9 Tasty Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes

by Mandi on May 17, 2011

homemade salad dressing recipes homemade salad dressing recipes homemade salad dressing recipes
homemade salad dressing recipes homemade salad dressing recipes homemade salad dressing recipes
homemade salad dressing recipes homemade salad dressing recipes homemade salad dressing recipes

Salad dressing is one of those things that slick marketing has convinced us we can’t make at home. Just go to your local grocery store and you’ll find hundreds of options right at your fingertips, but the possibilities really go beyond what you’ll find at the store. From your basic ranch dressing to mouthwatering strawberry poppy seed dressing (#3 below), homemade salad dressing is fairly simple to whip up on your own.

As an added bonus, even though it doesn’t keep as long as the bottled stuff, you can easily make small batches for a fraction of the cost so you’re not stuck with the same options day in and day out!

homemade salad dressing recipes
1. Ranch Dressing | 52 Kitchen Adventures

homemade salad dressing recipes

2. Blue Cheese Dressing | The Kitchen is My Playground

homemade salad dressing recipes

3. Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing | Simple Bites

homemade salad dressing recipes

4. Cilanto-Lime Dressing | Good (Cheap) Eats

homemade salad dressing recipes

5. Clementine-Coriander Vinaigrette | Simple Bites

homemade salad dressing recipes

6. No Oil Caesar Salad Dressing | Healthy Girl’s Kitchen

homemade salad dressing recipes

7. Poppy Seed Dressing | Food for My Family

homemade salad dressing recipes

8. Thousand Island Dressing | Kelly the Kitchen Kop

homemade salad dressing recipes

9. Simple Salad Dressing | I Can Boil Water

What is your favorite salad dressing? Have you experimented with making your own at home?


  • http://www.facebook.com/rachelle.black Rachelle Hall Black

     Just finished eating my salad with homemade dressing. :) 2 cloves garlic (thru press), 1/2 tsp Oregano, 1/2 tsp basil, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 4 packets splenda, 1/2 cup canola oil & 1/2 c basalmic vinegar. Salad is Spinach, cranberries, feta & pumpkin seeds. YUM~

    • Rivki locker

      What a great roundup. I totally agree with you. Store-bought dressing is nowhere near as tasty, costs more, and isn’t as good for you. I always make my own and look forward to adding these to my repertoire.

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      Mmm, sounds delicious! I’m not a fan of artificial sweeteners, but I bet
      you could easily substitute a natural sweetener and it’d still be delicious!

  • Rivki locker

    What a great roundup. I totally agree with you. Store-bought dressing is nowhere near as tasty, costs more, and isn’t as good for you. I always make my own and look forward to adding these to my repertoire.

  • http://thekitchenismyplayground.blogspot.com/ Tracey @ Kitchen Playground

    Thanks for the shout-out on my blue cheese dressing!  I also make a really simple & tasty honey viniagrette you may like to check out. 

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  • http://healthygirlskitchen.blogspot.com Wendy (healthy girls kitchen)

    Thanks for the shout out re: my no-oil ceasar dressing! 

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  • http://twitter.com/suehill3k Susan Hill

    Oh, wow. Love this. I can’t decorate to save my life, but I could do THIS. I do believe you’ve just changed my life…(or my headboards. lol)

  • Nancy L.

    Love the door the best.  The only spot for my bed is in front of a window.  I’ve been stumped for 4 years as to what to do for a headboard & still don’t have one.  Any suggestions?

  • erica

    I love my silpats (pizza, biscuits, cookies, chicken strips, etc), and have had the same trouble getting good results and cleaning from cupcake shapes.  Now I use them as little bowls for the kiddos to eat grapes and apple cubes out of. 

  • Tracy

    I’ve noticed that my silicone bakeware and spatula’s recently started absorbing the smell and taste of our dishwasher detergent.  Then, when I used the spatula in some batter, it actually transferred that taste into the food.  Yes, they were rinsed well.  And I’ve tried cleaning them with regular dishwashing liquid, and soaking in vinegar.  No luck.  I’m totally grossed out by silicone now.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1000890516 Janelle Stewart

      yes!  I have cupcake holders that have absorbed the taste of my dish soap (I have always hand washed them) and definitely transfer that flavor to my muffins.  Yuck!  I thought it was just me but I have gone back to paper liners.  I am still using a silpat though and have loved it.  Sigh.

