Basil Salad Dressing

[Juanjo Pollreisz]

Happy4th of July! Today, I am sharing one of my favorite summer recipes, Basil Vinaigrette. It takes about five minutes to make and goes great on just about everything. I use it mostly as a salad dressing, but it is also great on vegetables, chicken, fish, and pasta.

I'm Maria and my husband is Josh. We share a love of cooking, baking, and entertaining. We enjoy creating recipes that are simple, fresh, and family friendly. We love sitting around the table with good food, good conversation, and good friends and family! Our kitchen is always open!

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For our picnic, I packed some sliced tomatoes and cooked shelling beans, and picked up a package of burrata cheese at the fromagerie, and served those with spoonfuls of the basil vinaigrette over the top.

I have loads of tomatoes and basil in my garden so will be trying this. I make a very similar one but have never added mustard, will try that. Sometimes I use lemon juice instead of vinegar- makes a great sauce for grilled fish.

I just made this using white wine vinegar as suggested, and it is fabulously yummy! Thinking of using it on pasta as I find regular pesto too thick and cloying. Thanks David!

I enjoyed watching your life feed of all the great stuff you bought out in the country. I too, am a big fan of country brocantes, and my suitcases are stuffed to overflowing when I fly home to Toronto.

To poster #1, to keep snails, as well as flying critters away from your basil, keep a spray bottle full of a few drops of dish washing liquid and water. After each rain, spray the basil plant lightly.

Deeelicious, David. And easy, too. I am overrun with my own basil, and I will dry the rest to take to chicago to make this dressing there.

I have loved your column and your humor for years.

thanks so much.

My gosh! This packs such a huge punch of flavor! Lunch today is leftover cold grilled chicken breast, artisan cherry tomatoes warm from the garden and rinsed, drained canned cannellini beans, all drizzled with this vinaigrette. As for fresh shelling beans, they are just another item for the garden must-grow list next year.

My basil has done so well this year, I have had 4 harvests so far, before the basil downy mildew sets in. There are two batches of this vinaigrette in the freezer, in ice cube portions, along with 24 individual ounces of pesto, to bring back summer in the dead of cold next winter.

I waited a week to make this with great anticipation. I made the vinaigrette tonight and it did not disappoint. I drizzled over a small salad containing home grown tomatoes, raw cauliflower, red onion, and cannellini beans. I added a few toasted slivered almonds on top. Will become a regular recipe at our home. Thanks for sharing David!

I made this last night, but had to use 2x basil and more water to make it thinner because at first it tasted mostly of mustard. I have a strong mustard and maybe my basil was weak? In any case, it came out beautifully. Served it with cherry tomatoes, blanched green beans and roasted peppers. Every guest asked for the recipe, I forwarded the link. Thank you, this is a really lovely sauce I never would have dreamed up on my own.

You could freeze some of that dressing in ice cubes and enjoy summer a little more.

I pour home made pesto (a little diluted) on my fresh beans (shelled or green) and on thin grilled slices of courgette or eggplant, so I can see this would totally work, also on a regular salad (or grilled romaine lettuce).

Have made this 3 times and have spooned it over fresh tomatoes and mozarella di bufala. I think I do like it a bit better than pesto. I am using a red zinfandel wine vinegar from California. Thank you for this recipe David

This simple basil salad dressing takes cues from pesto and pairs marvelously with green salads, Italian/Greek flavors and a variety of bold, summery flavors. Recipe yields about cup dressing and keeps well for up to 10 days.

Storage suggestions: This dressing is best served immediately, but will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for another day or two.

Change it up: Feel free to play around with the herbs and nuts used in this recipe! Mint or cilantro would be lovely additions or substitutions. The pine nuts blend right into the dressing, which is nice, but you could also experiment with almonds, cashews, pepitas and sunflower seeds.

Disclaimer: This post was created in partnership with DeLallo Foods and I received compensation for my participation. Opinions are my own, always. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who support C+K!

This ended up with a very bitter taste. I added more lemon juice and even some honey to try to balance it out, but something was still off. Any thoughts on what could have caused that or how I could have better fixed the problem?

FYI: I used it on a salad of what is called in my country Kopfsalat or Huptlesalat (I think this is called bibb lettuce in English), three smallish tomatoes, half a cucumber, and a block of smoked tofu.

