So I admit it: I haven’t liked salads really until recently, and I’d be lying if I said the ‘recently’ part of that statement wasn’t due to losing some of the baby weight. BUT I’ll also admit that during pregnancy, when I was eating the same.thing.every.single.day, nothing sounded better to me than a big fat fresh salad.
Now that it’s salad season and our house is chock-full of lettuce and all things salad-y I have come to realize that I don’t actually like salad again. Here’s the addendum to that though: I don’t like salad using bottled dressings. And this, my friends, is where I change my tune.
I started making homemade honey mustard dressing and my salad life has never been the same ever since. It’s mustardy, tangy, sweet and silky. It makes any vegetable it touches taste like heaven on a plate. Want to have a rather delicious and ridiculously tasty chicken/pork/fish marinade? Slather this love potion all up on that meat and grill it.
That’s right, love potion. We’ve moved on from it being just a salad dressing…
So now? Now, my friends, I love – nay, adore – salad and all things leafy green. I feel a yearning deep within my soul for large bowls of veggies tossed with honey mustard that will, without a doubt, prolong my life. It’s like the fountain of youth, shaken up in a mason jar and poured all over your dinner.
Get ready y’all – salad love is here to stay!
FAIL-PROOF HONEY MUSTARD SALAD DRESSING
- 1/2 cup dijon mustard
- 3-4 Tbsp honey (I lean more toward the 3 Tbsp range, but if you like it sweeter feel free to use more)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1-2 tsp lemon juice (I only use 1 tsp; I like the extra acidity)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp pepper
There are a couple ways to do the mixing here: toss all of the ingredients into a bowl and whisk into oblivion until everything is silky and smooth. OR you can toss it all in a mason jar, stir lightly with a fork, and then shake until smooth and silky. I’ve made it and had it last for a week or so in the fridge, although honestly I’ve eaten it much faster than that!
If you’ll excuse me I’m about to take a nap on a bed of lettuce under a blanket of honey mustard dressing…
Love this salad dressing! Turned out so good, this is going to be my new staple!! Thanks for posting.
I’m so glad you love it Nikki!
Perhaps it was the Grey Poupon I used but I had to add a lot of additional honey to take away the bitterness.
I’m so sorry it didn’t work as written! I bet it was the Grey Poupon – it’s a much stronger mustard than I used in the original recipe.
Hi Heather. After Googling and finding your recipe and then reading some of the reviews, I decided to try your recipe. It tastes great and I will now keep it in my small recipe file for future use (my wife does most of the cooking). Here in the Netherlands, the Dijon mustard is quite strong, so I only used 1/3 cup and that turned out to be a good move. The honey I used is quite thick and so I also added a little apple vinegar to thin the mixture a bit. In the end the flavor and texture was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for posting this great recipe.
I also added some dried dill to the recipe.
I’m so glad you liked it! And the addition of dill sounds delicious too!
I am that girl who needs at least three dipping sauces for any kind of dippable food, and honey mustard is definitely one of those necessary sauces! I’m pinning this one for my next craving!
Delicious! I will never buy honey mustard dressing again!
I’m wondering doesn’t the honey and or olive oil get hard if kept in the refrigerator? This looks very good and I will try it out very soon….Thank you so much!
It might firm up a little, but if you let it sit at room temp for 5 minutes or so beforehand it’s not a big deal!
Ruined a good salad with this recipe! Might as well just pour dijon mustard on your salad! Terrible recipe!!!
I’m so sorry you didn’t like the recipe Jim; it happens to be one of my favorites, but I hope you can find one that you adore too!
I just made this, and took a lick off the rim of the bowl — freaking delicious, is what I said! Thank you!
WOOHOO! That’s what I like to hear! So glad you enjoyed it Tracy!
I have just made this to go over a beautiful salad for tonight’s dinner. Hope it turns out well. All the ingredients sound good and a good honey mustard is my favorite dressing. Hope this turns out to be a “winner” that I can make over and over again.
I hope you love it Margaret!
A friend brought a salad to our potluck and the dressing was simply amazing, the best I ever tasted. She referred me here when I asked for the recipe and after making it tonight, I have to thank you. I love that something so tasty is also so quick and easy to make. It’s brilliant and you’re wonderful to share it!
