17 Salad Dressings for Greens, Vegetables, and More
Drizzle homemade vinaigrettes and sauces over your next fresh salad for an impressive starter or meal.
When you're making a salad, the dressing is essential — it helps bring everything together and adds that final pop of flavor and lusciousness. We've rounded up some of our best salad dressing recipes, from barbecue sauce-inspired dressings to basic and quick vinaigrettes. With these in your arsenal, you'll have plenty of dressings to complement salads and vegetables.
Lemon-Shallot Vinaigrette
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling by Debbie Wee
While this tart, punchy vinaigrette is fantastic on salads, it's a great sauce to drizzle over roast chicken, grilled fish, fresh or roasted vegetables, or anything that could use a bright wake-up call.
Texas Barbecue Sauce Vinaigrette
In the Lone Star State, thin and vinegary barbecue sauce is mopped onto meats as they smoke to keep them moist and flavorful. For ease, this recipe calls for prepared barbecue sauce, which gives the dressing outstanding long-simmered flavor.
Upland's Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
This creamy dressing from chef Justin Smillie calls for fresh herbs, hot sauce, shallot, and more.
Sweet and Tangy Mustard Dressing
Mustard sauce — South Carolina's go-to sauce for 'cue — gets its signature flavor from a surprisingly humble ingredient: plain yellow mustard. Bolstered by honey, cider vinegar, and a dash of chile powder, this dressing's sharp flavor will wake up any salad.
Alabama-Style White Barbecue Sauce Dressing
Inspired by Alabama's claim to saucy fame, this easy mayonnaise-based dressing comes together in just minutes. Apple cider vinegar provides a nice bite, while garlic and onion powders lend flavor that's reminiscent of classic ranch but with a tangy twist.
Honey-Lemon Dressing
Julia Hartbeck
Melissa Rubel Jacobson's simple, 5-minute lemon-honey dressing for salad gets extra flavor from a touch of lemon zest and freshly chopped thyme leaves.
Citrus-Scallion Dressing
Recipe developer and cookbook author Leah Koenig says she sneaks this vinaigrette "straight from a spoon."
Dijon Vinaigrette
Julia Hartbeck
Grace Parisi's easy, 5-minute Dijon vinaigrette recipe combines just a handful of ingredients for a versatile, flavorful dressing you'll want to always have at the ready.
Zesty Chile-Lime Vinaigrette
This dressing straddles East and West, just like Vietnamese cooking. Its zippy, fresh flavor is great for a wide range of salads, from mixed lettuces to grated beets and carrots.
Basil Vinaigrette
This simple five-minute dressing is great with an heirloom tomato salad, pasta salad, panzanella salad, and grilled fish, chicken, or lamb.
Basic Vinaigrette
A good, puckery vinaigrette has a ratio behind it: three parts oil to one part acid. Acid can take the form of vinegar or citrus juice. "Once you understand that, you got this," says chef Hugh Acheson. "Add whatever you want. Go flavor-crazy. Shake that jar. Work those forearms." If you make too much, it will keep in the fridge for seven to 10 days in a sealed container.
Tomato-Shallot Dressing
This easy dressing for salads, pasta, fish, or grilled chicken steals a technique from Spanish kitchens: grating a whole tomato for perfect skin-free pulp.
Sherry-Shallot Vinaigrette
Soaking shallot slices in vinegar makes them deliciously pickle-like. For a more tart flavor, let the shallots soak for up to two hours.
Smoky Orange Vinaigrette
This marmalade-sweetened dressing is quintessential Bobby Flay, with bold flavors that taste best with grain salads or grilled meat.
Caesar-Style Dressing
Instead of egg yolk, former F&W editor Melissa Rubel Jacobson's Caesar-style dressing calls for mayonnaise.
Shiro Shoyu Vinaigrette
San Francisco's Rich Table's Evan and Sarah Rich developed this tangy and tasty, 10-minute vinaigrette perfect for any salad.
Creamy Garlic Vinaigrette
Bobby Flay adds sweet roasted garlic puree to creamy Caesar dressing instead of lots of mayonnaise.
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