Happy week before the 4th of July! Sara and I were talking about how we’ve kind of being holiday slackers when it comes to the blog lately, so prepare yourselves for lots of holiday- and potluck-friendly red, white, and blue recipes this week!
So our friend Nathaly emailed me a few weeks ago (and, um, I never responded because I kind of suck at Facebook messaging. Lesson #1 about being friends with me on Facebook: please don’t get your feelings hurt if I never message you back because for some reason, I seem to be incapable of responding to Facebook messages…) and suggested I come up with a berry vinaigrette recipe. Since I had just eaten one of those new Berry Chicken Salads at Wendy’s (delicious, by the way, and no, Wendy’s has never sponsored Our Best Bites, unless by “sponsor” you mean they give me food after I give them money…), I took her up on it. Without her knowing, of course, because…what? I suck at responding to Facebook messages.
So for this, you’ll need fresh berries–I used strawberries, but I’d bet my children raspberries or blackberries would also be delicious. You’ll also need white wine vinegar, garlic, some onion, salt, pepper, canola oil, poppy seeds, and honey. Or sugar, if you’re in a pinch. But really, honey because there’s something amazing about honey and fresh berries together.
In a the jar of your blender combine all the ingredients except the oil and the poppy seeds.
Blend until combined and then, with the blender running, add the oil in a steady stream. Then add the poppy seeds
and whisk whisk them into the dressing until combined. If you can, refrigerate this dressing for at least an hour before serving. 
We’ve had a lot of questions about how long this will keep in the fridge. It’s hard to say because the thing that will make it go bad is the berries, so here’s my advice–save one berry from the batch you use to make the dressing. Keep it in an airtight container or a Ziploc bag. When the berry gets gross, it’s probably about time to toss the dressing. However, no matter what, I wouldn’t keep it around for longer than a week.
Berry Poppy Seed Vinaigrette
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
Description
A simple, delicious dressing utilizing fresh berries. Use to top our Grilled Chicken Summer Berry Salad or one of your own creation!
Ingredients
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup honey (or sugar)
1–2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 teaspoon kosher or other coarse salt
About 10 cracks of freshly ground black pepper
1 cup raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries
2/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds
Instructions
Combine the vinegar, honey, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, and berries in the jar of a blender. Blend until smooth and then, with the blender running, add the oil in a steady stream. Turn off the blender and whisk in the poppy seeds. If possible, refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
This looks awesome!!! I soooo want to make this!
This dressing looks amazing. I can’t wait to try it.
This looks fabulous. And I laughed right out loud when you said “I’d bet my children…” You are so funny.
I am in love with the berry poppy seed vinaigrette!
I just bought poppy seeds in bulk from Penzey’s to make the other poppyseed vinaigrette I saw on your blog – but I’m even more excited about making this one!
I can’t wait to try this with freeze dried berries! Yum.
Hello! I was just wondering if you ever annouce the winner of the Cost Plus gift card? I checked but I did not see anything. THanks!!
Yes, we did! It was in the “weekend update” post, at the very end.
Made it tonight…love the berry salad. Used 1/2 blueberries and 1/2 strawberries…Yummy!!!!
This looks simple and delicious, but most importantly BEAUTIFUL. Love that warm pink color.
Thank you for sharing!
My hubby has been asking me to find this dressing, so now I will just make it! 🙂
I just made this and tasted it before sticking it in the fridge to chill. It is delicious and I can’t wait to have it with dinner tonight!!!
How does one go about finding poppy seeds? I’m not sure if I’ve seen them at the grocery store before…
Poppy seeds are in the spice section, usually in a small container. My grocery stores (sourthern CA) have all the spices and such in alphabetical order. I think McCormick packages them. Good luck!!
My local nut store and coffee store both sell bulk amounts of poppy seeds
OMGosh! I love those Berry Almond salads at Wendy’s. Their other ones are also awesome. Thanks for the recipe!
I adore anything with Poppy Seeds and I’ve really been wanting to make my own dressing, so this looks like a great place to start 🙂
I could drink this straight!!!
Have you tried to can this? It would be great to make a big batch and have it on hand year round.
You certainly could freeze it in small batches.
I feel like Balsamic vinegar (or part BV) would be amazing in this recipe, what do you think? Unfortunately for me Berry season is over in this part of the world :-/ Looks amazing though
Definitely! It would be a different flavor, but I’m sure it would be DELICIOUS!
I love balsamic vinegar! Will you post an update if you try make that substitution?
Wow! This looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it! Thanks!
Thanks for sharing. I can’t wait to try it
This looks amazing, but… are those GREEN roses in the background???
Do you think blueberries would be okay in this dressing?
Sara, I bet they would be good, I just can’t say for sure! If you try it, let us know how it goes! 🙂
Wow, you’ve really upped the ante- now you are betting your children instead of your cat. Hmm. Maybe it’s the bad dreams your daughter has been having lately 🙂
Looks like a winner of a recipe, Kate! I’ll be trying it very soon!
I’ve been craving something like this for weeks! Can’t wait to try it!!! THANKS!
Looks awesome! Speaking of salads and dressings, here’s kind of a random question for you girls (or anyone, for that matter): Is light mayo any good for making salad dressings? I learned the hard way never to go with a generic mayo, but wasn’t sure about Best Foods/Hellman’s or Kraft light.
p.s. I almost posted this question of Facebook, but now I’m glad I didn’t after reading Kate’s post. 😉
This looks so fresh, summery and AMAZING! I’m so excited to try it! Nathaly hit the nail on the head…I would totally try it with some kind of spinach salad with grilled chicken and berries. Mmmmm…I want this for lunch today!
Yay! I can’t wait to try this. No worries on the facebook message thing. I forget half the time, too. Chip – I’m sure these girls will have a way better idea, but I’m going to try it on a spinach salad with fresh strawberries, walnuts or almonds, grilled chicken, and maybe some red onion.
This looks amazing! Now what salad should I put this on?
OH my goodness this sounds wonderful! How long do you think it will keep refrigerated? Because I definitely want to make this but we will be gone a week… I am thinking only a day or so due to the fresh strawberries. We are going to my in-laws next week and this is something I would love to make while there. Do you think an immersion blender (ours have a several cup beaker to mix in) would work? They don’t have a blender so I could just pack my immersion blender and beaker….
Thanks for another great recipe!
Oh, thanks, Peggy! Yeah, I probably wouldn’t keep it for more than a couple of days because of the berries. And yes, totally use your immersion blender–that’s what I used for this recipe! 🙂
I love that you included the number of cracks on the freshly ground pepper!! I can never figure out how many turns are in 1/4 tsp!! Just thinking that Yesterday as I was mixing up the aMAZingly flavor packed BBQ bacon sliders (fabulous!!). Thanks for another dressing recipe, love them!!!
Thank you so much for this! I’m drooling to try it.