Turn Your Leftover Jam into Salad Dressing

(How did I know? I have one, too. Everyone does.)

So when you don’t have quite enough jam left for your morning toast or a PB&J, instead of hopelessly scraping the bottom of the jar with a knife or rinsing it out and recycling it, you can actually turn the jam into a delicious salad dressing.

And the best part? You can do it right in the jar, which means no worrying about transferring to another container or dirtying another dish.

Here’s how to do it: When you’ve got a tablespoon of jam left in the jar, add about ¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil; 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar; and Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper to taste. Cover the jar and give it a good shake. Boom: instant salad dressing.

We use a tablespoon of jam here, but if you have a little less or a little more, that’s OK; the sweetness of the dressing will just be affected slightly.

I prefer raspberry jam, but it doesn’t matter which flavor you have. Most of them should taste great with the other simple pantry ingredients. 

If you’ve got more than one jar you need to use up, dressing isn’t the only option! Here are some other tricks for using up your leftover jam:

• Swirl it into the batter of your next muffins or quick bread.
• Warm it up with maple syrup and make flavored syrup.
• Melt it in a small saucepan and use it as an ice cream topping.

_{Photo: Andrea Bohlender / Getty Images}