15+ Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes You Should Make at Home
For me, for a salad to be good, it has to be something substantial. It has to have a great mix of flavors, textures, and really good dressing. I love veggies, but let's call a spade a spade-veggies can be boring-tastic if you don't do something to spice them up a little bit! And a good salad dressing goes a looooooong way to making veggies exciting (even for those folks who aren't big veggie fans-like my two year old, who happily chows down on raw cucumbers and tomatoes when they are dipped in the Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing you'll see below).
Why should I make homemade salad dressings?
Salad dressings are super easy to make at home, and I think learning how to make your favorite salad dressings in your own kitchen is a super useful skill to have. It'll save you tons of cash. The markup on bottled salad dressings is OUTRAGEOUS-most of them you can make for pennies on the dollar. Combine these cheaper dressing recipes with all my mason jar salad recipes, and you've got yourself a quick path to a budget workweek lunch.
And my favorite part is that you can completely customize the taste to your liking. Once you land on your "house dressing" that is perfect for your family's tastebuds, you always will have that recipe in your pocket.
What ingredients do I need for these dressings?
Below, I'm sharing fifteen of my favorite simple, easy, and healthy salad dressing recipes that you can make at home. Honestly, you probably have most of the ingredients to make most of the dressings already in your pantry and fridge-there are no fancy pants ingredients that you'll have to track down at a specialty store.
For most salad dressings, you'll need:
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- Something acidic. Lemon juice, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or white wine vinegar are all good choices.
- Some fat. Oil is a standard ingredient in most vinaigrette-style dressings. With a few exceptions (looking at you, sesame oil in the ginger-sesame dressing), you want a mildly-flavored oil that won't stand out in the dressing. Extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil are my favorites.
- Something sweet. A little sweetness can bring all the flavors together and round out the dressing. Honey is my go-to, but maple syrup, agave, or even a bit of granulated sugar will work as well.
- Salt, pepper, garlic, and other herbs and spices. Salt and pepper will enhance the flavor of the other ingredients-don't skip them where they are called for!
All of these recipes can be made using the jar-and-shake method. Just grab a jar with a tight-fitting lid (I use a wide-mouth pint mason jar and a plastic cap), toss in all the ingredients, and shake the dickens out of it until it's well-blended. There are a couple of recipes below that could be made smoother if you use a food processor or a blender-but you don't have to if you're fine with a chunkier dressing.
How long do homemade salad dressings last?
All the recipes below make about one cup of dressing-enough to last for a few days of salads, but not so much that it goes bad before you get a chance to use it up. Use up the dressings with dairy in them within a week. The vinaigrettes can last two or more weeks in the fridge in an airtight container.
Do I need fresh herbs or dried herbs?
Each recipe below has amounts for using fresh OR dried herbs-you can use all fresh, all dried, or any combination of the two. Just keep in mind that the dried herbs will take a while longer to impart their flavor on the dressing. A good rule of thumb is that if you're using mostly fresh ingredients, you can get by with using your dressings within 15-30 minutes. If you're using mostly dried ingredients, you'd be better off waiting 2+ hours so the flavors can really develop. Let's get started.
If you master a handful of these easy salad dressing recipes, you'll be in good shape to never buy the bottle stuff again if you don't want to.
Totally love these dressings I always seem to go to my own dressing so quite nice bto go beyond the box thanks
Do any of these recipes require refrigeration? We would like to a carry small container of a homemade salad dressing with us when we dine out, but That means we need something that does not need refrigeration.
I would refrigerate any of them that contain dairy! The others you could keep in your bag while you are out, and refrigerate when you get home.
What kind of cup that u use?
Sorry, I don't seem to understand what cup you are referring to. Can you clarify?
These all look so good! I was wondering, how long can you keep these in the fridge for before they start getting bad?
The ones with dairy in them will be good for a week in the fridge. The others will be good for 2 weeks+ in the fridge in an airtight container.
Just made the sesame ginger dressing to go along with a big leafy salad with toasted cashews and peppers and a ribeye. Excited to try it in 30 minutes or so!
How long will these last for when bottled please
The ones with dairy in them will be good for a week in the fridge. The others will be good for 2 weeks+ in the fridge in an airtight container.
Definitely Honey Mustard is the best tasting salad dressing for me.
I haven't tried blue cheese yet.
Hi! I just made 2 of these to take to a dinner tonight and can't wait to try them! But I did notice in the Lemon Vinaigrette recipe, it says " or 2 Tablespoons dried oregano". I'm assuming this is meant to be 2 teaspoons? That's what I added but wanted to confirm! Thanks for sharing the recipes! Can't wait to try more!
Ah, thanks for the catch! I'll change it now!
The chile-lime vinaigrette is absoultely awesome. I had moroccan meatballs for dinner and the dressing was perfect for the salad. Thanks so much !!!
Thank you for these recipes. I am getting into salads and this is a great way for me to enjoy my journey.
I stumbled across these salad dressing recipes two days ago and I'm so glad I did!!! I decided to try out the chili lime dressing since I had plans to make taco salad and it is absolutely wonderful!!! I'm going to try to make the ginger dressing next and most likely will give them all a try in no particular order after that!!! Thanks so much!!!
Wow. Thanks for the homemade dreasing recipes. I have been eating more salads lately and just cringe when I had to pour store bought dressing over something healthy because I know they're not healthy but read I need fat to pair with salads to get its nutrition. I don't like sugar substitude neither .
If you can, can you also create a healthy miso based dressing and orange citrus one as well ( had some in a Japanese restaurant and it's light and refreshing).
These salad dressings looks divine! Going to try all of them. One question, can you bottle them and keep them on the shelf and refrigerate only once opened?
Nope, you'll want to put them in the refrigerator right away! They aren't sealed the way store-bought dressings are and don't contain preservatives, so they don't have as long of a shelf life.
Hi!
I can’t believe it! Usually I’ll like a few of a bunch of exiles but I love EVERY ONE of these! They’re all great for summer and I love the bottles!
Carla
I am so excited!!! I had to print them all!!! I am making them all and giving it a try, they all sound amazing.
looks great.. I would definitely make all 8. Thanks for sharing..
This is really good and easy recipe. I would definitely make all 8. Thanks for sharing..
Hi cassie. I would like to know how many calories does the Lemon Vinaigrette has per serving and the Chile lime salad dressing. These two are my favorite. Thank you
Thank you very much for your sharing those recipes.
I made the first Italy dressing is very tasty I loved it.
I love the salad dressing recipes.
How do I follow you as I don't do twitter only Facebook and email.. My email is burtonlynettej4@gmail.com if you can show me how to follow your blog.. Thanks was very interesting..
You can sign up to receive emails here: wholefully.com/newsletter. Thanks! 🙂