When it comes to eating “off the grid”, one of the easiest things you can do is throw out those bottles of purchased salad dressing in favor of the homemade variety. Not only does it taste exponentially better and avoids suspicious ingredients, you can also clear out your refrigerator of all those half-empty bottles of unknown origin (just what year did I buy this, anyway?).
This recipe is a good starting point for a basic vinaigrette, and is easily customizable to your own taste. For the acid, try different vinegars like balsamic or apple cider vinegar, or use citrus juices like lemon, lime, orange. Add a little minced garlic or shallot. In the summer, chop some fresh herbs and add them to the mix: oregano, thyme or chives are particularly good. Extra virgin olive oil is a particularly good base oil; we generally stick with olive oil for most of our vinaigrettes. We recommend storing leftover vinaigrette in the refrigerator in a canning jar with a lid. Refrigerating usually makes the dressing go solid; just run it under warm water for a minute and stir it up prior to using.
What are your favorite homemade dressings? We’d love to know!
Other Dressings We Love
Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Healthy Green Goddess Dressing
Cilantro Lime Dressing
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons honey
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil
- In a small bowl, whisk all ingredients except olive oil, then slowly whisk in the olive oil until the dressing thickens and an emulsion forms. Taste and adjust quantities as desired.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks; bring to room temperature and stir before serving.
19 Comments
sally
March 15, 2011 at 10:40 amHomemade vinaigrette is the best! I love your canning jar tip!
Annie
March 15, 2011 at 3:52 pmThank you for this! I have made a lot of homemade dressings that I love, and I think this will really help me kick the store-bought habit for good, especially with ingredients I pretty much always have on hand. Sur La Table also has some really nice and inexpensive glass bottles for things like salad dressing, just FYI.
Sonja
March 17, 2011 at 5:09 pmThanks for the recommendation – we’ll have to check it out! :)
simone
March 16, 2011 at 9:21 amI love shaking my vinaigrette in a jar too. It’s so much easier! And you can never have too many basic vinaigrette recipes! Thanks for this one!
penandra
March 16, 2011 at 11:21 amThanks for this basic recipe and the great hint about the canning jar. Funny — I make homemade mayonnaise (in the pint jars so it’s already in its storage container), but didn’t think of making my vinaigrette in a similar (albeit smaller) container!
Anna
March 16, 2011 at 5:52 pmWow! I’ve have been a Good Seasons dressing user because that’s what I grew up with and it was always just OK. But this dressing has my husband and me wanting salads every day instead of a couple days a week! I used 1/3 cup of vinegar and it was just right!
Thanks for posting this recipe!
Sonja
March 17, 2011 at 3:55 pmGlad to hear it! 1/3 cup sounds like a good ratio. The original recipe we started with used 1/4 cup vinegar to 1 cup olive oil, which to me was like drinking olive oil!
Parsley Sage
March 16, 2011 at 8:54 pmThis is ace! Easy and tasty. Perfect combo.
Fran {The Flavorful Fork}
March 23, 2011 at 6:09 pmI love homemade dressings. Lately I have simply been tossing my greens with a drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It is light and delicious. I also love to use the “shake it if you got it” method for making dressings. So simple.
Cook in a Bar
March 23, 2011 at 6:11 pmThanks for the recipe! I hate storebought salad dressings, and always make my own dressings. I use the same ratio of oil and vinegar, and I really like champagne vinegar. It is light and crisp.
Debbie B (DebaRooRoo)
March 25, 2011 at 11:20 amLove basic vinaigrettes! They can be so flavorful and refreshing. Now that I’ve starting making my own, it’s really hard to buy store bought dressings.
Lisa in Indianapolis
August 19, 2011 at 9:41 pmI always make fresh vinegarette. When you walk down the salad dressing aisle in the grocery and see all those bottles standing sentry, all I can think of is how cloying and full of preservatives, and expensive they are. Tip: That little bit of mustard goody left in the jar makes a great little dressing shake-up container. And you don’t waste the mustard. Also, I used to pour the dressing on top of the individual salads when setting the table, but a recent cookbook read says to toss the entire salad with the dressing (with your hands)and then serve. I use salad tongs to toss it but I’ve found that less dressing is needed and every piece of the salad has enough of it to add flavor without leaving a wasted puddle in the bottom of the salad dish.
JS
July 2, 2012 at 10:17 amCan you can this salad dressing?
Alex
July 2, 2012 at 5:11 pmI’m not sure, but it last quite a long time in the fridge.
(a different) Alex
January 29, 2014 at 12:54 amwait, shaking the dressing in a jar isn’t the traditional way to make it?
that’s the way i grew up with.
Mattie
February 18, 2014 at 5:18 pmThank you so much for this fabulous recipe. Perfect addition to my favorite salad: http://fitischic.com/2014/02/18/the-superwoman-salad/
Keep up the wonderful work,
Mattie
http://www.FitisChic.com
Marissa
February 16, 2015 at 6:49 pmexcellent dressing! Made it the way it said to. Came out great :)
Christine H
July 19, 2016 at 9:39 pmThanks for the recipe, I’ve been wanting to make my own dressings for some time now and so I greatly appreciate what you have provided!
CT
July 28, 2016 at 10:49 pmExcellent! Thank you for a wonderful recipe, simple and perfect. I have made this several times and occasionally use garlic infused olive oil. Nice to try different oils and vinegars when you have a great recipe to start with.
Thank you!!