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This zingy citrus salad dressing takes just minutes to make! It’s a lemon orange vinaigrette that livens up any salad.
Looking for a tangy salad dressing to liven up your greens? This zingy citrus salad dressing is where it’s at! It’s got both fresh lemon and orange juice, and it’s perfectly balanced. Alex and I made it as part of a fennel orange salad, and it was so refreshing we couldn’t stop eating it! This vinaigrette works in the winter during citrus season, and as a light healthy dressing for summer salads. It’s a favorite in our house: and we hope it will be in yours too! Here’s how to make it.
Tips for making citrus salad dressing
This fresh and healthy citrus salad dressing comes together in a flash! The only main task is juicing the lemon and orange, then whisking together the dressing. Here are a few tips for this simple vinaigrette:
- Use a juicer. While you can juice citrus without it, Alex and I always use our trusty juicer for citrus to quickly juice it and keep the seeds out. (Anytime I try it with my hands, I get seeds in whatever I’m making!) Here’s the juicer we use: it works great!
- For zesting: a microplane or grater. We added the zest of ½ orange to this dressing to make it pop! We use a microplane to make quick work of zesting. If you don’t have one, use a grater. Smaller zesters that are more like bar tools don’t work as well here. Here’s more on How to Zest an Orange.
- Add the olive oil gradually to make a creamy emulsion. Here’s the most important part: add the olive oil gradually, tablespoon by tablespoon. Whisk until it combines, then add another. This is the key to getting a creamy emulsified salad dressing!
Ways serve this citrus salad dressing
This citrus salad dressing goes well on lots of different types of salads! It would also make a great flavoring for green beans or broccoli as a side dish. Here are our favorite ways to serve it:
- Fennel orange salad. This fennel orange salad accentuates the orange in our fennel orange salad perfectly.
- Kale salad. It would be perfect on this BEST Kale Salad — add it to taste.
- Arugula salad. Brighten up this Easy Arugula Salad with citrus vinaigrette (to taste).
- Green beans. Make this Steamed Green Beans side dish pop even more by adding the dressing to taste.
- Broccoli. This Best Steamed Broccoli would also be fantastic tossed with a little citrus salad dressing before sprinkling with feta cheese.
A few more favorite salad dressings
When Alex and I first started cooking together, homemade salad dressings is where we started. We dumped the ancient store-bought dressings in our refrigerator in favor of homemade stuff. Use them on any of our best salads, or make your own “throw together” version. Here are a few of our favorites healthy dressings that we make on the regular:
- Lemon Vinaigrette: Don’t have orange? Make our zingy lemon vinaigrette instead. (It’s great on Nicoise salad.)
- Apple Cider Vinegar Dressing Quick and easy! Whisk up this tangy salad dressing with Dijon mustard and olive oil.
- Best Balsamic Vinaigrette: This is the one we make most often! It’s perfectly tangy and creamy. We’ve made countless salad recipes with it (Strawberry, Beet, Blackberry, Apple, Blueberry).
- Healthy Ranch Dressing: And always a classic, ranch! Our homemade ranch is seriously good, with a healthy twist using Greek yogurt.
- 10 more dressings you might enjoy…
This recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.
Citrus Salad Dressing (Easy Vinaigrette!)
This zingy citrus salad dressing takes just minutes to make! It’s a lemon orange vinaigrette that livens up any salad.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: About ¾ cup 1x
- Category: Dressing
- Method: Stirred
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons orange juice, plus zest of ½ orange
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
- ½ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Zest the orange. In a medium bowl, mix the orange juice, orange zest, lemon juice, mustard, maple syrup, salt and a grind of fresh black pepper.
- Gradually whisk in the olive oil 1 tablespoon at a time (8 tablespoons total), until creamy and emulsified. If desired, season with additional salt. Store refrigerated for up to 1 week; bring to room temperature prior to serving.
When you gave the measurements for double or triple the recipe, you mention 8 tbls total for olive oil. Wouldn’t that double or triple as well? I am making this for company next wknd and just want it to be right, and tasty!! Thanks
Sorry that’s not updating! It should be triple.
This dressing is just what I was looking for. It’s delicious! Thank you!
Followed the recipe exactly and it tasted too oily. It has the potential of being a decent dressing if tweaked. Added more of everything to balance out the oil taste.
Very delicious, and easy, quick to make! Thank you!
Thank you so much for the inspiration. I used this recipe numerous times for a variety of salads. My favorite isvtovuse the Citrus Vinaigrette Dressing with fresh Baby Kale that I grind in the foid processor. I add Marcona roasted almonds, dried cranberries, and occasionally, frozen bluebarries to the kale. The Citrus Vinaigrette gives a fresh tang to the kale. It is magic in my mouth.
I made this dressing (minus mustard) for Xmas Eve dinner. Italians fast (no meat) on Xmas Eve so I made a white lasagna with a Parmesan bechamel sauce. I made the orange fennel salad and it was very light and complimented the lasagna nicely.
This recipe tastes like drinking olive oil out of the container.
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it!
The problem with the olive oil may be that your recipe calls for 1/2 cup, but in instructions it designates 8 tablespoons, which is a cup.
The recipe is lovely with 1/2 cup oil
Hi! 8 Tbsp is 1/2 cup (8 ounces in a cup).
I would like to make this ahead of time…should I wait until right before I serve it to add and emulsify the oil?
You can wait, or just give it a quick whisk before serving. Either shoudl work!
How long can this dressing be stored?
You can store refrigerated for up to 1 week; bring to room temperature prior to serving!
There doesn’t seem to be fennel anywhere right now, any substitutions you’d recommend? Leek or celery??
Shoot! Celery would be good and maybe thinly sliced red onion soaked for a few minutes in cold water to reduce the bite.