This lemon vinaigrette is a must have staple in my kitchen. I make a jar of this easy lemon salad dressing almost every week and I use it for many meals. As with everything I do, it’s a very versatile recipe that can be customized to your own tastes. I love the lemony tartness of it on all kinds of salads.

I’ve written out this recipe in a reasonable size quantity for you as I think most people probably won’t use quite as much as I do. But if we’re being honest I usually triple or quadruple this amount in a quart sized jar because I use so much of it.

I use this on a wide variety of salads, but it also makes a great marinade. I also love to marinade chicken in it or use it to baste on chicken or fish as it cooks. It’s also really great on grilled or roasted veggies.

Lemon Vinaigrette Ingredients:

Oil

Olive oil is my usual pick for this but of course even olive oil has a large variation in flavor. Pick one that you like the flavor of. I really don’t think there’s a wrong answer here. You can also experiment with other oils, avocado oil is a nice neutral oil if what you really want to taste is lemon, or a combination of oils is nice too.

Lemon juice

Fresh squeezed is where it’s at. I wouldn’t recommend making salad dressing with bottle lemon juice. This dressing is all about that fresh lemon flavor and you won’t get that out of a bottle. You can freeze fresh lemon juice though, and that will always give you better flavor than bottled. I’ve also made this with Meyer lemons which is really nice, and I’ve mixed in just a little bit of other citrus juice like tangerine a couple of times too. This kind of recipe is all about customizing to your personal tastes.

Garlic & Shallots

Fresh is best! I wouldn’t recommend using jarred garlic for this, but if you can find the little frozen cubes those are great, or my store recently has had a tube of crushed garlic that really seems like the next best thing to fresh. Shallots are lovely finely chopped, if you don’t have them I would just skip this rather than substitute with onion.

Worchestershire sauce

This gives a nice bit of extra depth of flavor that you really don’t obviously notice is there but I do notice that something is lacking when I leave it out. I sometimes substitute with Bragg’s Aminos instead for just a slightly different flavor.

Dijon mustard

Really needs no introduction, a little mustard adds such a nice flavor. Usually it’s just enough that you don’t obviously taste it, but every now and then I add extra, especially if I’m using this as a marinade instead of on a salad.

Salt and pepper

To taste, of course. There’s no right or wrong here. I like mine salty but you might not. My usual go-to is kosher salt, but any kind you like will do. I’m partial to white pepper lately, I think it’s a richer and yet somehow also milder flavor.

How to make it:

The simplest way is to just dump everything in a jar and whisk or stir with a fork. This is how I do it most of the time. But if you prefer a more emulsified dressing, you can add the oil last so it sits on top and then use an immersion blender to mix. If you start with the blender at the bottom and move very slowly up the jar it will emulsify without having to add the oil a little at a time.

I think the dressing is fine out on the counter for a day or two, but since I make a large quantity at once I usually store this in the fridge. If you’ve used an extra virgin olive oil your dressing will probably solidify in the refrigerator, so I just try to remember to set it out on the counter about an hour before I intend to use it.