This easy salad dressing recipe takes just 5-minutes to make and tastes incredible. Making dressing from scratch lets you control the ingredients, so you can make a healthy homemade dressing. A jar of homemade dressing is the ideal meal prep…..you’ll find so many uses throughout the week for it. This simple lemon vinaigrette is so good, you’ll never go back to bottled dressing again.
Easy Salad Dressing Recipe: the unprocessed answer to bringing more salad into your life. Simple enough to make right when you need it….but SO TASTY you’ll want to put it on everything.
Looking for more Healthy Passover Recipes? Discover new and exciting ways to enjoy Kosher for Passover Recipes while maintaining a balanced diet with Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes for Passover.
Learning to make your own salad dressing is one of the simplest, yet most profound changes you can make to your diet, and your well being. Homemade salad dressing doesn’t have to be time consuming or complicated….but it needs to have wholesome, unprocessed ingredients. This Easy Salad Dressing Recipe is just what you need to bring more salad into your life.
5 minutes to Homemade Dressing.
Salad has the potential to be a super nutritious dish. Loading up on dressing that is full of preservatives or highly processed vegetable oils can turn that salad into a much less healthy option. Because I know you’re busy, I’m arming you with an easy everyday salad dressing recipe that takes less than 5 minutes to make. No excuses, and no more reading labels just to find nothing that meets your standards.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Olive oil: Olive oil is the best choice…do not substitute with inferior quality, heavily processed vegetable oils.
- Lemon juice: use freshly squeezed if you can, or buy organic bottled juice, not from concentrate. Substitute with apple cider vinegar, unsweetened rice vinegar or white wine vinegar.
- Shallot: Minced to add flavor and also a sweetness that balances the acidity of the lemon juice. Substitute with ¼ of a small red onion.
- Dijon mustard:
- Spices: Italian spices plus salt and pepper.
- Optional: honey or maple syrup.
Is oil necessary for a healthy dressing?
Your body needs a little dietary fat to absorb some of the vitamins found in dark green leafy vegetables. One of the benefits of eating dark leafy greens is the high vitamin content. Dark green leafy vegetables are good sources of fat soluble vitamins A and K, meaning they are only absorbed along with fats in the diet. That olive oil is working hard to help digest and absorb the fat soluble vitamins AND creating a great tasting dressing.
If you are using an oil free dressing, be sure to include some form of healthy fat in your salad to absorb the fat soluble vitamins. Avocado, olives, nuts and seeds are all good choices.
If you’re looking for a WFPB dressing with no oil, check out my vegan caesar dressing, my healthy ranch dressing or my creamy vegan chipotle dressing.
How to make it
- Peel shallot and mince.
- Add shallot, lemon juice, dijon mustard, Italian spices, sea salt and white pepper to a small bowl and whisk well. Add honey or maple syrup if using. Then slowly pour in the olive oil while continuing to whisk, until dressing is emulsified.
- Alternately, place all ingredients into a glass jar with tight fitting lid. Then shake vigorously until dressing is emulsified.
Meal Prep & Storage
- SERVE on any salad, drizzled on roasted veggies, or as a dressing in your favorite wrap or grainbowl .
- STORE dressing in an airtight container. I like to use mason jars or a salad dressing shaker helps with pouring.
- PREP AHEAD: Definitely! If salad dressing congeals in the fridge, place the jar of dressing in a shallow bowl of warm water for 30 seconds and then shake well.
- FREEZE: Yes, you can freeze salad dressing! Be sure your container has enough space for the dressing to expand when frozen.
- It will stay good in the refrigerator for 2 weeks, freezer for 3 months.
How can you make your salad better:
- Make a healthy homemade salad dressing! Avoid the preservatives and other processed ingredients of bottled dressings.
- GREENS: they’re all good and have different nutritional profiles. Because a healthy gut is one with diverse good bacteria, change things up and try different greens each time you go to the grocery store. Spinach, spring mix, romaine or iceberg.
- CRUNCH: Texture keeps things interesting. Try sprinkling on nuts, seeds or chopped hard veggies like celery, cabbage, radish or cucumbers.
- VARIETY: A mix of colors, shapes, sizes and textures work well to keep salads from being boring. Variety is also the spice of life…and where you’ll get the widest assortment of vitamins, minerals and nutrients.
