Dress It Up Dressing

Sometimes all it takes is a snazzy label and someone with a big smile to lure me over to a tasting. That's just how I met Sophia and was instantly introduced to Dress It Up Dressing. Come to find out she's a local filmmaker who took some time off to be a stay-at-home mother and is reentering the workforce in a completely different industry -- the food industry! Encouraged by her family, she decided to start selling her mother's salad dressings in 2012 in DC and is just getting her feet wet figuring out how to best market and distribute her product.

So I tried her dressing and it was love at first bite. Her signature dressing is the Champagne Vinaigrette -- a delicate yet rich and velvety dressing that coats greens oh so well. Despite what others have suggested to her, she has decided not to use any preservatives, keeping the dressing in its purest form. She uses high quality olive oil, balsamic vinegar, champagne vinegar, garlic, mustard, sea salt, sugar, and organic tamari -- that's it!

She also offered me some small samples of her other dressings. I found them to be fairly similar as there is only one ingredient that she changes in each of them -- the vinegar. So, they are all really good. The Red Wine Vinegar flavor is a bit tangier than the Apple Cider Vinegar flavor, but I liked them both just the same.  The only one I didn't try is the chocolate, but I have to imagine it is just as good! Oh, and did I mention -- they are all vegan.

I tried the apple cider vinegar flavor on my kale salad to put it to the real test. If you are trying to find the best way to soften kale leaves, here is a tip: massage the dressing into the kale leaves using your hands. Don't be shy! Massage the heck out of it. A good dressing will soften the kale to make it more palatable and Dress It Up dressing passed the test!

If nothing else, the label will surely catch your eye. It was designed by Sophia's sister and drawn by a fashion illustrator in New York and features ladies dressed in elegant gowns adorned with vegetables! The vegetables are actually pictures taken by her late father. Talk about a family affair! Look closely at the champagne vinaigrette and you'll see that the dress has a lettuce leaf and the sash has a beet on it. So cute.

I'm really glad I had the opportunity to meet Sophia and try her dressings as they are pretty expensive and I'm not sure I would have bought them just to try them out. The good thing about them is that because they are so rich and coat so well, you only need like a teaspoon for an entire bowl of salad so a little goes a long way. They retail for $9.99 each and are being sold in DC-area Whole Foods, MOMs, Roots, and other small stores in the DC metro area. If you are outside of the DC area, you can buy them directly from her website here. Once you try them, you will find that, like Sophia says, your salad will be beautifully dressed even on days when you are not.

Full Disclosure: The products were provided to me for free to review, but that in no way influences my veracious opinion.