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Tracy,
      I agree, that’s pretty nasty. I haven’t even thought much about my silicone spatulas, which I use constantly. Are there even any spatulas that are made of something else? Yikes.

  • Kathleen K

    Thank you for the food for thought. I considered buying silpat for baking on my probable aluminum cooking sheets. I don’t think I can go along with the “since there is no information that it is unsafe, it must be okay” standard. Asbestos, lead, hydrogenated fats, high fructose corn syrup, and gmo’s are just a few examples of products that we were told were safe, only to find out with time that they are not. I’d like to see proof from extensive testing before I can trust it. In the meanwhile, I’ll continue to save for stainless steel and glass bakeware and use my cast iron and baking stones.

  • Jen Pagano

    I only use silicone for cold things. I really like it for freezer use – because it doesn’t become brittle as plastic or glass does. I have mini cups that are perfect for making PB cups. But I’m too nervous to cook with silicone. I heard of someone’s husband who worked at a silicone plant and refuses to let his wife use anything silicone because of all the illness around him and toxins given off in the plant.

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Jen,
      Anecdotes like that do scare me…I just remembered another thing I like my baking mat for, and it’s a frozen dessert treat, as well as covering pans to flash freeze berries. Thanks, Katie

  • Petra

    I love my baking stones…are those bad??

    • Kate

      No!  Baking stones are just stoneware and those are very good. :)  hard to take care of but very safe.  I use mine a lot.

  • Heather

    I don’t know whether it is truly “safe” or not, but choose not to use it.  A couple years ago, I purchased 2 rather expensive spatulas that were silicone and started to notice that our oatmeal was getting a plastic-y taste to it.  I brushed it aside since it was such a slight taste difference.  Then, I realized that a lot of the foods I was using those spatulas with started to get that same off-taste.  The first time I really knew it was those spatulas was when I licked whipped cream off of one and it hit me — that was the taste!  I got rid of them and won’t buy anything silicone now.

    For cupcakes, I use unbleached paper liners in our non-steel cupcake pans.  Otherwise, I have baking stones — which I HOPE are safe…because I love them! lol

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Heather,
      I love my baking stones, too – they are safe, as far as I know! ;)

      I wonder if different brands/qualities of spatulas have varying degrees of adding taste to food/leaching. Although you just said yours were expensive, so that’s probably not a good theory…  :) Katie

  • Amy J.

    I’ve used silpats for years but will definitely reconsider after reading your article. The only other silicone I have is a spatula and I don’t really like it anyway. Wondering what most of you use for spatulas/spoons? Wood & stainless?

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Amy,
      Um, I use a silicone spatula. Phooey. ;) I also use wood, and a hard plasticky one that I love (spoon)…maybe that’s silicone too? Utensils are even tougher than pans!  Katie

  • Christina P

    My mother-in-law passed some on to me, but they’re too flimsy for me to love them more than my dark, nonstick bakeware. What I do use and love are the muffin cups, because I’m just setting them in a muffin tin like paper cups anyway, so it doesn’t matter that they’re flimsy. I like how they’re reusable, unlike paper liners, and they’re a nice size to give my toddler small snacks in, or to test to see whether noodles are fully cooked (rather than doing like my husband and spooning a BOILING HOT noodle in my hand–no, thank you!).

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Christina,
      I reuse the If You Care unbleached muffin cups! They last through a few batches…  ;) Katie

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Elizabeth-Hobbs/100003042251514 Elizabeth Hobbs

    Other than a spatula I don’t have any silicone. I’ve been wanting a silpat for quite awhile. Think I’ll pass on it at least until they know more about it. This raises another question. Who says that the plastics they’ve used to replace the BPA-leaching kind don’t have their own issues? Just because they apparently don’t leach BPA doesn’t mean they don’t leach some other endocrine-disrupting chemical(s).

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Elizabeth,
      totally right – there are already some questions about no. 5 plastic, which is BPA free and the most common for food storage. Sigh. I lean toward glass or stainless steel whenEVER possible, but I can’t freak out about every little thing. I never heat in plastic, that’s for sure…
      :) Katie

  • http://www.shelfreliance1.com Jen

    I am so glad you wrote on this topic because I have always wondered about this and I thought I was the only picky one about things like this.  When I don’t really know about the safety of something I will avoid it, just like I did with teflon long ago.  You are spot on about “trusting”  FDA, EPA, etc. on things like this!  After reading this and the comments I feel better about not using it. I don’t like using plastics but especially colored plastics in my kitchen-even if they are silicon.

