Salad Dressing Recipes & Ideas

Fact: Homemade salad dressings are better. They are fresh, lively, and easy to customize. This is especially true when it comes to the oft-maligned classic, Thousand Island dressing — yes, I mean that pink dressing on the salad bar in the giant squeeze bottle. The homemade version of this dressing’s got a few neat tricks up its sleeve — including a hard-boiled egg used as a thickener.

It comes together in mere minutes with a handful of ingredients.

Don't sleep on the dried herbs.

They're easy enough to shake up on a weeknight and go with any kind of salad.

The recipe that makes almost any meal a little better.

Quick and creamy.

A recipe to memorize.

It's endlessly versatile.

Bacon crumbles are good, but this is better.

It's bright, tangy, and full of herby kick.

It's naturally vegan, too.

It's sweet and spicy and perfectly tangy, with just enough zip to keep it interesting.

It truly can't be beat.

Tangy and creamy and oh-so-avocado.

You probably have all the ingredients you need to make it.

This versatile vinaigrette, inspired by Caesar dressing, always delivers on flavor.

And it comes together in just five minutes.

Making it will be the smartest five minutes you spend all week.

Wait until you see how easy it is to make.

It only takes five minutes to pull together.

Slather it onto skewers, spread it onto toast, or toss it into salads.

Forget everything you've been told about making vinaigrettes and stick to this new and improved formula instead.

It's everything you would want in a ranch salad dressing and more.

No more boring salads with this dressing around.

It isn't even homemade ranch, and I really don't care that it isn't.

I don't want to go so far and say this dressing changed my life, but it did change my salad life (which is integral to the rest of my life).

No egg yolks required.

A rich, creamy vinaigrette can take a simple salad and turn it into an elegant dish worthy of center stage.Whipping up a cup or two at home is even easier than going to the store, and once you have the basic technique down, the variations are endless!This vinaigrette is really nothing more than a loose mayo–less oil and more liquid. You can adjust the consistency by adding more liquid to make it looser or more oil to make it thicker.Quick health note: This recipe uses raw egg yolks.

For even better buffalo wings, make homemade ranch.

Cookbook author and former Chez Panisse chef Cal Peternell says this unfussy dressing is all about letting produce shine.

If ever there was someone who could make salad dressing seem simultaneously like the easiest thing in the world to make and also the new star of your next dinner party, it would be Ina Garten. Everyone knows it’s best to make salad dressing from scratch, but sometimes it can seem a daunting task. Not if you listen to Ina, though: her latest Instagram video takes us through how to make lemon vinaigrette in less than a minute —with a few great tips to boot.