January 15, 2018

LaCroix Salad Dressing

Name: LaCroix Salad Dressing
Total time: 5 min
Yield: Makes about 1/2 cup
Ingredients: 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil; 3 tablespoons LaCroix sparkling water (grapefruit, lime or tangerine flavor recommended); 1 tablespoon honey; Pinch kosher salt and ground black pepper

Take your LaCroix obsession to the next level with this LaCroix Salad Dressing – a light and fizzy vinaigrette that will enhance the fresh flavors of any simple salad.

Take your LaCroix obsession to the next level with this LaCroix Salad Dressing - a light and fizzy vinaigrette that will enhance the fresh flavors of any simple salad. | foxeslovelemons.com

I don’t really know how regional it still is (although I’ve heard it’s kind of made its way to the east and west coasts), but let’s talk about LaCroix for a minute. First off, this isn’t sponsored by LaCroix in any way – they don’t know who I am.

In a nutshell, LaCroix is flavored sparkling water (but there’s also an unflavored variety). There’s no calories, no sodium, no artificial sweeteners. It’s a great alternative to pop (that’s what us Michiganders call soda). LaCroix has become a sensation in the Midwest. You’ll see adults drinking it at work, kids drinking it after school, and bartenders mixing it into cocktails. There’s a ton of LaCroix flavors, some of them really good (grapefruit and lime), some of them really bad in my opinion (coconut and cola – no, just no).

Amongst my friends and family, I have something of a reputation of being LaCroix obsessed, but I only drink one per day, I swear. Although lately, I’ve been cracking open a second can to make LaCroix Salad Dressing. I know, I know. Just hear me out.

I was watching “Beat Bobby Flay” a few weeks ago (I really just like to see Bobby Flay lose, so I’m always hoping for that), and one of the competitors mixed sparkling water into a salad dressing he was making. His reasoning was that it made the dressing light and fizzy.

Enter: Lori and her can of LaCroix. If that guy could make dressing with plain sparkling water, I could certainly make it with flavored sparkling water! Something like this speaks my language for salads where the star ingredients are so amazing that you don’t want the dressing to detract from them. You guys know I’m all about the blood oranges all winter long (especially a great blood orange margarita). Who would want to cover up their flavor?

I’m keeping this LaCroix salad dressing recipe in my back pocket come summer, too – this dressing will let my farmer’s market bounty be the star of the plate, while still being lightly dressed.

This simple LaCroix salad dressing is made using olive oil, honey, grapefruit LaCroix (the tangerine and lime flavors also work well here), salt and pepper. Does it have a grapefruit-forward flavor? I won’t lie. No, it doesn’t. It has a very light grapefruit flavor with subtle sweetness from the honey. If you wanted more fruit flavor, you could always add extra fruit juice from the same fruit used to flavor the LaCroix you’re using (so here, I could have used extra grapefruit juice along with the grapefruit LaCroix). But, my favorite part of this dressing is actually the fizz! It somehow made my salad seem more fresh and fun.

P.S. Want a light salad dressing but don’t love LaCroix? This Citrus Salad Dressing or another one of my healthy salad dressings might be perfect for you!

Yield: Makes about 1/2 cup