Why aren’t you making your own salad dressings? Not enough time? Nonsense! You can make a salad dressing in 5 minutes or less. It’s seriously that easy. These top 5 Healthy Homemade Salad Dressings are not only easy, but also full of flavor! You won’t go back to the bottle, I promise!

Let’s talk about bottled salad dressings. How long do they sit in your fridge? Do you really want to put something that has been in your fridge for months on top of your freshly made salad? No thanks!

Plus, it tastes so much better to make your own!

Components of Healthy Homemade Salad Dressings

Before we get to the recipes, it’s important to understand the basic ingredients for a tasty and healthy salad dressing.

Healthy Fats

You need fat in your diet. Healthy fat that is. Typically, bottled dressings have inferior oils that aren’t the best for you. A few options for healthy fat in salad dressing are:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Avocado Oil
• Greek Yogurt (2% or 5%)

Acid

Like anything, salad dressing needs balance. A rich fat needs an acidic balance like vinegar or lemon juice to level out the richness.

Vinegar

When it comes to purchasing vinegar, spend a little extra and get the good stuff.

Vinegar gets brighter, sweeter, and more flavorful the longer it’s aged. There are several olive oil and vinegar shops around and online that offer aged vinegar. My preference is an 18 year aged balsamic.

Good quality vinegar makes all the difference in a delicious salad dressing.

Lemon Juice

Lemon juice brightens everything up! But, whatever you do, don’t buy the plastic lemon or lime with “juice” inside. Fresh is always best, especially when it comes to citrus.

Flavor

This is where the magic happens. Adding the flavor is key to taking your healthy homemade salad dressing to the next level. Get creative with your flavor enhancers:

• Fresh Herbs
• Dried Spices
• Condiments
• Honey
• Vanilla
• Fresh Ginger
• Garlic
• Citrus Zest

And don’t forget the salt and pepper! Sometimes your dressing just needs a few more grains of salt.

Equipment for Making Salad Dressing

Sure, a blender does an awesome job emulsifying oil and vinegar together. However, I can get a bit lazy when it comes to dirtying dishes. Typically, I eyeball ingredients instead of measuring, and I don’t use a blender to make dressing. I just don’t like doing more dishes than necessary.

Vinaigrette Equipment

Vinaigrette is more fluid than, lets say, a Ranch Dressing. The best thing to use when making a batch of vinaigrette is a mason jar with lid. Or any leftover condiment jar that has a tight fitting lid.

It’s as easy as putting all the ingredients into the jar, securing the lid, and shaking it. Put on some music in your kitchen, and make some dressing! Here are some songs that will get you shaking:

• What’s the Altitude by Cut Chemist
• Shake It Up by The Cars
• Hey Ya by Outkast
• Shake It Off by Taylor Swift
• Country Girl (Shake it for Me) by Luke Bryan

If just making enough dressing for 1 individual salad, and no left over dressing is necessary, use a small bowl and whisk.

Yogurt Based Dressing Equipment

Yogurt based dressings don’t work in mason jars since they are so thick. For these, bust out the ol’ bowl and whisk! A small bowl will work. If no whisk, a fork will work just fine.

Top 5 Healthy Homemade Salad Dressings

Here they are! Five different easy healthy homemade salad dressings and the salads that go with them.

Creamy Tex Mex Dressing

This dressing recipe is so easy. Whisk it up in a bowl, or just put all the dressing components on the salad and stir it up!

*This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Make this dressing as spicy or as mild as you like! Like it spicy? Go for 505 Southwestern Flame Roasted Green Chili (my favorite)! Prefer it a little more mild? The 505 Mild Hatch Valley Green Chili Salsa will be more your speed. Add more or less of the salsa in your dressing to get it where you like it.

Creamy Tex Mex Dressing Ingredients:

Four ingredients is all you need for this healthy dressing recipe. Put them in a bowl and whisk.

