These flavors are two of the most popular in Dogpatch Urban Gardens’ line of healthy salad dressings, now being rolled out across Midwest Hy-Vee stores.
Writer: Karla Walsh
Step into any supermarket—or shop online—and you’ll see a big, aisle-sized reminder that your salad dressing options go far beyond ranch, French and Caesar. But flip around one of those bottles and try to see how many of the ingredients you can recognize. Jenny Quiner, owner of Dogpatch Urban Gardens (DUG), a local farm focused on growing vegetables for salad products, is on a mission to change that.
Her dressings are made with an avocado oil base without artificial sugar, dairy, soy or gluten. She created the initial recipes a few years ago, based on trials in her home kitchen, then enlisted chef Jacob Schroeder of Crafted Food Services to tweak them for sales at the DUG FarmStand (5085 Meredith Drive) and Downtown Farmers’ Market. Midwest Foods, which now helps bottle the recipes for wide distribution, did some final alterations to help the oils stay mixed, “so you won’t see a separation of the various oils in the bottles,” Quiner adds. But that doesn’t require any added stabilizers or preservatives.
The dressings have been so popular that three varieties—lemon garlic vinaigrette, maple ginger vinaigrette and balsamic vinaigrette—are rolling out at 120 Hy-Vee locations across Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois and South Dakota. This includes five in Des Moines, two in Ankeny, plus Waukee and Altoona.
And if you want more ideas for how to use these dressings, I asked Quiner to share ideas for how you can put them to use.
She suggests:
- In a large bowl, toss lemon garlic vinaigrette with the honeynut squash salad with blue cheese Quiner developed for our magazine last fall.
- In a zip-top bag placed on a plate to catch any potential drips, coat chicken breasts or thighs in 1/2 cup of lemon garlic vinaigrette. Allow to marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator, then grill. (While you’re at it, we recommend grilling up Mulberry Street Tavern’s romaine salad!)
- On a sheet pan, toss trimmed and halved Brussels sprouts with olive oil and salt. Roast until golden brown and tender, or for 25 to 30 minutes, then coat in maple ginger vinaigrette, to taste.
- Assemble a fruit salad with fresh strawberries (or watermelon, a la Grade a Gardens), feta, and mint, then drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette.
