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Pesto in salad dressing? Oh yes. Stirring in this savory basil sauce adds nothing but flavor. This healthy pesto salad dressing will become a go to!

“Can you put pesto in salad dressing?” With a big batch of homemade pesto on hand, Alex and I were brainstorming uses for it. We’ve got pesto pasta, pesto pizza, and pesto breakfast sandwiches…so why not pesto salad dressing? Turns out, this emerald green sauce adds the perfect boost to salads. Our version is a healthy salad dressing that has much less calories than the typical dressing, but is creamy and addicting. It’s kind of like a ranch dressing, but with pesto. I mean, how can you go wrong with that?

How to make pesto salad dressing
This pesto salad dressing recipe is modeled after our Healthy Ranch Dressing. You’d think that creamy salad dressings wouldn’t be healthy, but we’ve stumbled upon a secret. Substitute some of that mayo with plain yogurt! Using yogurt to stand in for some of the traditional mayonnaise in a creamy dressing cuts way down on the calories in this pesto salad dressing.
With all the flavor going on in this dressing, it weighs in at a surprisingly low 48 calories per tablespoon! That’s a healthy creamy pesto dressing we can stand behind. The other great things about this pesto salad dressing is that it takes just a few minutes to mix up. If you have the pesto on hand already (which we hope you do!), it takes 5 minutes max.
Here’s how to make this pesto salad dressing:
- In a small bowl, mix together plain yogurt, mayonnaise, pesto, red wine vinegar, and salt.
- Serve immediately, or refrigerate until serving!

Making homemade pesto
You can make this creamy pesto dressing with purchased pesto or with homemade pesto. Of course, we always recommend trying it out homemade! Keep in mind that this dressing is easiest when you’ve already made a batch of pesto and are looking for ways to use it up. Making pesto is perfect in the summer when you have access to lots of fresh basil, either in your garden or at the farmers market. If you’re thinking about growing basil, we have a tutorial for growing it at home: How to Grow Basil.
Once you’ve located some basil, all you need is a handful of other ingredients and a food processor. We have several pesto variations you can use for the recipe:
- Best Basil Pesto
- Cashew Pesto with Basil
- Walnut Pesto with Basil
- Vegan Cashew Pesto
- Related: See all our Best Recipes with Pesto!

How to serve it
So, what salads would go well with this pesto salad dressing? Well, what salads wouldn’t go with it? This dressing is very versatile, and we’d use it anywhere you’d traditionally use a ranch or creamy dressing. Honestly, it would be great on a simple butter lettuce, little gem, or romaine salad! But here are a few other ideas to get you started:
- Wedge Salad with Potato Chips
- Radish Chopped Salad Recipe
- Best Tossed Salad Recipe
- California Salad
- Incredible Chopped Salad
- Grilled Caesar Salad

This pesto salad dressing recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten-free.
Print
Creamy Pesto Salad Dressing
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: ¾ cup 1x
Description
Pesto in salad dressing? Oh yes. Stirring in this savory basil sauce adds nothing but flavor. This healthy pesto salad dressing will become a go to!
Ingredients
- ½ cup plain whole milk yogurt
- ¼ cup tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons prepared pesto (or homemade Basil Pesto or Cashew Pesto)
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Stir together all ingredients in a bowl. Serve immediately or refrigerate until serving.
- Store refrigerated for up to 1 week.
- Category: Salad Dressing
- Method: Stirred
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: Pesto Salad Dressing, Creamy Pesto Salad Dressing, Dressing, Salad Dressing
Looking for salad dressings?
Outside of this recipe, here are a few of our very favorite salad dressing recipes:
I didn’t have regular yogurt, so I ended up making this with some honey greek yogurt I already had in the fridge. The dressing ended up being a little thick, but it was still AMAZING. I did add an extra 1/2 tsp of vinegar to liquify it a bit, but didn’t want the dressing to be too sharp and pungent, so I just accepted that my dressing would be a little creamier.
★★★★★
I made the Pesto dressing. Really simple and yummy!
★★★★★