Making your own salad dressing takes only about as long as it would to open your store bought dressing, and with the possibilities of saving your hard earned money, there really is no reason to get store-bought dressing ever again!
Here are 5 easy salad dressing recipes that you can make at home to save some money!
1) French
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- Salt, pepper, and mustard (a little goes a long way) to taste
I recommend adding the sugar last with this, after everything else is blended, as it might take a minute to get it all dissolved. The final result is a really tangy french dressing with a hint of sweet!
2) Blue Cheese
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 1 – 2 tsp lemon juice
- Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
You can combine the first three ingredients first, and it might take a little bit of mashing, but you’ll want a paste like texture. Then you can add in the lemon juice and seasonings, and if it comes out a little bit thicker than you’d like, just add some more lemon juice or even a splash of buttermilk!
3) Caesar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 – 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic or red wine vinegar
- 1 – 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 3 tbsp grated Parmesan
- Pepper to taste
I loooove Caesar salads, so I always try to keep this mixture readily available! Add everything but the olive oil and black pepper, and mix it all up. Add the olive oil slowly, while stirring, until you get a thickness that you’d like. Then, just pepper to taste!
4) Balsamic Vinaigrette
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar / infused vinegar
- Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
Making your own infused vinegar opens up a wide variety of vinaigrettes you can make (a raspberry infusion is great for a spring salad!) or you can stick with this simple balsamic vinaigrette! With any variations you try, just make sure to keep the oil to vinegar ratio about the same.
5) Ranch
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 3 tbsp ranch seasoning blend
Ranch is pretty much everyones favorite, so in my house we keep the seasoning blend available at all times! You can easily make this in advance or just a serving for your salad!
Making your salad dressings is super cost-effective and lets you control exactly what is going into them and perfect the taste! After a couple times making them, you’ll probably have them memorized— it’s super simple.
Do you have any salad dressings that you always make at home!? Share with me in the comments below!