Thank you so much Donna! I’m so glad you liked it; definitely my favorite dressing thus far!
Very delicious! Made a spring salad mix, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, croutons and this dressing. I served barbecue pork chops with salad and it was extremely good. Thanks for this great recipe.
That sounds like the perfect summer meal! So glad you liked the recipe Sue 🙂
This was truly a Heaven-sent recipe for me. I’m fairly newly married to a Jewish man and am having to learn to come up with meals that fit Kosher standards (can’t mix milk and meat at one meal to put it at its simplest form). The hardest part for me has been not being able to have my favorite dressing on my salads nor use it as a marinade unless eating fish or meatless. Your recipe can be eaten with any and all Kosher meals and for those who love a creamy textured dressing – this wonderful recipe supplies it in droves! I will be sharing this with all my Kosher-keeping friends online and IRL and would suggest adding “Kosher salad dressing” and especially “Pareve (and Parve) salad dressing” to your tags; I bet you would get an amazing number of hits and thousands of very, very grateful cooks in my situation, particularly those who are looking for a non-mayo-based version. Thank you so very much! Now I can look forward to interesting salads again every night! And BTW, it’s even better than the (home-made) one I was craving that I used before marriage (I’m not Jewish). Literally Heaven-In-A-Jar 🙂
Too much of a mustard taste is there an ingredient missing from the above recipe- – – mayo?
Hey Barb! That is the correct recipe – I just like that it tastes mustard-y. If you wanted to add a spoonful of mayo or maybe just more honey that might tone it down a bit for you!
That worked for me too! The dressing was too sharp for my taste so I added a tablespoon of mayo (and omitted the garlic powder). It’s delicious! Thank you Heather for the really simple recipe! I’m literally having that now with a salad of baby spinach and roasted chicken.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I always love hearing success stories 🙂
I think I love you! About 10 years ago, Wendy’s sold a chicken BLT salad with honey mustard dressing. I would crave that dressing more than chocolate!! Since they stopped selling it locally, I decided to find a recipe that would be similar but had no luck. Most contained mayonnaise and the texture/consistency was a bit off. Just by luck I came across your site and decided to give the recipe a try although my expectations were low. (Queue harps playing)……the clouds parted, the sun began to shine and the angels were singing as I took that first bite of salad. SUCCESS!! Thank you for sharing this 🙂
HURRAY!!! I’m so glad I could make your honey mustard dreams come true 🙂 Seriously though, I love this dressing and I’m SO SO SO glad you love it too!
Just made the Honey Mustard Salad dressing. However, I added 1/2 of mayo to mine. I’ve been looking for this in the stores and haven’t had any luck. Can’t wait to eat my salad tonight!
1/2 cup mayo
For those wondering: according to My Fitness Pal, the dressing is about 700 calories, although it’s enough to make at least 3 or 4 servings. Most of the calories are from the olive oil (1/4 cup of olive oil is nearly 500 cals). The only other major consideration is the high sodium count — 99% of which is from the mustard. The entire batch is between 1400 and 1600mg of sodium, depending on brand and recipe of mustard / dijon.
Yummy! Loved this on spinach salad with some apple, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
Whsts the nutritional facts on this recipe??
Hi Julian! I actually don’t track or provide nutritional information, but I know you can calculate it yourself on sites like SparkPeople or MyFitnessPal. That way you can use the actual ingredients and brands you’re using to customize 🙂
Thanks Heather!! This dressing is so good
Do you know the calories per serving?
Hey Nancy! I don’t really track calories, so I don’t know but you could plug the numbers in to MyFitnessPal or SparkPeople!
Just tried the above recipe for the first time, I am most certain to be using this in the future!
I was getting ready to whip this together, but had one question. Can you tell me if you use Olive Oil or EV Olive Oil? Most dressing recipes call for EV, so I wanted to make sure I had it right.
Thanks!
Hey Julie! I used Extra Virgin in this dressing 🙂 Thank you for asking!
Thank you!
Wow – another Heather! And I can’t believe how easy this was!!! Why would I ever buy honey mustard again?! And this was so much better!! Thanks so much. I’m making your honey mustard brisket tomorrow – I’ll have it on my blog in the next few weeks with a link back.
