This creamy dill and chive dressing is perfect for your spring salads

EVANSVILLE − Spring herbs are popping up, and some of the first to emerge are fresh, juicy chives.

We love to make a creamy salad dressing with chives, dill and parsley that is a wonderful complement to spring salad ingredients such as baby greens, cress, pea shoots, arugula, snap or snow peas, and radishes.

We’ve never figured out why people throw away the brine from yummy pickled veggies and then go buy vinegar. The liquid from banana peppers or pepperoncini is wonderful in salad dressings and marinades. Once you try it, you’ll never go back to using powdered Ranch dressing mix again.

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Start with equal proportions of mayonnaise and sour cream, and thin with the pepperoncini juice to a texture you like. A dash of garlic powder, onion powder and white pepper and you have an all-purpose creamy dressing base you can flavor with whatever you like.

We like to garnish this spring salad with edible flowers too. Did you know the flowers on red bud trees are edible? So are violets, pansies and dandelions, all abundant spring flowers.

We finish the salad with crumbled fresh chevre cheese, and it’s beautiful and perfect for your first outdoor gathering of the year.

Recipe for spring dill and chive dressing

Makes roughly 1 ½ cups

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• ¼ cup or more juice from a jar of pepperoncini or sliced banana peppers
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 1/8 teaspoon white pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise and sour cream and mix well, then thin with the juice from the jar of peppers until the dressing is of the texture you like.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Taste and adjust with more garlic or onion powder if you like.

3. Permit the dressing to rest in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight before serving if possible for flavors to blend.