  • Heather James

    I love my silpats, and I have silicone spatulas and other cooking utensils (including a pancake-flipping spatula that is the BOMB) that are around 10 years old and have gotten hard use, without picking up any weird flavors or anything similar (if they all of a sudden picked up my dishwasher soap flavor, I’d be re-evaluating my dishwasher soap!  That sounds like someone changed their formula)  I had some silicone bakeware, but don’t like it as well as cast iron, pyrex, or even steel, so I freecycled it on, when I got my good stuff out of storage.  My favorite layer cake pans, bar none, are a cast iron skillet with a matching baking pan/lid.

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Heather,
      You bake cakes in your cast iron skillet? I never would have thought of that. Wow. It’s round, oven-safe – that’s brilliant! Do you have any trouble with sticking? I need to just season mine properly, but I always have trouble with eggs, no matter how much fat I use…
      Thanks! :) Katie

  • Rita

    I got a silpat not too long ago and I love it mostly because my cookie sheets are horrible and it allows me to wait till Christmas to try to get some stainless steel ones to replace them with. I’ve also been wanting to buy some silicone muffin pans but now I think I’ll just do stainless steel for that as well. Thanks for the info Katie!

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Rita,
      Good call, I totally wouldn’t rec. the pans. :) Katie

  • Stefanie

    I also have been wondering about silicone. Like Michelle, I find most of the bakeware to wobbly to use. I do use silicone spatulas. 

  • Tiffany

    I have a Silpat that I use almost every day, I LOVE it. I’ll keep using it until I have more evidence that it’s not safe.

  • Joy

    I have a silpat and silicone spatulas and that is the extent of my silicone cooking materials.  I don’t know if it’s safe or not, but I know that the aluminum cookie sheets I have aren’t safe.  For the time being I’ll use what I have, and watch here for any information about silicone, pro or con.  I haven’t had any of the problems with my silicone spatulas that others have talked about. 

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Joy,
      sounds like a good balance to me! :) Katie

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=146900833 Lauren Allen

    Actually, many parchment paper brands are coated in silicone. Those that are not are treated to a dip in sulfuric acid (or zinc chloride) to breakdown the paper pulp & make it a solid, less-porous surface. The chemicals are then washed off to stop the breakdown. I assume these things are safe, but that’s just my level of comfort. If you really want something absolutely-safe & non-stick, “stick” with healthy, high-temperature fats and some sort of flour for baking.

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Lauren,
      What a tangled web! I use unbleached parchment paper from If You Care, so  I think I avoid all that. Phew! :) Katie

  • MomLadyOR

    Hi Katie, I found this topic a tad humerus for me.  I have purposefully not purchased any of the mats you are talking about because I wasn’t convinced “they’re OK”.  But, at the same time, I have 1/2 dozen spatula/spoons that I use ALL the time and hadn’t even thought of!  I love them as they don’t scratch my expensive pans (Scanpans), they are heat resistant and even stain resistant!  Hum… now what would I use.  The wooden spoons worry me a bit because of mold/bacteria growth.  My pans can tolerate metal spatulas, but if I need to break something (say somewhat frozen ground beef), I’m afraid I’ll nick the surface and I really can’t afford another pan.  But, since they aren’t getting truly hot (just stirring and then sitting next to the pan not in it), is there much opportunity for them to leach anything??  Just a thought…  Thanks for all your wonderful articles and insight!  Keep up the great work.

    • Tle

      I ‘disinfect’my wooden ladles and spatulas in the sun after every wash. Maybe u can try the same in the oven during the cold months

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      ML,
      I know, I was just commenting above that I didn’t give my spatulas and spoonulas – which I love – a thought! I use wood sometimes too and just choose not to think about it. :) Katie

    • Gail

      Don’t worry about wood!  It’s the most natural thing you can use.  There were studies done a number of years ago (wouldn’t know where to find the research) that showed that wood has a natural antibacterial agent- plastic cutting boards that got cuts in them harbored bacteria, and who knows what leaches out of the plastic!  My grandfather was a butcher…remember butcher block countertops?  He used the same one for many, many years, just scraping it down with a metal scraper every so often during the day.  Interestingly, the floor of his meat room was spread with sawdust, which we would rake daily to clean out the debris. When it got really dirty looking, he’d compost it and put down fresh.  This was also used in the freezer room.  I grew up on that meat and we never got sick from it.
      I love my wooden spoons, spatula, and cutting boards- (and of course my cast iron).  One of my brothers carves the most amazing spoons, spatulas and bowls- I have a spatula out of lilac wood that is amazing!

