Making your own homemade salad dressings can actually be fairly simple, and the taste is far superior to the store bought stuff. Plus most packaged salad dressings are full of unnecessary additives (including refined sweeteners) that you would never cook with at home…so this is a great place to start when it comes to making the switch to real food.
Below is a super simple recipe for the pictured Mustard Vinaigrette along with some other tips and recipes to keep your salads fresh and fun!
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First of all, I must share:
The Best Salad Dressing Invention Ever!
This bottle may not look like much, but detailed on the side are 8 different salad dressing recipes in a “fill to here” type fashion. It does call for some refined oils and such, but nothing that can’t easily be substituted for more whole ingredients.
The recipes include Asian, Caesar, French, Greek, Italian, Vinaigrette, Balsamic Vinaigrette, and Honey Mustard—all which you can make and store in this bottle.
We’ve had ours for several years now and it’s as good as new – we absolutely love it! And many of our family and friends now have one of these salad dressing bottles as well because one holiday season I went a little crazy and bought one for just about everybody I know. I just love practical gifts and at less than $9 a pop this one is hard to beat. :)
Okay, so back to recipes. Here are a few easy ones to get you started…along with the vinaigrette below!
- Blue Cheese Dressing
- Ranch Dip (can also be thinned out with milk to be more of a dressing)
- Honey Mustard (equal parts honey and mustard)
- Also, don’t forget – just plain Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar!
Simple Mustard Vinaigrette
This is a great place to start when it comes to making the switch to real food. Below is a super simple recipe for the pictured Mustard Vinaigrette along with some other tips and recipes to keep your salads fresh and fun!
Ingredients
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 pinch paprika
- pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Pour all ingredients into a small mason jar. Put on the lid and shake vigorously (i.e. emulsify) until well blended.
Store the dressing in the jar in the fridge – the oil will harden when cold so be sure to let it sit out or warm it up a bit each time before using.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Facts
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Using Spelt Pasta (Plus a recipe and $500 Giveaway!)
I’m not rating your recipe because I didn’t actually follow it – but it made a great “jumping off” point for me to create the dressing I needed today! I had made some spicy chickpeas (not roasted) for my husband, and they needed some sort of dressing. I normally avoid vinaigrettes because they’re too oily for my taste, but by making it myself I could adjust the proportions. I used 4 parts EVOO, 3 parts just plain distilled vinegar, and 1 part yellow mustard. I added no other herbs or spices because the chickpeas were so spicy. For myself I made up a bowl of spinach and bitter greens and added the chickpeas tossed with the dressing as a topper. Delicious! [side note – it also fit my Weight Watchers meal plan perfectly]
I tried this yesterday and it is so good. I just added a teaspoon of garlic powder, so that I can store this on the counter. This way I can use it when I need to and not have to worry about it getting so thick.
What would you recommend to increase the viscosity of vinaigrette dressing so they cling a little better to the greens?
Hello. I think the mustard helps a lot.
Just had to compliment your dressing bottle choice. We have that same one, and we absolutely love it!!
As an alternative to diet salad dressing, I mix 1 tsp. of prepared mustard and 1 tsp. honey for a side salad. (Yes, I measure.) 20 calories.
Hi, how long can each of these be stored in the fridge, approximately. Thanks!
I use either whole grain mustard or dijon (instead of the yellow mustard) and sometimes I use dried shallots (that I get at World Market) if I’m worried about being stinky after eating it with garlic, lol.
Is it absolutely necessary to put homemade vinaigrettes in the fridge if all of the ingredients are normally stored out of the fridge? I’m just trying to save time by not having to thaw the dressing every time I want to use it. Thanks!
Hi. Yes, if you want to extend its shelf life for a few days.
Is there away to increase the other ingredients or just add less oilive oil?
Hi. You can decrease the olive oil if you’d like. It will have a stronger vinegar and mustard taste.