Lemon Vinaigrette

This lemon vinaigrette recipe has bold, citrusy flavor with just a handful of ingredients! Everyone will love this quick salad dressing.

Looking for a killer citrusy salad dressing? Here’s a favorite that’s quick to put together and tastes like a million bucks. This lemon vinaigrette tastes like pure lemon. It makes gives all salads a refreshing zing, with only 4 ingredients! (Plus salt, of course.) This easy lemon salad dressing is just begging for you to make a salad. Come, we’ll show you how it’s done!

The ingredients you’ll need

You only need 4 ingredients for this lemon vinaigrette: plus salt, which we’re assuming you’ll already have on hand. It’s hard to get big citrusy flavor in a vinaigrette, since other flavors can overpower the delicate lemon flavor. Though we typically make vinaigrette with vinegar, we’ve landed on a great way to make this lemon vinaigrette sing without using added vinegar. The ingredients you’ll need are:

• Fresh lemon: do not substitute purchased bottled lemon juice! The flavor is not comparable.
• Olive oil
• Dijon mustard
• Garlic

How to make lemon vinaigrette

This lemon vinaigrette recipe is genius in its simplicity. Whisk together the ingredients, and you’ve got a pure lemon flavor. Here’s how to do it:

• Whisk together lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic, and salt. Use a medium bowl and whisk together the non-oil ingredients first. We love using Dijon mustard in our homemade salad dressing recipes. Not only does it add great flavor, it helps to create a creamy emulsion.
• Whisk in olive oil gradually until thickened. Just whisk in the olive oil 1 tablespoon at a time until that creamy emulsion forms! The resulting lemon salad dressing is so zesty and delicious, you’ll want to put it on every salad you make. And because of that lemon zest paste, it stays super bright yellow too!

Want more with lemon? Try these 15 Zesty Lemon Recipes.

Best salads for serving lemon salad dressing

The best thing about this lemon vinaigrette recipe? It’s so versatile! It pairs with a variety of different cuisines: Mediterranean, Italian, American, French, and more. Here are a few of our favorite ways to use it in salad recipes:

• Drizzle it over classic Nicoise Salad for a zingy flavor
• Substitute in Kale Salad or Best Tossed Salad to make it deliciously fresh
• Try it on a berry salad, like Strawberry Spinach Salad, Blackberry Salad or Blueberry Salad
• Spoon it over Avocado Salad or Tomato Salad
• It even works on a pasta salads, like Antipasto Salad

More vinaigrette salad dressings

The vinaigrette is our top type of homemade salad dressing: ever! Though we love creamy dressings like Ranch and Caesar, the vinaigrette is the most versatile for salads of all kinds. Here are our top vinaigrette salad dressings to try:

• Try the pristine and tangy Balsamic Vinaigrette (fan favorite!)
• Opt for popular Dijon Vinaigrette or Shallot Vinaigrette
• Go fruity with Strawberry Vinaigrette or Raspberry Vinaigrette
• Try other citrus with Easy Lime Vinaigrette or Citrus Vinaigrette
• Use summery produce with Quick Tomato Vinaigrette or Fresh Basil Vinaigrette

01

Best Balsamic Vinaigrette

02

Strawberry Vinaigrette

03

Shallot Vinaigrette

04

Quick Tomato Vinaigrette

This lemon vinaigrette recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.

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Last updated: February 2020