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On Wednesday, I’ll be posting one of my favorite salads, especially for lunch (since my husband would rather not eat salad for dinner and I don’t want to hear his bellyaching when he’s starving at 8:00 pm). And since every great salad needs a great salad dressing, that’s what we’re doing today!
I first made this dressing in a moment of desperation–I was in college and completely broke and salad dressing-less and had been asked to bring salad dressing to a party.
Turns out that it tastes just as good, if not better, than some of the high-priced brands and it’s easy! I think it goes particularly well with spinach, especially if you throw something sweet in there like mandarin oranges or craisins.
Poppy Seed Dressing
Recipe from Our Best Bites
1/3 c. white vinegar
1 tsp. Kosher salt
A few turns of freshly ground black pepper
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. mustard
1 green onion, ends removed (both the “hairy” end and where the green part starts to get floppy)
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. poppy seeds
In a blender, combine vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, and mustard. While the blender is running, add the green onion. Continue running the blender and add the oil in a steady stream and is fully incorporated into the dressing.
Pour the dressing into a serving or storage container and whisk in poppy seeds. Serve over leafy greens.
Try this dressing on: Spinach Mandarin Poppyseed Salad
Yum yum yum, I can't wait to try this- I love poppyseed dressing!
Also Kate, I really think we need to post the great RAP that someone wrote to enter the Wilton giveaway! That cracked me up!
Sounds delicious! Going to try this some time. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Congrats to Marion 🙂
Salad dressing is so easy to make. People are always impressed with homemade dressing too :o)
Looking forward to salad ideas. I never make salad though I like it. The greens always go bad before I can use all of them.
I have this recipe and make it all the time! People love it and are suprised when I tell them that I made it. They are even more suprised when they see the ingredient list. (Mustard, onion-cuz you can't taste it.) Its just one tasty combo!
Wow, that looks so simple and so good! Thanks for sharing.
Sounds so yummy! Can't wait to see the salad recipe – I've been thinking lately that I need to have more stuff on hand for MY lunches…something a little more "grown-up" than the PBJ or mac & cheese than my kids are also eating! And I think my hubby would also rather I didn't use the recipe for dinner. 😉
My husband is always asking for salad for dinner. LOL He likes to have something light every once in a while. My 6 year old daughters fav food is salad so I can't wait for the recipe!
Where do you buy YOUR green onions?? MY green onions NEVER look like that. 😉
I love poppy seed dressing. I wonder if I could make it? I don't have a blender. Can you believe it? I did find one on overstock.com at a good price so I ordered it. I will start with making this dressing then who knows what I will make from you recipes?!
Chad.Megan.Ben–I only buy the most expensive, exclusive, organic green onions–that's why they look the way they do.
Kidding.
It's a Walmart green onion.
LMcBurney–You could definitely make it without a blender. Just finely chop the onion and then either vigorously whisk the oil in (while you pour it very slowly) or just be at peace with the fact that your dressing may separate. 🙂
I love this salad dressing. Great for salad-I love adding in fruit with this type of dressing too!
Oh yum! Poppyseed dressing is the best!
In Texas, our family uses poppy seed dressing almost exclusively on fruit salads – no greens or veggies allowed!
My favorite fruit salad includes peaches, strawberries, grapes, and bananas. I omit the melon that the rest of my family likes – yuck!
You guys are amazing! You give us everything we need to know to make these delicious foodstuffs and I for one want you to know how much I appreciate your recipe sharing skills. Your format is superb.
Thank you so very much.
Yum!!! Can't wait to try this!
First of all, this dressing looks SO good. Secondly, I love your site! A friend told me about it a couple weeks ago and after perusing for a bit, I wanted to make everything. I've made four things so far and all were absolute sucesses. The pizza rolls were a kid favorite, and my husband was hoarding the chipolte beef taquitos. Thanks so much for sharing!
I tried your buttermilk pancake syrup Sunday. Out of the four who eat syrup, 2 preferred the maple but the other two LOVED this syrup. My husband even ate extra pancakes because he just loved it. I posted a link on my blog to yours about it.
I love this recipe. It is awesome on pasta salad!! I have substituted the green onion for a small onion and you blend it with the other ingredients. YUM!