Thanks!!
I’m so glad you liked it Heather! We seriously always have a fresh batch going on at our house 😉
Hi,
Is it ok to use fresh garlic rather than powder I’m this recipe???
Hey Kylie! Yes it certainly is! I would start with one clove and paste it on a microplane, then just add more if you want/need more!
I was getting worried when I finished that it tasted a little bitter but I put it on my salad anyways and it’s wonderful!! (Goes great with a strawberry and spinach salad)!
I’m so glad you like it Mariah! And the salad you mentioned sounds amaaaaaaaaaazing!
A ver sí te gusta!
We live in France and really miss not having Honey Mustard dressing so we tried this recipe. The mustard in France is very different then USA mustard … even French Dijon mustard from USA is very very mild compared to French Dijon mustard we find in France. I lowered the mustard quantity and it basically worked. It’s still a little too strong as the French “horseradish” taste still comes through … but much much better than the dressing we can buy here. The french don’t really do salads and they definitely don’t do dressings … Thanks very much. We will try again lowering the mustard even more next time around. Appreciated.
How interesting! I had no idea dijon would be so different here vs. there. I’m glad you liked the dressing!
Superb dressing, although I used whole grain mustard as that was the only one in my cupboard, and less honey and more lemon juice as i dont like really sweet things. thanks for a simple but delicious dressing, yummy..
Thank you Yvonne! I am so glad you liked it; I love the idea of whole grain mustard in lieu of dijon!
I’m about to make this Honey Mustard dressed with orange juice for the no lemon cure! 🙂
Sounds delicious!!!
This dressing is simply AMAZING! I was looking for a honey mustard recipe that did not include mayo or yogurt, and this was absolutely perfect. I just made a wrap today using this dressing, some leftover rotisserie chicken breast, red onions, lettuce, cucumber, and avocado and it was such a delightfully refreshing meal for the summer. Thanks so much, and I will be pinning this recipe as well! 🙂
YAY! So glad you loved it Cammy! I’m a huge fan too – we always have a big jar around our house!
very good thanks very interesting
Like your site and this recipe on the honey mustard dressing, but not the oil. I am off all oils in reversing blockage. You may some day take a moment to check out Dr John McDougall’s website and You Tube stuff … I am doing what Pres. Clinton’s doing … also all the studies on olive oil is so paid for by the olive oil packers and nut packers and are so flawed … whatever, I must not preach … I know some will just think it’s just so healty for the cardiac … have a great day and keep eating those salads, beans and oatmeal and no meat and no diary … if you can … its hard to do. Frank
“◾1-2 tsp lemon juice (I only use 1 tsp; I like the extra acidity)”
This does make a super dressing but if you like the extra acidity surely you’d have more than one teaspoon?
Great question David! I found that anything more than mustard in a honey mustard (in my experience anyway) can be a little harsh to some, but even a teaspoon of lemon juice makes a big difference! If you like it more acidic than that I’m sure it’s still wonderful with even more lemon juice!
I have cut sugar out of my diet except a little bit of maple syrup or honey occasionally. I love this recipe. I actually made a salad yesterday so I could have something sweet ( this dressing) haha! Satisfying a sweet tooth with a salad? That feels pretty good. Also, this is really good with plain kettle chips as a dip.
Ha! I love that the salad was your “sweet” treat! Too funny, but also a really good idea for those sweet cravings! And the chip idea? Genius 😉
This dressing is the best I’ve tasted, bottled or homemade! This is definitely in my list of recipes. Living alone it costs so much to have a variety, and now that’s all I do is make my own. I would recommend everyone try this recipe if you’re a honey mustard lover.
I made Heather’s salad dressing and it is absolutely the best honey mustard recipe ever. Nothing else comes even close. Better than Alton Brown’s too. Thank you, Heather. Fantastic!
Thanks Shannon! I’m so glad you liked it!
Hello! I made this dressing the other day and it was wonderful! I like it much better than those mayonnaise based ones. I have been making my own dressings for a couple years, when I finally got tired of throwing out the bottles, as they would expire before we used them up. And home made dressings ROCK!
Thank you !!
Hey Lorraine! I’m so so glad you liked it – it’s a staple in our house!!!
