4 Favorite Salad Dressing Recipes

Here are four of my favorite salad dressing recipes of all time! These dressings are easy to whip up and will bring big flavor to even the simplest salads. They work for side salads, dinner salads, and party salads.

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I am a salad lovin’ girl.

 

I’ve gotten “the look” from my kiddos more than once over my antics on salad night.

There’s just something about a big bowl or plate of greens with colorful ingredients and various textures and temperatures. Each bite is a new experience as you playfully orchestrate each forkful.  It makes me so dang happy that, yes, sometimes I pound the table or giggle or yell across that table at my husband, “Is this not the best thing you’ve ever eaten in your life?!”

I’m convinced my kids’ recent interest in salads has everything to do with their curiosity over what I’m making such a big freaking deal about.  There’s your mom tip of the day 🙂

These four salad dressings I’m introducing to you today are the dressings I make on repeat.  They meet my very important criteria for salad dressings:

• Bursting with flavor
• Not excessively oily
• Easy to make

If a dressing is bland, tastes predominantly of oil, and requires mincing an onion, I’m not into it.

These four salad dressings are as flavorful as they are colorful, and they bring so much joy to my salad-lovin’ life!

Now, it’s important to note that these recipes call for my favorite flavored balsamic vinegars, but you can easily customize them to what you have on hand if you’re not interested in buying flavored vinegar.

But I absolutely adore flavored balsamic vinegar because it adds flavor to a vinaigrette that would be very difficult to create otherwise.  I buy my vinegar from a local Utah Company called Mountain Town Olive Co (they ship!).

I used these four flavors to make the vinaigrettes for these recipes:

• Traditional 18-year Balsamic Vinegar
• Cranberry Pear Balsamic Vinegar
• Peach Balsamic Vinegar
• Pineapple Balsamic Vinegar

Now let me show you how I use these vinegars to make the most incredible salad dressings you’ll ever taste!

They are sweet, punchy, silky and will have you giggling and pounding the table in joy right along with me 🙂

AGAIN!  These vinegars are not required for the recipes below.  I’ve provided alternative vinegars that you can use if you prefer.

I’ve had so much fun testing and tweaking these!  They are bold, unique, DELICIOUS salad recipes that I’m confident you’ll return to time and time again.

Those $25 restaurant salads are about to look really boring . . .

Fun note:  Each salad recipe will have an Instant Pot component that will take the salads to the next level.  So to all my Instant Pot lovin’ people here:  You’re gonna be happy.

MY 4 FAVORITE SALAD DRESSINGS

Basil Vinaigrette

This Basil Vinaigrette has a beautiful balance of flavors!  The balsamic vinegar brings the sweet, the lemon juice brings the tart, and the dijon gives it just a tiny bite.  The basil flavor brings the freshness that has you saying, “Oooh!  I wasn’t expecting that,” in the most positive way possible.  I use this vinaigrette on this Kale Salad.

Strawberry Vinaigrette

This Strawberry Vinaigrette has been made in my kitchen more times than any other.  I love it so much!  The strawberry flavor is strong and perfectly complimented by the sweet balsamic and kicky dijon.  Plus, you can swap the strawberries for any berry for a fun twist.  Raspberry, blueberry, and blackberry all make a delicious twist on the recipe.  I use this vinaigrette on this Strawberry Spinach Salad.

Peach Vinaigrette

This Peach Vinaigrette takes me to sweet peach summer days every time!  This is the easiest salad dressing to mix up and will have you licking your plate and tasting spoonfuls right from the jar.  It pairs so well with just about any sweet and savory ingredient you add to your greens so it’s a great one to make a big batch of and keep in the fridge.  I use this vinaigrette on this Peach Spinach Salad.

Mango Vinaigrette

Oh heavens, I do love this Mango Vinaigrette so so so much.  It’s bright and creamy, with the perfect balance of tang and just screams: “put your feet up mama, you are chillin’ on an exotic tropical beach far far away from all stress and to-do lists”.  This is the salad dressing that I bring to a party and have everyone begging me to text them the recipe.  I use this vinaigrette on this Tropical Chicken Salad.

 

And there you have it!  My top 4 favorite salad dressings!  I can’t wait for you to try each one and the salad that goes with it.

They are full of fun, bright flavors and ingredients that will have you excited for more “salad for dinner” nights.

GET YOUR NEW FLAVORED VINEGARS!

Again, I adore Mountain Town Olive Oil Co. and highly recommend ordering from them if you’re ready to explore the world of flavored vinegar.

They have sample packs as well, so you can try a variety of flavors.

Again, the recipes don’t REQUIRE these vinegars, so use the alternatives I mention below if you like.  But the flavored vinegars do add somethin’ special, so I highly suggest taking a sample pack for a spin!

TRY ALL OF THE SUMMER SALAD RECIPES!

Here are some easy links to the salads I created to go with the vinaigrettes in this post.

• • Summer Peach Spinach Salad with Peach Vinaigrette
  • Tropical Chicken Salad with Coconut Rice and Mango Vinaigrette
  • The BEST Kale Salad with Basil Vinaigrette
  • Strawberry Spinach Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette

 

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