Just found our site thru a friend & I'm hooked! Love the easy recipes & PICTURES! Such a help. Thanks!
I have a dressing almost exactly like this one that I've been using for years and LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! One suggestion that my mom and I do. With the red onion used for the salad we would chop it up and marinade it in the salad dressing for about an hour before serving the salad-divine!
Question- dijon or yellow mustard? Would think the first- but what do I know?
Would love a version of Rasberry Vinaigrette (although the Red Wine Vinaigrette sounds amazing!).
Dresden–that onion trick sounds amazing! I'll have to try it next time!
Rachel–I actually just use regular ol' yellow mustard, although I'm sure Dijon would be fabulous. The original recipe actually called for mustard powder, I just hardly ever have that on hand.
Okay, so I just made this dressing for dinner tonight and it's green. Like REALLY green. Was I not supposed to add the green of the onion? Yours doesn't look green. I tasted it, though and it tastes great. I'm just wondering if I did something wrong. Thanks!
Stacy–Yeah, it's probably the onion; some of them are just greener than others. If it tastes good, that's the most important thing, but if the green is bugging you, you could add a few drops of yellow food coloring to kind of even it back out.
Hope that helps! 🙂
Just wanted to let you know this was delicious (especially along with the salad recipe.) The "greenness" didn't really bother me, I was just hoping I didn't do anything wrong! Thanks for another wonderful recipe!
I made this yesterday and loved it. I was out of a few things so I used cider vinegar,dry mustard and instead of green onions, I just used some grated white onion. It worked great. I put it on a spinach-romaine salad with craisens, avocado, and candied pecans. It was a hit!
This salad dressing is MY FAVORITE with Candied Walnuts, Spinach and Cut up strawberries….DIVINE…once in desperation I even used dehydrated chopped onions…and wasn't half bad!
my favorite salad with poppyseed dressing is spinach, red onion, shredded smoked gouda cheese, and sliced toasted almonds, delish. I have always used Brianna's (pricey) or Trader Joe's (next best to Brianna's) dressing for this salad, but am excited to try your poppyseed dressing with it. Thanks for the recipe!
Oh. My. Goodness. This was deeeeeelicious with the salad. Thank you!
I was looking for a poppy seed dressing to go with my favorite Spinach, strawberry and almond salad. This was perfect and so easy to make! Thanks again for another wonderful recipe!
How long will this last in the refrigerator?
Sorry! Catching up on old emails here! This will probably last about a week (maybe 2) in the fridge.
I can’t wait to make this for our Sunday Family Dinner this weekend! But I have a question: Could I use canola oil instead of vegetable oil? Thanks 🙂
Yep–in fact, canola is just a type of vegetable oil (and the one we use pretty much exclusively).
How long will this dressing last in the refrig.
1-2 weeks. 🙂
Yum! I am making this for lunch, and using it on my salad with leafy greens, strawberries, walnuts, grilled chicken, and feta cheese.
I loved making the wraps that you posted with this dressing. I haven’t had them for a while and just got online to double-check what you put in them (I think it was feta cheese, chicken, maybe cranberries?), but the link to your all-time favorite salad isn’t working in this post. Can you re-post what was in those amazing wraps? Or does anyone remember?
Was it this wrap?
https://ourbestbites.com/2010/07/quick-fix-sweet-salty-salad-wrap/
That’s the one! Thanks, Kate. I was just searching for it wrong. This wrap is one of my favorites.
This salad dressing is amazing! I made a batch last night and I’m already on my third salad! That being said, has anyone tried making a lower sugar version of this? Or tried using Splenda or something?? Also semi-related, you don’t have a raspberry vinaigrette recipe do you?? That’s my next favorite salad dressing!
Anyway, thanks for this wonderful recipe!!
Joie, yes, when I make this dressing, I use Splenda rather than regular sugar, tastes great!
This is probably a really dumb question but do you use regular vinegar or white wine vinegar?
I really love this dressing, but I have been wondering if I should store it in the fridge or not. Thanks!
And if it makes a difference, I use onion salt instead of a green onion.
Can you make these homemade dressings in a jar and just shake it? I don’t have a blender and as much as I want one, I probably can’t get one any time soon.
Absolutely!