Contents
Salad Dressing Basics
Fats and Oils for Salad Dressings
Acids For Salad Dressings
Other Salad Dressing Ingredients
Vinaigrette Recipes
How to Make Vinaigrettes
Lemon Vinaigrette
Tomato-Basil Vinaigrette
Orange-Shallot Vinaigrette
Lemon-Oregano Vinaigrette
Lime-Cumin Vinaigrette
Ginger Vinaigrette
Sesame Vinaigrette
Emulsified Salad Dressing Recipes
How to Make Emulsified Dressings
French Dressing
Caesar Dressing
Catalina Dressing
Roasted Garlic Dressing
Sherry-Mustard Vinaigrette
Pear Vinaigrette
Walnut Vinaigrette
Peanut-Chile Dressing
Creamy Salad Dressing Recipes
Blue Cheese Dressing
Buttermilk Dressing with Garlic and Oregano
Yogurt-Dill Dressing (Tzatziki)
Garlic Mayonnaise (Aioli)
Mayonnaise with Chipotle Peppers
Creamy Italian Dressing
Ranch Dressing
Green Goddess Dressing
Rémoulade Sauce
Russian Dressing
Thousand Island Dressing
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- How to choose the perfect ingredients for your dressings
- How to make vinaigrettes, emulsified dressings, and creamy dressings
- Recipes for the most popular salad dressings
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Salad Dressing Basics
Salad dressings are essentially uncooked sauces that contribute moisture, body, and complementary flavor to salads. A salad dressing can be as simple as a few splashes of oil and vinegar or as complex as a deeply flavored vinaigrette with a dozen herbs and spices. Most dressings can be made in minutes or even seconds. Once you understand the basics of how to make dressings, you’ll be ready to add bold new flavors to your favorite salads.
The Key Ingredients of Salad Dressing
All salad dressings contain two basic components: a fat and an acid.
- Fat: The fat used in salad dressings is usually one of a variety of different oils, though it can also be a dairy product or egg yolk.
- Acid: The acids used to make salad dressings can come from many different types of vinegar or citrus juice.
On top of these two basic ingredients, salad dressings can also be made more complex or flavorful through the addition of various herbs or spices.
Types of Dressings
Salad dressings come in four main types, and each contains a different mix of ingredients.
- Vinaigrettes combine an acid and an oil, with or without herbs. Because vinegar and oil don’t mix naturally, vinaigrettes need to be whisked vigorously just before serving to ensure that they’re well mixed and balanced.
- Emulsified dressings are made by combining oil and vinegar with a third ingredient (usually mustard or egg yolks), which helps the dressing become a unified, stable liquid (an emulsion) that’s less likely to separate.
- Creamy dressings can be made from a variety of ingredients, including heavy cream, sour cream, yogurt, crème fraîche, buttermilk, and tahini.
This guide provides recipes for the most common varieties of each different type of dressing and also offers guidelines that will help you to experiment and create your own.
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