Vinaigrette salads have a whole new zing with a flavored vinegar I discovered a while ago. I was shopping at Biltmore Park  in south Asheville, and came across a store called Oil and Vinegar. They have all kinds of flavored vinegars, and I immediately was captivated with the Cranberry one.   I will bet you have seen Raspberry Vinaigrette salad dressing before, and so have I, but I don’t like raspberries. I know, I’m weird. So, when I found the Cranberry, it quickly became one of my favorites.

I know there are a lot of recipes on the internet for making your own flavored vinegar, and I think those are great for herb and garlic flavors. The Cranberry vinegar is thicker, though, more like a thin syrup and has a wonderful balance of sweet to sour. I only make small batches of the dressing at one time, as this stuff is not cheap – about $6 to refill this little bottle.

I use it in homemade salad dressing, on spinach salads with dried cranberries, tomato and Parmesan cheese.

The dressing I make is a bit different, as I like the juxtaposition of savory to sweet. So, I use some traditional spices in the dressing with the sweet vinegar. You can play with the spices to add your favorite flavors.  The Cranberry Vinaigrette dressing is perfect for this. I put it into a glass jar with a lid to shake it up.

My lettuce is big enough to clip some leaves for a salad now. Luckily, this year so far, the bears have not paid us a visit.

I’ll clean and chill the leaves.

Then, for this salad, I’m adding spinach, dried cranberries, sliced mushrooms, cooked bacon, green onions, and grated fresh Parmesan cheese. Yum, dinner!

Cranberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

1/4 cup high quality olive oil
1/4 cup cranberry vinegar
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp lemon pepper
1 tblsp parsley flakes
1 tsp ground rosemary or thyme

Mix all together, serve on your favorite salad.

Enjoy! Have you tried any flavored vinegars?