Repurpose Leftover Salad Dressing as a Marinade

I like to make homemade salad dressings. I usually prepare a specific dressing to go with a certain salad. Once we’ve finished the salad, the dressing tends to sit in the fridge, neglected and forgotten. To avoid food waste, I’ve started using my salad dressings as marinades. I do this a couple different ways:

If I buy a max pack of meat, I can divide up the meat into smaller packages, add dressing to the the package and freeze the meat with the marinade. Then I pull it out of the freezer on the day I am going to use it, let it thaw and put the meat with marinade in a pan and cook it.

If I have extra time when I get home from the store, I can use different dressings as marinades on the meat and batch broil the different flavored meats. Once the meat is done cooking, I can package it and freeze it which saves even more time on busy nights.

And sometimes, when I have no idea what to make, I rummage through the fridge for some leftover dressing, thaw some meat quickly in the microwave and improvise a new dish.

My Favorite Dressings to Use as Marinades:

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Asian Dressing

Honey Lime Dressing

Leftover salad dressing also makes a great replacement for mayonnaise on sandwiches and wraps.

Tammy of Tammy’s Recipes uses salad dressing as a replacement for mayonaise when making tuna sandwiches.

Even non-traditional salad dressings make a great dip for veggies.

My Favorite Dressings to Use as Dips:

Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing

Fresh Raspberry Vinaigrette ( I stir in some raspberry yogurt to make it creamy)

How do you use your leftover dressing?