Lemon Vinaigrette

This tangy lemon vinaigrette tastes like pure lemon, and uses only 4 ingredients. Here’s how to make lemon salad dressing.

Alex and I are a little into salad dressings over here! We’ve made you a big collection with our favorite homemade salad dressings, from homemade ranch to balsamic. And now, we’ve found yet another favorite to add to the collection: lemon vinaigrette! This lemon vinaigrette tastes like pure lemon. It makes gives all salads a refreshing zing. And it uses only 4 ingredients! This easy lemon salad dressing is just begging for you to make a salad to put it on.

Another citrus dressing? Try our Easy Lime Vinaigrette or Citrus Salad Dressing.

The inspiration? Julia Child.

This lemon vinaigrette recipe is modeled after a recipe by our cooking idol, Julia Child. We first came across Julia when we started cooking together after we got married 10 plus years ago. And we immediately fell in love with her passion for cooking and helping people succeed in the kitchen. She’s always been a guiding presence to us: we used to watch her old black and white TV shows. She taught us about how to flip an omelette with confidence and how to make salade nicoise.

Speaking of Nicoise salad, that is the inspiration behind this lemon vinaigrette recipe! Alex and I have created our best Nicoise salad rendition, and it calls for a lemon vinaigrette recipe. This lemon salad dressing is a direct inspiration from Julia’s method!

How to make lemon vinaigrette

This recipe is genius in its simplicity. The original recipe calls for mashing lemon zest in a mortar and pestle, but since most people don’t have those these days, we’ve created a method using a chef knife. Here’s how to do it:

• Mash the lemon zest into a paste: Zest the lemon, then the key here is to mash the lemon zest into a paste so it spreads throughout the entire dressing! That way there aren’t weird floaties of lemon zest, and the flavor spreads evenly throughout.
• Whisk in lemon juice and mustard. Once you’ve created your lemon paste, you’ll whisk in some lemon juice and Dijon mustard. 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.

How to serve this lemon salad dressing

This lemon vinaigrette is so versatile! It goes with many different cuisines: American, Mediterranean, Italian, French, and more. Here are a few of our favorite ways to use it:

• Kale Salad Substitute it in this kale salad for an even easier tangy flair.
• Best Tossed Salad It’s perfect in this customizable tossed side salad.
• Cabbage Salad with Apples & Walnuts This cabbage salad would be perfect with zingy lemon dressing.
• Strawberry Spinach Salad Strawberries pair perfectly with tart lemon.
• Chickpea Fattoush Salad Bowl Substitute lemon dressing for this Mediterranean-style bowl meal.
• Pea Salad with Lemon Dressing This pea salad features this lemon vinaigrette with fresh oregano.

Looking for salad dressings?

Here are a few of our very favorite salad dressing recipes:

• Homemade Ranch Dressing
• Creamy Avocado Dressing
• Caesar Dressing Recipe
• Best Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Easy Honey Mustard Dressing
• Homemade Italian Dressing
• Best Vegan Ranch Dressing
• Blue Cheese Dressing
• Greek Salad Dressing
• Thousand Island Dressing
• 21 Vinaigrette Recipes That Your Salad Needs
• Top 10 Salad Dressings
• Creamy Pesto Salad Dressing
• Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
• How to Make Healthy Salad Dressing

This lemon vinaigrette recipe is…

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

Lemon Vinaigrette

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(16 votes, average: 4.38 out of 5)

4.4 from 16 reviews

• Author: Sonja
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 0 minutes
• Total Time: 5 minutes
• Yield: About 1/2 cup 1x

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Description

This tangy lemon vinaigrette tastes like pure lemon, and uses only 4 ingredients. Here’s how to make lemon salad dressing.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1/2 large lemon (1 tablespoon lemon zest + 2 tablespoons juice)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt plus more if needed
• 1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup olive oil

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Instructions

1. Zest the lemon. Sprinkle it with the kosher salt, then mince it as fine as possible. Holding the blunt edge of the knife, scrape the sharp edge of the blade over the minced lemon zest, holding the knife at an angle and mashing the lemon zest into a paste. This should only take a minute or two and it doesn’t need to be perfect: just try to get the lemon zest as fine as possible.
2. Place the lemon zest in a medium bowl and it whisk together with the mustard and lemon juice. Gradually whisk in the olive oil 1 tablespoon at a time (8 tablespoons total), until creamy and emulsified. If desired, season with additional salt.

• Category: Salad Dressing
• Method: Whisked
• Cuisine: French

Keywords: Lemon vinaigrette, Lemon salad dressing, How to make lemon vinaigrette

Last updated: February 2020

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