If you like this on your greens, you should like dipping your Sour Dough beer pretzels into it …on a hot summer night, a cold class of Peroni beer is great with it also.
I’m drooling at the idea of the pretzels in it – YUM!
Just whipped this up for friends coming for lunchtime. This is the best honey mustard dressing I’ve ever made. Yum! I tweeted it too, to share the great find. Thanks so much for posting this recipe.
That’s fantastic! I’m so glad you like the recipe!
I made this for tea tonight it was so yum I WILL be making this again
This is great! Thank you so much…I’ve been looking for so long for a decent homemade dressing to be able to use with most things that is simple and easy to make. This is it. Awesome. 🙂
great! i’m so glad you like it!
OMG. This is THE BOMB. So good and so easy. I didn’t even measure the ingredients, just dumped everyting in a bottle and shook away. I’m swearing off supermarket salad dressings forever – just FYI, time to boycott Wishbone, found out yesterday that most of their fat-free and light dressings now include an artificial sweetner REB A which is based on Stevia. Why do they keep putting artificial crap in everything?? Just more incentive for me to eat as much non-processed food and make my own stuff like dressings, etc.
i’m so glad you like it!
STEVIA is a natural plant considered healthy/or not unhealthy. It’s not an artificial sweetener.
I was in the mood for a honey mustard dressing, googled it (because why would I use all of my million cookbooks when I can google a recipe while nursing??) and yours popped up! You seem obsessed with it (in the best of ways 🙂 so I’m going to try it this week on a spinach-beet-goat cheese-bacon salad. YUM!
how funny, i literally JUST made a batch for my salads this week! i hope you like it as much as i do!
Delish! I found your website on a whim searching Google for homemade Honey Mustard Salad Dressing. I just made it and I can honestly say, this is the best salad I’ve ever made! Thank you for posting!
I usually just use some bottled ranch, some mustard, and honey… NEVER again! This is my new favourite. And it definitely spreads really well! I’d use it as a dip for wings or chicken strips… If you don’t have the Dijon, you can use regular mustard too… It’s still a great, silky dressing.
I added some balsamic vinegar and it is also great!!! Thanks for the recipe!
i am so stealing this!
my all time favorite.
the longer it sits in that jar the better!!!
holllly smokes, how did you know honey mustard is my JAM? I can’t get enough. and now the world needs to watch out, ’cause I’ll finally be making some of my own. 🙂 thank you for this!!
one word….yummo!!
It’s so true that a really good, homemade dressing can make all the difference between a salad that is “meh” and one that you can’t stop eating. This dressing look like it could transform any salad!
I had the exact same revelation a few months ago. Salad with crisp greens, fun toppings and HOMEMADE DRESSING is absolutely delicious and totally crave-able. And I used to think I hated salad. 🙂
I love making homemade dressings! And I just love that this is “fail proof.” I make a lot of salads to bring to work for lunch and I actually just finished the last dressing I made so I’ll be sure to make this tonight to last me for the week. Thanks for sharing!
Love it! I make something very similar too, dressing makes the salad!!! Yours look fabulous!
I may have to give this a shot – I used to love honey mustard dressing, plus it is “fail-proof” and all, right? 😉
i loooove honey mustard. i would bathe in it.
Ohhh I love this! Homemade dressings are the shizz!
Love this – just pinned it because I already know it will be a new favourite!
I think you might love this dressing too – so simple, delicious, and oil free! It’s the one dressing I like when I am not loving salads!
https://healthytastycheap.com/2011/04/07/miso-ginger-dressing/
oh, yum! i don’t mind a little oil but that dressing sounds super delicious 🙂
Sounds absolutely perfect!
That salad looks so darn tasty!
I am 100% making this for lunch today. Thanks for the great recipe!!
Ahhhh this may be the solution to all of my bottled dressing problems! aka they all stink. probably going to go make this right now for lunch later!
I love salads, and eat them every single day! I never use bottled dressing, though. I make my own vinaigrette, using whatever vinegar I am in the mood for. I especially like red wine vinaigrette- red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, minced garlic, S&P and good quality extra virgin olive oil. I have never made honey mustard dressing…it sounds delicious! I can’t wait to try this recipe!