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Sunshine Salad Dressing

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This creamy honey-mustard salad dressing recipe is COMMENTS

lightened up with Greek yogurt. No mayo here! This

Jump to recipe
homemade dressing is easy to make, too. I love it so much
that I nicknamed it "sunshine salad dressing."
HI, I'M KATHRYNE TAYLOR

Updated by Kathryne Taylor on October 1, 2024

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Let’s rewind to my trip to Costa Rica last month with my grandmother. It was
the last day on our group trip, and we arrived at Sibu for our final dinner
together. