'll like it :-)

Was craving taco salad cut had no catalina dressing. I will never buy it again, THIS IS SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER than the stuff you buy in the store!!!!! Perfect as is!!!

A really nice dressing. Subbed balsamic vinegar as I didn't have any red wine vinegar.

I just made this and it is delicious. It is better than the bottled Kraft dressing. I love it, I am using it on a Pot Roast Recipe. Everyone give it a try!