If the start of the new year has you wanting a healthy eating reset, may I suggest making your own salad dressings? They are incredibly easy to make and, in my opinion, make your salads taste so much better. I still love a Ken’s Creamy Caesar as much as anyone, but when I’m looking for something on the lighter side, I make my own dressing.
5 Tried-And-True Homemade Salad Dressings From My Favorite Food Blogs:
1. Tahini Caesar Dressing from What’s Gaby Cooking
If you’re looking for something on the creamier side, this Tahini Caesar Dressing does the trick.
- 1/3 cup tahini
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons water
- kosher salt
Whisk together tahini, lemon, oil, and garlic until smooth. Add water to achieve the consistency you want and add salt to season.
Favorite way to use this dressing: Kale caesar salad with thinly sliced red onions, roasted cherry tomatoes, pulled rotisserie chicken, and homemade croutons.
2. Greek Vinaigrette from Gimme Some Oven
Super simple, and super delicious.
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- Pinch of garlic powder
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of black pepper
Whisk all of the ingredients together until combined.
Favorite way to use this dressing: Greek farro salad with cucumbers, red onion, tomato, parsley, Greek olives, and feta.
3. Asian Sesame Dressing from Iowa Girl Eats
For an Asian-inspired chopped salad, this dressing is my go-to! Heads up, this makes a good amount of dressing. It also has a decent amount of sugar, so I dress my salads very lightly with this dressing.
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- Pepper
Bring vinegar to a boil in a small saucepan. Turn off the heat and add sugar until dissolved. Let cool. Combine with the rest of the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake to combine.
Favorite way to use this dressing: Chopped Asian chicken salad with toasted almonds, romaine lettuce, pulled rotisserie chicken salad, green onions, mandarin oranges, cilantro, and avocado.
4. Southwest Vinaigrette from Hip2Save
Just five ingredients make up this zesty dressing.
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Juice from 1 ½ limes
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Whisk to combine — easy as that!
Favorite way to use this dressing: Southwest Quinoa Salad with black beans, avocado, red onion, tomatoes, corn, mango, and cilantro.
5. Basic Italian Dressing from Cookie and Kate
In my opinion, this is so much better than bottled Italian dressing.
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ⅓ cup red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ⅓ teaspoon salt, more to taste
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
Whisk until blended!
Favorite way to use this dressing: I love this on a simple green side salad!
I hope these salad dressings help punch up your salads this year! They are all super simple to make and don’t require any fancy tools. However, I do love my salad dressing shaker! Measure, mix, and save your dressing in the fridge all in this handy little tool.