- FATS: Makes sure to include at least one source of healthy fat. Fat is VITAL for the absorption of fat soluble vitamins in your greens. Avocados, olive oil, olives, nuts and seeds are all good options.
- ROASTED VEGGIES: roasted veggies, sweet potatoes or winter squash will give your salad some character and add to the satiety factor.
- GRAINS: Leftover rice, quinoa, faro, millet and other whole grains add texture, fiber and nutrients.
- LEGUMES: lentils and beans are great sources of vegan protein, fiber and B Vitamins.
More Healthy Vegan Salad Dressing Recipes:
- Avocado Lime Dressing: A green goddess salad must!
- Vegan Caesar Dressing: Incredible….and perfect for crudites platters too.
- Peanut Dressing: You’ll find it inside the spring roll recipe card.
- Apple Vinaigrette: Sweetened with apple cider and dates, this dressing is ah-mazing.
- Vegan Ranch Dressing: 5-minutes to a healthy ranch dressing you will adore.
- Miso Dressing: This simple dressing recipe can be found inside the broccoli salad recipe card…and it works well on any salad combo.
- Dairy-free Chipotle Dressing: This delicious oil free dressing is made with whole ingredients so everyone can enjoy.
- Tahini Balsamic Salad Dressing: I make this dressing weekly…and not just for the butternut squash salad.
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📖 Recipe
Easy Everyday Salad Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup olive oil*
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
- 1 shallot minced
- 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 Tablespoon honey…or Maple Syrup if vegan.
- ½ teaspoon dried Italian spices ie: basil, thyme, parsley, oregano
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk all ingredients together. Alternately, place all ingredients into a glass jar with tight fitting lid. Shake vigorously until ingredients are well incorporated.
- Store dressing in fridge for up to two weeks. If dressing starts to solidify, place jar in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes and then shake well. Alternately, remove from fridge at least 30 minutes before using. Shake well.
Nutrition
Note
The nutrition calculations were done using online tools. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you used. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information is accurate, complete and useful.
Jayde
So simple and delicious!
Debra Klein
So glad you made it and liked it! Yay!
Tracy
I brought this and a salad to salad pot luck at work and it was such a hit!! So simple, fresh, and delicious, like all of your recipes. Thank you!
Debra Klein
Thanks! Good choice.
Elizabeth
This looks tasty. I will have to try this. I’m generally a minimalist, lemon or lime juice and olive oil, salt and pepper. My daughters, however, want a real dressing.
Also, where do you get that lovely cap for the canning jar?
Debra Klein
The “real” dressing your daughters are looking for is this everyday salad dressing. SO GOOD. The mason jar cap was purchased at a craft fair…but I bet you can find some online.
Sarah
I make a dressing similar to this one all the time! I need to try it with shallots added though– that sounds yummy! Sometimes I think about using store-bought instead, but the ingredients are always so gross. This is a keeper!
Debra Klein
The shallots add a subtle sweetness and take the bit out of the lemon juice. Definitely worth it…so many processed ingredients in store bought dressing.
Lili F
My favorite dressing of all time!!!
Debra Klein
Mine too! So easy and every salad lends itself to these simple flavors.
Estie
My go to recipe , keep the recipe on my fridge.
Love it and shared with so many others .
Debra Klein
Thanks for sharing the love….
Kristin
This will be a good way to use some of our fresh Meyer lemons- we get dozens off our tree! 🍋
Debra Klein
What a dream to have a lemon tree in my yard! Meyer lemons will be amazing in this simple dressing recipe.
Adinah
Hi Debra
Just found your site. I’m diabetic and not using oils especially in salad dressing. How can I make your Italian or basic dressing without oil?
Debra Klein
You could substitute the 1/2 cup olive oil with 1/4 cup tahini and 1/4 cup water. You can also try my healthy ranch dressing recipe, it has no oil. Neither does the avocado lime cilantro dressing. There is an entire category of recipes with no oil as well.
Jodi Eisenstadt
Tastes so fresh and vibrant. Dressed a simple salad for a potluck and people requested seconds. This is a keeper. Thanks for sharing.
Debra Klein
You’re welcome….people are always surprised what a difference this simple homemade dressing can make to even a basic salad.