Dress to impress: sauce ideas to transform your dinners for good

What sauces and dressings can I make to jazz up weekday meals?

- By Anna Berrill

Sauces and dressings make even the simplest meals taste better.

The formula, says Gurdeep Loyal, author of Flavour Heroes (published in June), is “a really good fat and a really good sour”. That fat could be oil, but it doesn’t have to be.

“It could be an egg yolk, it could be avocado, but if it’s oil, go for a flavoured one,” Loyal says, and in place of vinegar or fresh citrus, try gherkins, capers or preserved citrus instead. “My go-tos are preserved lemon whizzed up with a bit of their brine, some garlic-infused olive oil and maple syrup. Or avocado blitzed with gherkins, gherkin brine, a bit of sugar and herbs such as chives or tarragon. Or chilli-infused olive oil blitzed with a teaspoon of tamarind.”