The first post of the year showed how to make an easy, practical and terrifically versatile Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing that required no knife skills. This post raises the bar a bit by substituting garlic powder with fresh garlic, and I’ll show you exactly how both to select and chop fresh garlic as easily as possible.

First, here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing with Fresh Garlic. Yes, you’ll see 6 ingredients below because I sometimes use both cider and balsamic vinegar, but you don’t have to do that.

The trickiest part of this recipe is selecting and chopping fresh garlic – not difficult at all. First, select garlic bulbs (bulb = the whole garlic ball you see below) that have some weight to them, are firm when squeezed, as shown below, and are made up of large, not small, garlic cloves (cloves = individual pieces of garlic that make up a garlic bulb), like those you see in the picture.

Here’s what I call a “3-shot” showing how to remove a garlic clove from a garlic bulb and how to remove the papery skin that encases fresh garlic cloves. (You’ll see how to do this in more detail if you download the recipe.)

Here’s another 3-shot showing how to chop garlic with curled fingers on the garlic clove-gripping hand. (For more details on knife handling knife sharpening, see last post: 2 Keys to Kitchen Knife Safety: Keeping Knives Sharp and Hand Position While Cutting.)

Once you’ve chopped the fresh garlic, all you have to do is add mustard, ground black pepper, oil and vinegar and shake.

All very easy – and fully flavorful!

Click this link or any picture on this page for complete step-by-step picture book directions.

Next post this week: The Clot Thickens – one of, if not the best, common sense books I’ve ever read about heart and cardiovascular health and what we eat – and much more.

Next food post: microwave warmed spinach, pear and feta cheese salad that I’ll shoot freshly and post here very soon that goes great with the 2 easy to make salad dressings posted here most recently.