Fresh and summery, this Berry Poppy Seed Vinaigrette is packed full of ripe berries and sweet honey. It’s tangy and sweet, perfect for pairing with this Grilled Chicken & Berry Salad or a simple spinach strawberry salad.
Ingredient Notes
- Fresh Berries – You can use strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and even blueberries. If combining a mixture of berries, I suggest making a good amount of them strawberries or raspberries. I often throw in a few blueberries, but I’ve never tried it with all blueberries. If you’re making this off season, I’m sure you could use frozen berries- I’d thaw them first!
- Vinegar and other seasonings- You’ll also need white wine vinegar, garlic, some onion, salt, pepper, canola oil, and poppy seeds.
- Honey – There’s something amazing about honey and fresh berries together, but you can also just use sugar. If you like things less sweet, you can start with 1/3 cup honey instead of the suggested 1/2 cup and add more to taste.
How To Make Berry Poppy Seed Vinaigrette
- 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 them into the dressing until combined. If you can, refrigerate this dressing for at least an hour before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does this dressing last in the fridge? This dressing is best used in the first few days. You can keep using it as long as it tastes good! I have never saved it past about 1 week.
Serving Suggestions
This dressing was developed for this Grilled Chicken & Berry Salad but you could certainly build your own. Sweet, tangy dressings like this are especially delicious with spring greens, onions, fruit, bacon, and grilled meats in salads. Consider adding some Quick Candied Nuts. It would be delicious on this Autumn Harvest Salad or Blackberry & Pear Salad as well!
Did You Make This?
I’d love to hear from you! Snap a picture and tag me on Instagram, then come back and give this recipe a rating!
Berry Poppy Seed Vinaigrette
Equipment
- 1 Blender
Ingredients
- ½ cup white wine vinegar
- 1 – 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1 tablespoon grated (or finely minced) onion
- 1 teaspoon kosher or other coarse salt
- 10 cracks finely ground pepper
- 1 cup raspberries, blackberries, or sliced strawberries or any combo of all of those
- ½ cup honey or substitute sugar
- ⅔ cup canola oil
- ½ teaspoon poppy seeds
Instructions
- Combine the vinegar, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, berries and honey (in any order but add the honey last) in the jar of a blender.
- Blend until smooth.
- With the blender running on low speed, add the oil in a steady stream. Turn off the blender and whisk in the poppy seeds, or pour dressing into a mason jar, add poppyseeds, cover and shake.
- If possible, refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Questions & Reviews
I made this tonight and served it over some chicken and salad greens. Loved it!
You are a genius. This tastes amazing and I am forcing myself to wait the hour. Thank you!
how long do you think this dressing would keep in the fridge?
Rachel, we got this question a LOT, so I added a little tip at the end of the post! 🙂
Just wanted to add I made this dressing last night and it was fantastic! I halved it and used red wine vinegar (I really thought I had white on hand when I started…) and it turned out perfectly. Also, I used goat cheese instead of feta on my salad and… wow.
Thank you!
This looks awesome!!! I soooo want to make this!
This dressing looks amazing. I can’t wait to try it.
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.
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
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!!!
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.