  • Tle

    This post is so timely. I had been wondering about the safety of these attractive bakeware before stocking up on them. I guess for now I shall stick my current stash of glass n steel bakeware. The silicone can just remain for ‘cool’ items

  • Dianna

    When the silicone products came out, I was immediately suspicious….and still am. At this point I would not use them, as it reminds me of when microwaves came out and everyone thought they were great. Now we know better. As for what to bake with, I transitioned out of aluminum and nonstick bakeware and now use Pampered Chef unglazed stoneware (all made in the USA, BTW). These are wonderful and produce superior baking results — I’ve done tests and am very pleased with the results. I made whole grain date bars on the PC large bar pan to serve at a Bible study in our home. Beautifully golden and no sogginess whatsoever. The guests all said WOW! Storage for stoneware can be a problem and let’s face it, stoneware is clunky and heavy. But once I accepted all of that…I will never go back to using anything else. Once seasoned, they are virtually non-stick. My muffin pan is a breeze to clean, compared to even the non-stick pans I previously used. A great investment.

    • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

      Dianna,
      I love my stoneware too! I just use the baking stones. I like my silicone mat for things like dried fruit rolls, when I really just need the flexibility, and I feel like then I don’t have to throw parchment paper away, which is “green.” Tough balance… Thanks for your great PC shoutout! ;) Katie

  • http://profiles.google.com/adamsmom09 Maryanne Anthopoulos

    I absolutely LOVE my Silpat.  I had it for several years now and I use it for everything – roasting squash and seeds, baking cookies and pizzas.  A couple of weeks ago I baked some biscotti on it and made the mistake of cutting them right on the Silpat.  Now, there are some tears in it, and after reading this I’m probably going to toss it.  Not a fan of fiberglass in my food!  I was going to get another one to replace it, but now I’m not so sure.

    I also have one of those square cake pans (also silicone), but I never use it.  It is most definitely NOT nonstick (even the oiliest, butteriest cakes always stick to it, whether it’s greased or not), and it’s way too flexible.

  • Gladreal

    I have a few silicone untensils, but I stick with my arsenal of kitchenware I’ve accumulated over the years-cast iron (plain and a few lovely enameled pieces I’ve inherited), stainless steel, glass, wood, parchment paper, waxed paper, and so on. I never took the time to do the serious research on silicone, so I resisted the temptations of the fun colors and “newness” of the cookware. Thanks for the information, but I think I’ll just stick with what I’ve got for now.

  • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

    Barbara,
    Thanks for the link – that info is the same source that I found in many other articles. The thing is, although the materials are “inert” those aren’t tested on people, in baking/high temps, or specifically with food. I want to see some studies on whether the material is getting in people’s blood like BPA, which was unexpected, right? Or does the food carry it at all?
    Thanks, Katie

  • Misha Harrison

    Thank you for your article.  I just read the Wikipedia entry on silicone.  I have gotten a number of silicone baking pads, pans, muffins. and spatulas via thrift stores.  The muffin pans are much worse than metal to clean and the cake pans are too wobbly, but i do like the pads for when i need flexibility and i totally love using the muffin pans to portion and freeze stuff.  I think that we are right to be suspect about it and i will be getting rid of the baking pans.  I will keep the other stuff as i don’t use it in high heat cooking. 

  • Adriana123

    I use silicone spatulas so I’ll be switching. Any recs on a good wood one? What about bamboo? What concerns me is the food-safe oil finish used on them…
    Thanks!!

  • LeahL

    No matter what we use, there will be problems.  It can be so difficult to decide what is best for our families.  I truly enjoyed everyone’s comments and input.

  • Anonymous

    I actually love my silicone cake pans; I almost never have trouble with getting the cake layers out of them, unlike my regular metal pans. Ditto with the muffin tin. I’ve never had problems w/ uneven cooking in those pans, either.

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  • http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

    Mel,
    I reuse If you Care stuff forever, too! Glad I’m not the only cheap, “green” gal out there! ;) Katie

  • Adriana123

    The If You care parchment paper is coated in silicone…

    So upsetting that we have to work so hard to find safe options and when we think we’ve found it, we get disappointed again.

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