Easy Lemon Vinaigrette - Small Batch Salad Dressing

An easy lemon vinaigrette made with fresh lemons. This zesty dressing is a small batch salad dressing, so there's no waste.

I love to have different salad dressings on rotation to add to couscous, salad and wraps.

My latest salad dressing is this zingy lemon vinaigrette, with a hint of sweetness to balance the zesty lemon flavour.

It tastes amazing and it's small batch so you don't end up wasting any of it like you do when you make a full jar of dressing or use store-bought salad dressings.

Heck, homemade dressings taste way better anyway and no added flavourings, colours or other additives.

Jump to:

• 🍋 Fresh lemons only
• 🍋 Getting the best from a lemon
• 🥣 What you need to make lemon salad dressing
• 📋 Substitutions
• 🥫 Storing salad dressing
• 💭 How long does vinaigrette keep?
• 🥗 How to serve it
• 👩🏻‍🍳 Related recipes - more small batch salad dressing recipes
• ⭐ Save your favourite recipes for free!
• 👩🏻‍🍳 How to make Vegan Lemon Vinaigrette
• 📖 Recipe
• Comments

🍋 Fresh lemons only

When you're making a gorgeous lemon dressing like this the last thing you want to use is bottled lemon juice.

If it's a good one, you'll be lucky that there's only lemon oil and preservatives added and if it's not so good, it will have lots of nasties added.

However good it is, it's nowhere as nice as using fresh lemon juice and zest.

Fresh is best!

🍋 Getting the best from a lemon

There are a few things you can do to get the most out of a fresh lemon.

• Buy unwaxed lemons or wash the lemons well before zesting.
• Don't zest the white pith as it's bitter.
• Roll the lemon forwards and backwards with a little pressure with the palm of your hand on your worktop to soften the lemon and release the juice.
• Cut the lemon in half and use a lemon reamer to get as much juice from the lemon as possible, the wooden one I used was a gift from a friend.
• If you're squeezing the lemon with your hand, you can use a fork to press the inside of the lemon to help you squeeze, but a lemon reamer is better.

🥣 What you need to make lemon salad dressing

Here are the simple ingredients you need to make this lemon vinaigrette dressing.

• Lemon - juice and zest
• Olive oil - a mild olive oil, extra virgin olive oil can overpower the other flavours in a salad dressing
• Maple syrup - to balance out the sour flavour from the lemons
• Mustard - yellow American mustard is good for it's yellow colour
• Oregano - dried oregano
• Garlic powder - if you use fresh garlic you will have to use a blender or food processor to blend it into the dressing
• Salt & black pepper

The full recipe, method and nutrition can be found in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this page.

📋 Substitutions

Here are a few tweaks you can make to the basic recipe.

• Rapeseed oil - instead of olive oil (it gives a nutty flavour and it's cheaper to buy than olive oil)
• Dijon Mustard - instead of American mustard, it doesn't give you that wonderful yellow colour to your dressing, but it does taste good
• Dried basil - or parsley instead of oregano

🥫 Storing salad dressing

Clean jam jars make the best containers for homemade salad dressing.

You can see what's left in the jar and the tight lid means you can give it a really good shake to emulsify the dressing before you dress your salad bowl.

Mini milk bottles with lids or small mason jars are good for storing salad dressing too.

Tupperware jars work well too.

Anything with a well-sealing lid that you can pour from will do.

💭 How long does vinaigrette keep?

Once made you can store vinaigrette in a jam jar or other airtight container in the fridge.

It will keep for up to a week and still taste fresh.

Just give it a good shake to emulsify the dressing before serving.

🥗 How to serve it

Your first thought may be a simple green salad when thinking about homemade dressing, but it's so much more versatile than that, although that's a good option too.

Here are a few ideas for using this homemade lemon vinaigrette:

• Drizzled over freshly roasted Mediterranean vegetables
• Mixed through couscous or quinoa
• Served with a simple Greek salad
• Drizzled over a Greek salad wrap filling
• Tossed through olives and vegan feta for mezze
• Serve with crusty bread for dunking

👩🏻‍🍳 Related recipes - more small batch salad dressing recipes

Looking for more recipes like this? Try these:

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👩🏻‍🍳 How to make Vegan Lemon Vinaigrette

These step-by-step photos will show you how to make the most delicious lemon dijon vinaigrette.

Full printable recipe card below.

Step 1

• Add freshly squeezed lemon juice to a clean jam jar or any other other airtight container.
• Now add the lemon zest garlic and herbs.

Step 2

• Now add the mustard, then add maple syrup to balance the lemon flavour.
• Next, pour in the olive oil or rapeseed oil.

Step 3

• Season with salt and pepper.
• Add the lid and shake like crazy to combine and emulsify the dressing.
• Now go make green salads or grain bowls and try this luscious lemon oregano vinaigrette.
• Enjoy!

📖 Recipe