Probably a stupid question - homemade salad dressing [View all]

I have high blood pressure. I love salads - especially in the summer months. Salad dressings at the store are sodium bombs and best to be avoided. I've been experimenting with homemade dressings to reduce the sodium. I have found several recipes for tasty Italian dressings. They use olive oil and whatever vinegar (I typically just use red wine vinegar) and a variety of herbs. I have all that in the pantry. So far, so good.

I mix it all up and it tastes great. But they say to refrigerate it. When I take it back out in a day or two, it's all congealed and it won't mix up anymore. I try anyway and it is pretty nasty. I'm *assuming* that it is the olive oil that congeals. OTOH, I do know the danger of assuming!

So my question is this: I don't refrigerate my olive oil or my vinegar. I don't refrigerate my dried herbs. Is it really necessary to refrigerate the dressing it after it's all been mixed together?

I guess the follow up question would be, if it isn't the oil congealing, what's happening in my fridge or during the next day or so that ruins my dressing?

I'm dumb enough to have tried the thing a few times, expecting different results. It's always the same.

Full disclosure: I ate garbage food most of my adult life so I consider myself pretty much a novice at cooking. I'm trying to do better. If anybody has these answers, good salad dressing recipes or anything else, I'd be grateful for help.

Also, for real, how important is mustard? It hasn't been in the recipes I've tried but I see it in many. And they say to use the chunky kind. I absolutely hate mustard. Does the taste of it carry through to the end result?

Sorry, this is long.