• Plain Greek Yogurt 2%-5%
• Salsa
• Lime Juice
• Tajin (Chili Lime Seasoning)

Get the full recipe here. This dressing is thick. If you prefer it more thin, whisk in some milk.

Creamy Tex Mex Dressing goes great with this Crunchy Tex Mex Salad. It also works well as a dip.

Lemon Mint Dressing

Easy Lemon Mint Dressing is so fresh, so bright, and so delicious!

Put these ingredients in a mason jar, secure the lid, and shake! Easy Peasy!

• Lemon Juice – freshly squeezed
• White Balsamic Vinegar (or White Wine Vinegar)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Fresh Mint
• Honey
• Salt & Pepper

Get the complete recipe here.

Typically, vinaigrette dressings are 3 parts oil to 1 part acid (vinegar). The ratio in this recipe is more half and half.

This is how I prefer a vinaigrette. Mainly because I love vinegar. Plus, decreasing the amount of fat equals less calories.

But, if you prefer a traditional vinaigrette, then go for 1/2 cup Olive Oil, 1 tbsp each Lemon Juice and Vinegar.

Lemon Mint Dressing goes great with this Easy Peasy Arugula Salad. It would also be great in a fruit salsa or as a shrimp tacos condiment.

This Lemon Mint Dressing recipe will be more than enough for this salad. You will have leftovers. Hooray!

Easy Pesto Dressing

Talk about a flavor bomb! Pesto is it. All the delicious flavors of Parmesan, fresh basil, olive oil, lemon, and pine nuts all zipped up, jarred, and ready to go!

Yes, it’s easy to make pesto yourself. It’s even easier to buy it already prepared!

Since the pesto is already made, all you have to do is add it and the rest of the Pesto Dressing ingredients to a mason jar, lid it, and shake. Just 3 ingredients are needed for this easy dressing recipe:

• Pesto
• Lemon Juice
• Olive Oil

As always, taste to see if salt is needed. A few grinds of fresh pepper is always good too.

Easy Pesto Dressing goes great with this Spinach Salad. If you are looking for other ways to use pesto, try this Shrimp Pesto Pasta dish. It’s the easiest dinner you will make!

Healthy Homemade Ranch

Ever look at the ingredients of a bottle of ranch on the shelf? There shouldn’t be that many ingredients. It’s easy to make a healthy ranch dressing. Here are the 4 ingredients you will need:

• Plain Greek Yogurt
• Lemon Juice
• Ranch Seasoning (see below)
• Milk to thin it out (if you prefer)

Get the complete recipe here.

Using a ranch packet makes life easier. Hidden Valley is delicious. However, if you’re trying to reduce salt intake or illuminate preservatives from your diet, make your own seasoning.

Homemade Ranch Seasoning

• 1/3 cup Buttermilk Powder
• 2 tsp. Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp. Onion Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Dill (dried)
• 1/2 tsp. Basil (dried)
• 1 tsp. Chives (dried)
• 1-1/2 Tbs. Parsley (dried)
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/4 tsp. Pepper

Mix all the ingredients into a small lidded jar, and shake. Keep this around to season potatoes, chicken, and for dips. This dressing goes great with Pizzeria House Salad.

Honey Balsamic Dressing

Sweet, tangy and easy is this Honey Balsamic dressing! Only 3 ingredients:

• Honey
• Balsamic Vinegar (good quality)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Get the recipe here.

It’s so versatile! Whisk this baby up and…

• Toss in with Veggies and Roast
• Drizzle on a Salad
• Marinate Chicken, Salmon, or Pork

Honey Balsamic is a good one to make a batch of and keep in your fridge for the week. It goes great on this Berry Avocado Almond Salad.

Salads aren’t boring if you switch them up and have a tasty dressing on top. I hope you enjoy these 5 easy dressings! Please leave me a star rating on the recipes or a comment below with your favorite healthy homemade salad dressing.

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