Sometimes in our quest for better health, we can forget how important the basics can be. In this recipe plus video demo below, I show you how to make your own salad dressing quickly and easily in your own kitchen.
Store salad dressings – even organic ones at the healthfood store – are loaded with unhealthy, highly processed polyunsaturated oils that will cause inflammation in your body when consumed to excess in the typical Western diet (not to mention ugly brown spots on your skin!). Canola oil is the typical oil used in these commercial dressings. More and more research is coming out about just how unhealthy this modern oil is to human health!
Make sure you are getting the fats right in your salad dressing – this is one of the most basic steps as you convert your kitchen to a place where Real Food reigns!
How to Make Your Own Basic Salad Dressing (video)
The written recipes for the salad dressings made in the video are included below.
Basic Honey Mustard Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (add last and whisk quickly while streaming slowly into the other already mixed ingredients)
1/3 cup store bought or homemade apple cider vinegar
2 TBL raw, local honey
1 TBL organic dijon mustard
Instructions
Mix well and serve.

Maple Salad Dressing Recipe
Delicious salad dressing made with healthy fats, vinegar and spices and lightly sweetened with maple syrup.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar preferably raw and packaged in glass
- 2 Tbl dark maple syrup
- 1 Tbl dijon mustard
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1/8 tsp sea salt finely ground
Instructions
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Mix all the ingredients together except for the olive oil.
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Stream the olive oil slowly into the other already mixed ingredients while whisking quickly. This will emulsify the oil into the ingredients for a nice, thick dressing!
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Serve and enjoy!
More Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes
Another recipe to try using kombucha in place of the apple cider vinegar is this maple kombucha salad dressing.
This recipe for raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing is a delicious one to try too! Or, add some probiotics to your salad or sandwich with fermented thousand island dressing.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hi Karen, I would refrigerate them.
sarah,
is it necessary to regrigerate the dressings you have posted here?
sarah, is it necessary to refrigerate the salad dressings you made. i understand refrigerating if they're made with blue cheese or yogurt or creme freche-but your recipe doesn't call for anything that needs refrigeration except maybe the mustard.
sarah! You are so cute! I love the video and yes, making great dressing is so key. I tell folks not to forget to use fat based dressings if they want to absorb all the great nutrients from their salad! [email protected]
Hello Sarah, thank you for sharing your salad dressings video. We make our dressings all the time, or just use oil & vinegar, acv or just plain lemon.
Do you have more information on the side effects of the soy bean oil & canola oil with regards to inflammation? I'm interested in learning more.
thank you!
blessings~carmen
I've done a bleu cheese using some plain yogurt, olive oil, bleu cheese, crumbled, chopped chives, s & p, and some vinegar. It's a family favorite!
There really is nothing better than homemade, is there?