Osem Vinaigrette Dressings

אסם סדרת רטבי ויניגרט לסלטים

Osem has come out with three new Vinaigrette Dressings. They even put them in festive flower designed bottles for Shavuot. The three dressings in this line are; Citrus Vinaigrette, Silan (date honey) & Coarse Ground Black Pepper Vinaigrette plus a Vinaigrette for Lettuce Salad.

According to the press release Osem did their “homework” and tried to find out what salads and salad dressings Israelis were searching for the most online. They then tried to create dressings that would suit the salads the public seemed to be searching for the most. They even went so far as to add, on the back of each bottle, the salad “recipe” that each dressing was intended for. So the Citrus Vinaigrette has a Chinese Carrot & Pecan salad recipe, the Silan & Coarse Ground Black Pepper Vinaigrette has a Dill Cabbage & Cranberry salad recipe on it and finally the Vinaigrette for Lettuce has a recipe for a Lettuce & Goats Cheese salad.

I think all those salads sound wonderful and interesting, I would love to try them all but I have not had the opportunity to do that just yet. For the purposes of this blog post I tasted the Citrus Vinaigrette and the Vinaigrette for Lettuce Salad but I just dipped some cucumber sticks and pita bread into the dressing, I thought they were fairly “bland” items and this way I can actually taste the dressing kind of “on its own”.

I actually enjoyed both dressings, they were slightly different one from the other. The first thing to hit me when I tried the Citrus Vinaigrette was mustard. I could actually smell the mustard even before I tasted it but, as someone who enjoys mustard, I didn’t think it was too much. I was just surprised that citrus was a secondary flavor and not the leading flavor. I tasted the orange and bit of lemon in this dressing but the dressing as a whole was in a way more sweet than tart. I think they used too much sugar for my likening. Still I thought it was an enjoyable “change of pace” for me.

I could totally see this somewhat thicker (but not thick enough for my friend who tasted it too) mustardy Citrus Vinaigrette working really well with the Chinese Carrot and Pecan salad they intended it for.

Oddly the Vinaigrette for Lettuce Salad was much more citrusy than the Citrus Vinaigrette. This somewhat thinner dressing had a stronger lemony tart taste to it that I was sort of expecting form the Citrus Vinaigrette. Not that it’s a bad thing it was just ironic to me. 

This Vinaigrette for Lettuce Salad clearly had more oil in it I might have added less oil if I was making this dressing on my own. It really needed to be mixed or shaken really well so that the oil blended together nicely with the other ingredients. Once I got that taken care of, I liked this dressing as well. I enjoyed the little "kick" of black pepper and mustard that I picked up on, behind the lemon and olive oil. Again I can see this Vinaigrette working really well with the lettuce and goat cheese salad it was made for.

Bottom Line: I think Osem lived up to what they set out to do. Although these Vinaigrette dressings do not taste homemade they are fairly good for mass-produced Vinaigrette dressings. I just think the names Osem chose for them are odd and don’t really suit the dressings 100%, they can be a drop misleading or confusing. Still I think the dressings and the salads, printed on the bottles, would be a wonderful addition to any Shavuot Holiday meal. 

290 ml bottle - 9.99NIS

Kosher Badatz

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.