Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe
This Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe is fast, easy, and super cheap to make. It’s delicious too!
Making a quick vinaigrette at home is so much easier than running down to the store for a bottle of store-bought additives. The flavors are fresher and more robust, and it’s so simple to make. In fact, while this recipe calls for a blender, you don’t even really need one. Just put the ingredients into a jar with a lid and shake!
Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe Without Mustard
If you don’t like mustard, you can certainly make this without it. The dressing recipe is quite versatile. So omit or add anything you need or want to.
Healthy White Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe With No Sugar
While I highly recommend adding some sort of sweetener (even if it’s different from honey), you can certainly make this without. Omit it if you choose, or use an alternative sweetener.
Healthy White Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe
You can also make this balsamic vinaigrette with white balsamic vinegar, and it will turn out just fine.
How To Use This Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe
The obvious choice is to put it on a basic salad. But this also goes great with a spinach salad or makes a great marinade for chicken or steak. You can also simply baste your chicken with it before baking. And lastly, this is great in pasta salad or rice salad.
Recipe Tips
- If you can’t afford the expensive balsamic vinegar, buy the cheap stuff and boil it down by half. (soft boil) So for this recipe, I started with 1 cup of balsamic vinegar and boiled it down to the ½ cup called for in the recipe.
- Don’t use olive oil or extra virgin olive oil. It doesn’t taste very good with the mustard. I used safflower oil, but you can also use grapeseed oil.
- You don’t have to use copious amounts of oil to get the needed effect in your salad. A little oil goes a long way. I used ¼ cup for this recipe, but my guess is you could get away with using ⅛ cup and still get the same effect with half the fat. Experiment and see what tastes good to you. Just shake your dressing well before applying.
Optional Additions
To help add even more flavor to this already flavorful dressing, you can blend in some shallots if you like. You can also toss in a garlic clove or two.
About The Ingredients
Balsamic vinegar – You can use regular or white. I used Modena.
Oil – Any light-flavored oil will work. I used unflavored coconut oil. Avocado oil will work well here too.
Dijon mustard – No sugar added.
Honey – You can also use maple syrup or any sweetener you like.
Italian Seasoning – Find it in the spice aisle or make it at home. You can use fresh herbs if you prefer. But I find that the dressing goes bad much faster if you do.
Salt
Ground pepper
How To Make Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette
Add all the ingredients to a blender tumbler. You can use a food processor, but the herbs won’t be blended as fine.
Blend until smooth. (About 1-2 minutes)
Transfer the dressing to an airtight container and use as needed.
Storage
This should be stored in the refrigerator at all times. A great option for storage is to keep this in a mason jar with a tight-fitting lid. As long as it’s kept in the fridge, it should last for up to about 2 weeks.
Freezing
Freezing is not recommended for this recipe.
Recipe Supplies
I can highly recommend this Ninja blender because that’s what I have and use. I love it.
More Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette
More Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes
If vinaigrettes aren’t your thing, try one of these delicious homemade dressings
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Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe Card
Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Blender
Ingredients
- ½ cup balsamic vinegar (see notes above)
- ¼ cup oil (any light flavored oil will work)
- 2 tsp. prepared Dijon mustard (no sugar added)
- 1 tsp. honey
- 2 tsp. Italian Herb (find it in the spice aisle or make it at the link above)
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. ground pepper
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend for 1 to 2 minutes or until it's completely blended.
I wish I had this salad for lunch!
Ya, it’s pretty tasty! You could always make it for dinner!
I agree about preservatives and shelf-life, but how long will this keep in the reefer?
I wouldn’t keep it longer than a week or two. Usually, you can smell it if it starts to change. But the vinegar should do a pretty good job of preserving it. I have had it as long as a month in the fridge, but I definitely threw it out at that point. So hopefully that gives you some idea.
Thanks for stopping by!
Sounds good, i will have to try this. I usually just use of tbsp of OO with 1 tbsp of balsamic, pepper to taste, 1 tsp of dried italian seasoning, 1 cloved of crushed garlic, mix and pour over salad! it is easy and yummy. Of course i make a huge batch though and bring it to work along with my huge batch of salad (enough for lunch for 4 days lol) that way i have no excuse to not be able to eat a salad :D)
Amy – Great way to hold yourself accountable!
Sounds great but is mustard really a clean ingredient? I looked at the ingredient of Dijon mustard where I live and it have sugar. Is that ok?
Jessica – No, it’s getting tougher and tougher to find mustard without sugar. But there are still a few out there. Keep looking!
Alyce – That’s wonderful!!! I’m so excited you like it!
Ok….you have TOTALLY made my day! My daughter likes Ranch, and I like Vinaigrette. I’m making the “clean” Bisquick today. Thank you! Blessings on you for doing the research for us♥
Strauch – Thank you so much! I’m happy you’re finding my recipes so useful!
You can try regular mustard. I’m sure it would be just as good. I wouldn’t leave it out completely though.
What about a substitute for the 3 oils you listed? I’d love to make this but have none of the above listed.
Nichole – You can use almost any oil. Just be careful with the flavors. Not every single will go well with this, but most will.
We found a nice thick balsamic from Urban Olive Oils & Balsamics. No need to reduce this one down and it is delicious. We usually do the balsamic and a flavored olive oil, but I like the idea of mustard and dried herb seasoning. Thanks for the recipe.
Jay – My pleasure! Enjoy! 🙂
Hi, I was wondering if you could help duplicate the salata fresh herb vinaigrette, I mean the clean ear version.
Thanks
Yinka
Yinka – I’m not sure what you mean. But if you want to contact me with a recipe, I’d be happy to take a look. See my contact information for email info.
This sounds delicious, but I did not see any notes regarding the vinegar….boil it??
Thanks in advance!
Jineen – I’m not sure I understand the question. You mean in reference to boiling it down by half? The instructions are in the post. But maybe I’m not understanding what you’re asking. Can you clarify? Thanks!
Do you have to boil the vinegar if yours tastes ok? Or does that thicken it.
Lori – You don’t have to boil it at all. But yes, boiling it will thicken is slightly.