Weird confession.
I love the lingering smell of maple on my kids’ fingers and clothes after breakfast.
I could kiss Emry all day long after she has eaten pancakes or a bowl of maple flavored cereal. I even secretly hope that she will touch her sticky fingers to her hair, just to assure that the aroma will last all day long.
When you think of maple, you most often think of breakfast items: pancakes, French toast, crepes, oatmeal, etc. But maple is such an amazing flavor, why not expand it’s mouthwatering taste to other meals?
I’ve been trying to get back into eating salads routinely for lunch since the extra serving of veggies does a body good, but I am getting slightly bored of my routine salad dressing choices. Poppyseed, ranch, poppyseed, ranch. It’s time for a change! How about maple?
I honestly have never heard of maple vinaigrette before. I thought I was coming up with such an ingenious idea when I whipped out ingredients to make a Spiced Maple Vinaigrette, but turns out maple vinaigrettes do exist. If it wasn’t for Emily over at One Lovely Life, I still would have never known that. Guess I’m not the pioneer in making maple dressings like I thought I was. Haha!
No matter my ignorance, one thing is for sure; this Spiced Maple Vinaigrette will be making it’s way into my salad dressing rotation without complaint. The sweetness from the maple syrup really compliments the tang from the apple cider vinegar and the avocado oil adds richness and smoothness to the dressing.
I think we can all agree that no maple dish, whether sweet or savory, is complete without a touch of cinnamon. So, of course, a touch of cinnamon along with nutmeg and allspice, was just what this vinaigrette got. In order to make sure the dressing wasn’t too sweet, I did make sure to add a dash of granulated garlic, black pepper, and cayenne.
Really, I’m not lying when I say you could almost drink this dressing, it’s that good. It was the perfect topping for my mixed greens salad with blueberries, strawberries, crumbled bacon and toasted pumpkin seeds. I even used this dressing to drizzle on top of roasted sweet potatoes, which I will definitely be posting a recipe for in the near future.
Oh, one more little secret before I forget. I prefer the plain old sugary imitation maple syrup over the fancy pure maple syrup any day. Call me unrefined but I love me some good old Aunt Jemima and I’m not ashamed to say it. So choose whichever maple syrup makes you smile, but don’t be embarrassed if you’re just a kid at heart like me.
Do you have any kitchen secrets that you’re not ashamed to share?
- ½ cup avocado oil
- ¼ cup maple syrup (pure or imitation)
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon allspice
- dash of granulated garlic
- dash of salt
- dash of ground black pepper
- dash of cayenne
- Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Whisk vigorously to combine. Drizzle over salad or roasted root vegetables.
- Store remaining vinaigrette in fridge.*
