Best Easy Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes

The perfect salad needs the perfect balancing dressing. Sweet or acidic, subtle or punchy, love your leaves with these tasty salad dressing recipes, which can be made in minutes. There’s one to suit every leaf and every dish.

Dressing your salad

The world is full of ready-made dressings, but if you want a one that is perfectly matched to your meal, easy to make and additive free then here you go!

See also

• Get the best from your leaves with my guide on how to make a salad
• Salad soup is the perfect use for leftover salad.

I have collected my favourite salad dressing recipes together here, ready to explore. But which one do you want? Read on to find the right dressing for every occasion.

Simple vinaigrette salad dressing

The most basic salad dressing is a simple vinaigrette, a classic French dressing. This is made up of a little oil together with wine or balsamic vinegar, or lemon juice.

Whisk them up in the salad bowl before adding your leaves, adding a little mustard and salt if you like. Making the dressing in the bowl avoids both waste and extra washing up.

This is the little black dress of salad dressing recipes, effortless and delicious with just about anything, leaves, grains, pulses and more.

It is particularly useful for leafy herb salads with the most delicate leaves. These would be weighed down by heavier emulsion dressings and have light but complex flavours that you don’t want to smother.

Vinaigrette variations

Vinaigrette style dressings can be varied in so many ways with so many flavours, adding heat or cooling herbs to balance out all sorts of salad ingredients.

These dressings will work with grain salads, rice salad or even pasta salads, like this Italian pasta salad or Greek orzo salad. They are also delicious on leaves and vegetables.

Leave crunchy root vegetables or more robust leaves in the dressing for a little while before serving to soften them and flavour them with the dressing.

Creamy Dressings & Emulsions

A dressing with a bit more body suits robust, chunky salads. They can be used to bind ingredients (think of the classic Russian salad, with vegetables held together with mayonnaise), drizzled on top, or dolloped on the side or in the centre of the plate for dipping.

Mayonnaise and salad cream (the great British dressing for which there is no known substitute), are classic emulsion dressings.

Sweeter dressings

A little of what you fancy does you good. These dressings combine sweetness with a little fire and are delicious on crunchy vegetables, bitter leaves and oriental leaves.

Something different

Fancy a more unusual dressing? Here are some ideas you may not have considered!

Salads with stand-out dressings

These are some of my favourite salad recipes with their own tailored dressings. Enjoy them as written or use the dressings with your own favourites.

Stylish salad recipes to match your favourite dressings

• Carrot salad – a French bistro classic

• Rocket salad – light and fresh

• Pepper and caper salad – juicy and bursting with flavour

• Green Italian salad with antipasti – a lovely stylish centrepiece to share with friends

• No mayo slaw – fresh and fabulous