A little bit of inspiration for this dressing came from my creamy cilantro sauce, which is affectionately known on social media as "the sauce". But it's not lost on me that many people do not appreciate the taste of cilantro. I actually find basil to be a more popular herb!

My favorite store-bought options for anyone following a migraine diet is either Sir Kensington's Organic or Primal Kitchen's Avocado Mayo. Both of these options do have some questionable ingredients. With Sir Kensington Organic, there's a bit of lemon juice. The way I justify this is the lemon juice is labeled next to the sugar, which is labeled as 0 grams. Ingredient labels begin with what the most used ingredient is, and end with the least used. Therefore you know the amount of lemon juice is probably very small.

With Primal Kitchen, the avocado oil is highly refined and therefore should not present an issue with tyramine that a regular, ripe avocado might. Still, I don't necessarily love the flavor in cooking.

My absolute favorite tasting mayo will always be homemade. I have two options on the site - one with eggs and one without. Don't let using raw egg scare you - you can buy pasteurized eggs or do it yourself. And if you think of how many times you've gotten sick sneaking cookie dough or cake batter you'll probably realize how rare it actually is!

Alicia is a vestibular migraine advocate and the bestselling author of The Dizzy Cook: Managing Migraine with More Than 90 Comforting Recipes and Lifestyle Tips. Her articles and recipes have been featured by Healthline, Parade, mindbodygreen, Today, Good Morning Texas, the Vestibular Disorders Association, and the American Migraine Foundation. Read More

Used this dressing over my version of chopped salad that has everything from the fridge and the garden in it. Yes, an Italian slant. Oh, I used some pickle brine with tarragon instead of vinegar.

Thank you for this yummy recipe! I'm only 3 weeks into my elimination journey, and it has been rough. Your recipes and website have not only brought inspiration to my cooking, but it has also brought emotional relief. Taking out regular salad dressings has made it just that much harder to get veggies into my day. I am excited to try all your dressings and sauces! Thank you over and over!

I wanted to use up some of my basil before it started to flower and this was the perfect dressing. I used vegan mayo and vegan sour cream and it was delicious. Definitely will be in my summer salad dressing repertoire

This basil dressing is amazing! I was so sad to give up my flavor-infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressings and figured I'd never enjoy a salad again. But this dressing is incredible! Just a little bit goes a long way in a salad - it's packed with flavor! Yum!

So after reading the long list of ingredients in that bottle of salad dressing, I decided to make my own version. One that was lighter in texture, calories, and fat, and one that celebrated the flavor of the blueberries and basil.

Freeze the dressing in an ice cube tray, then remove the frozen cubes and store them in a freezer bag, take a few out at a time and pack them with a salad for lunch. A great way to brown bag it the fresh and healthy way.

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Ok so I made this last night and it was too runny. I added a few raw cashews and used my immersion blender and it did help a little bit. I put it in the fridge and got it out today and it is thicker when it is cold. The flavor is nice but not very strong. I doubt I will make it again but it is pretty.

Hey Barbara, Thank you so much for your comment. We're sorry the dressing wasn't exactly what you were looking for, but maybe I can help! The salad dressing wasn't intended to be creamy, it's a thin vinaigrette made for summer salad. You were spot on to add cashews to make the salad creamier, however, when adding ingredients to this recipe it's important to note that the flavors may change. Cashews have the potential to dilute the flavors of the dressing. Additionally, blueberries change in strength of flavor according to weather. If they're in prime blueberry season the flavor is stronger. Something I'd recommend for this recipe in the winter is using thawed out frozen blueberries. If you want an even stronger blueberry flavor, frozen wild blueberries are going to be your best bet! We hope this helps and that you reach out in the future if you have any questions : )

This is just beautiful Linda! I love blueberries and basil together would be so amazing and so fresh and perfect for Spring. I love the color. I totally hear you on storebought dressings....the amount of oil is utterly disgusting. I have a Goddess dressing recipe I just wrote this week that is a remake of the Trader Joes Goddess dressing for a reader request (to be oil-free) and it was slightly challenging to create because their version is LOADED with oil, haha! But oh man, this dressing of yours is just perfect and healthy....win-win!

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