Homemade Salad Dressing

Pressed for time? Add a homemade oil-and-vinegar dressing to your salad for a double-whammy health boost.

Try a variety of oils and vinegars for great-tasting homemade salad dressing.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Crisp, cool, summer salads are a seasonal mainstay. You get to enjoy the fresh produce of the season and avoid summer cooking that will heat up your kitchen. One way to spoil this perfect setup, though, is to dump overprocessed, calorie-laden, and flavor-lacking store-bought dressing onto those delicious salads. Solution? Our easy, healthy recipes for homemade salad dressing, naturally.

If you’re wondering about the time and effort it takes to make homemade salad dressing, don’t be nervous. Below, we offer quick and easy recipes for your favorite salad toppers, and some variations you may never have tried. And don't worry that a tasty topping will spoil the salad's health benefits. Amazingly, the salad ingredients themselves actually become healthier when you add oil-based dressings. That’s because you absorb certain phytochemicals and antioxidants significantly better when vegetables are paired with oil than when they’re not.

The tart vinegar in your homemade salad dressing is a health booster too. According to Arizona State University researchers, eating greens with a vinaigrette dressing before consuming a starchy entrée may help control your blood sugar levels. In the study, people with type 2 diabetes and those with a precursor condition called insulin resistance both maintained lower blood sugar levels if they consumed two tablespoons of vinegar right before they ate a high-carbohydrate meal. Experts believe the acetic acid in the vinegar may activate certain starch-digesting enzymes, which lowers the absorption of carbohydrates.

A recent Swedish study validated those findings. Researchers found that when people consumed two tablespoons of vinegar along with three slices of white bread, their blood glucose levels were 23 percent lower than when they ate the bread only. Participants also reported feeling more full. All the more reason to begin any carbohydrate-rich meal with a salad topped with a vinegar-based homemade dressing.