How to Keep Homemade Salad Dressing from Separating

Check out How to Get Kids to Eat Salad for a list of my favorite salad ingredients and an inexpensive tool that has revolutionized my salad game.

Easy {and delicious} Homemade Dressing

For a while now, I’ve been making my own salad dressing from quality olive oil and my favorite balsamic vinegar. Sometimes I add a few drops of stevia.  And sometimes I experiment with adding seasonings. 

Often, I just add the oil and vinegar directly to my salad, without premixing it into a dressing.

My preferred method, however is to mix up a whole bottle of salad dressing and keep it on hand–especially for guests. 

• Save

Problem – How To Keep Salad Dressing From Separating

So here’s the problem: the oil and vinegar separate in the bottle.  Even when we shake up the bottle, we seem to get mostly oil from a full bottle of dressing.  The vinegar just kind of hangs out at the bottom of the bottle.

It’s not a huge deal–it generally bugs me only when we have company for dinner and I see them dressing their salad with mostly olive oil from the top of the bottle of dressing.  Grrr.  How can I keep my homemade salad dressing from separating?

A Solution To Keep Salad Dressing From Separating

Finally, I did some research and discovered how to keep homemade salad dressing from separating an easy fix: ground mustard. 

I have no idea what it is about ground mustard that helps to emulsify oil and vinegar, but it’s true.  I’ve tested it myself and am just tickled with the results.  It really keeps the salad dressing from separating. 

Incidentally, there are a few other ways to emulsify salad dressing.  If you’ve got first-hand experience here, by all means, tell us your tricks in the comments below.

So here’s my loose recipe:

• Mostly olive oil–A good rule of thumb is 3:1 oil to vinegar, but play around with the ratio to suit yourself.
• Some balsamic vinegar–Use a really good one for this!   I keep a bottle of cheaper vinegar to use for cooking, and save my awesome vinegar for salads.
• A few drops of clear, liquid stevia.
• About 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard–Again, feel free to play around with the amount.
• Unrefined sea salt* and ground black pepper, to taste-It really does make a difference!

*Use code KEEPITREAL to get 15% off your order.

Instructions:

1.  Combine all ingredients in the bottle of your choice, and shake, shake, shake!

2.  As far as I know, there’s no reason to store this dressing in the fridge.  I keep mine on a shelf, alongside the olive oil, vinegar and other such cooking ingredients.

Hooray! 

I’m so happy to have solved this little dilemma.  Perhaps it’s time to invite guests over for dinner, so I can watch them dress their salads with oil and vinegar, conveniently emulsified into this lovely, homemade dressing. 🙂

What’s your favorite homemade salad dressing?

• Save