Homemade Italian Dressing

Easy homemade Italian dressing packed with flavor and lots of herbs and spices to jazz up your fresh salads and veggies.

I know that healthy choices aren’t anything new here, but you’re probably finding it a little difficult to get excited about salad dressing when I have things like sprinkle-filled cookies, cake that tastes like popsicles, and mint chocolate chip pie in the recent archives.

Sorry, friends. I promise, you’ll be pretty excited about this dressing by the time I’m done with you.

First, how excited do you get about fresh vegetables in the summer time? Here in the April household, we get pretty pumped about them. Quiche, quinoa patties, stuffed peppers, salads, and hummus (for all that dipping, of course) frequent our kitchen when the produce is abundant. We are veggie lovers to the core!

Along with veggies comes lots of salads. And with lots of salads, we like lots of dressing. But that store bought stuff? Umm, some of it is a little terrifying. Check out the list of ingredients on some of those bottles next time you’re in the grocery store (yikes).

Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some 1000 Island and ranch dressings,  but if I am going to be consuming lots of salad, I prefer to make my own. And I’m going to show you how to do it too!

This dressing could not be easier. You might think that making dressing at home is a big pain, but it’s really as simple as putting all of the ingredients together and shaking it up. I think you can handle that. There’s a slightly lengthy list of ingredients, but the majority of it is spices, and you probably have all of them in your spice rack right now.

You’ll be using olive oil, white wine vinegar, a little Parmesan cheese, a lot of spices, a bit of lemon juice, and a tiny bit of honey to balance out the acidity. Aaaand that’s it. I told you: super simple.

You’ll want to keep this dressing in the refrigerator because it’s homemade, which means no preservatives. It will last for about 2 weeks, but I guarantee you’ll go through it fast enough if you’re anything like us when it comes to the salad eating and veggie dipping opportunities that are in your near future.

It will separate and become a little solid when it’s cold, but we just let it sit out for a few minutes at room temp, stick the jar in the microwave for about 10 seconds, or run it under hot water for a bit to loosen it up. A quick shake or swirl and your homemade Italian dressing is ready to adorn all your tasty dishes!

You could even use it as a marinade. Hello, grilling season!

The next time you’re craving a salad, make sure you have some of this dressing available. I would even go so far as to say this dressing itself is one of the reasons I have been eating more salads than normal lately (which is a lot already!).

Believe me, if a salad has grape tomatoes and cheese on it and I can still get excited about the dressing, that’s some impressive stuff.

Print Recipe

Homemade Italian Dressing

Easy homemade Italian dressing packed with flavor and lots of herbs and spices to jazz up your fresh salads and veggies.

Prep Time5 mins

Total Time5 mins

Servings: 1 cup dressing

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tablespoon dried parsley
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Combine olive oil and vinegar in a medium size glass container.
• Add the Parmesan cheese, parsley, lemon juice, basil, oregano, garlic salt, onion powder, honey, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. Stir or shake (if there is a lid) until everything is well combined. Store dressing in the refrigerator, covered, up to 2 weeks. Allow to sit at room temperature for a few minutes or run under hot water for a few seconds to loosen dressing. Shake or stir before using.

Notes

You can also use this dressing as a marinade or dipping dressing.