Three Great Starter Salad Dressings

As you’ve probably realized, we’re big salad fans here at Blue Glass Farm. We lay out the basics of creating a good salad by dressing it directly in our How to Think About Salad guide — but we actually tend to pre-make our salad dressings for a few reasons:

1. Consistency — It’s easier to get a well-balanced dressing when you can taste and adjust before it hits your greens.
2. Emulsification — A lot of dressings don’t come together very well unless you properly mix them ahead of time.
3. Efficiency — We eat so much salad that we like to make more than we need for one evening, saving a little work in the weeks to come.

Store-bought salad dressings are fine, honestly. But they’re made to be shelf-stable above all else, which means they often have to add things that throw the flavor off in ways a homemade version doesn’t.

Making dressings at home is also often cheaper — a lot of the ingredients used in dressings aren’t terribly expensive, and you likely already have most of them on hand.

So here are the three dressings we reach for most at Blue Glass Farm: our house vinaigrette that works on just about everything, a honey mustard variation that shows how to riff on a base recipe, and homemade ranch — which is way better than anything you’ll find in a bottle.

Our absolute go-to is the Blune Vinaigrette — our adaptation of Gabrielle Hamilton’s famous Prune vinaigrette. The ingredients are largely the same, but we cut a couple of corners that make it easier to prepare at home. It’s a punchy, robust vinaigrette that is easily the most consumed dressing in our house.

Ingredients

• 2 cloves fresh garlic, peeled
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ⅔ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup neutral oil
• 1¼ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper

Method

Combine garlic, mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper in a mason jar. Pour in both oils without stirring. Use an immersion blender: place it at the bottom, start blending, and slowly pull upward to emulsify.

For more specific details, check out our Blune Vinaigrette recipe.

One thing you’ll find with dressings is that if you look at the base acid and fat, you can mix things up a little to make something similar but in a slightly different direction.

I love the Blune Vinaigrette’s mustardy punch, but I also love honey mustard vinaigrettes — particularly when I’m putting fried chicken on a salad. And honey mustard with onions? Incredible.

To make our honey mustard dressing, we start with the Blune Vinaigrette as a base and make a few swaps:

• − Remove the red wine vinegar
• + Add 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
• + Add 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• + Add 4 Tbsp Gulden’s brown mustard
• + Add honey to taste

Mustard itself has a lot of vinegar in it, so we’re cutting back on the vinegar and letting the mustard bring some of that acidity. Start with a couple tablespoons of honey and work your way up — some people like it really sweet, some want just a touch.

This is a great example of how you can take an existing recipe and put slight modifications on it. Some other ideas: add fresh herbs, swap the garlic for shallots or green garlic, or try different mustards.

See the full modified recipe

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

• 2 cloves fresh garlic, peeled
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 4 Tbsp Gulden’s brown mustard
• ⅔ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup neutral oil
• 1¼ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• Honey to taste (start with 1 Tbsp)

Combine garlic, both mustards, both vinegars, honey, salt, and pepper in a mason jar. Pour in both oils without stirring. Use an immersion blender: place it at the bottom, start blending, and slowly pull upward to emulsify.

The final dressing we use all the time is ranch. Store-bought versions — whether powder or bottled — are loaded with anti-caking agents, sugar, and acid to extend shelf life. Homemade tastes like actual garlic and herbs, with a rich creamy base that’s not unnecessarily complicated.

The secret is using granules instead of powder — they taste like actual garlic and onions, not cornstarch.

Blue Glass Farm Ranch Powder

• 2 parts onion granules
• 1 part garlic granules
• 1 part mixed herbs (dill and parsley)

Turn It Into Dressing (or Dip)

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• ¼ cup coconut milk (for dip) or ½ cup (for dressing)
• 1-2 Tbsp ranch powder
• Salt to taste

Mix everything together. Start with less liquid and powder than you think — it’s easier to add more, and the flavor will intensify as it sits.

For the full recipe with variations, check out our Ranch Dressing recipe.

So there you have it — the three most-used dressings in the Blue Glass Farm household. We eat a lot of salad, a lot of dressing, and a lot of veggies that are just dipped in these.

These are good bases you can work from. So next time you’re making a salad and thinking about reaching for that premade salad dressing, think about using one of these instead.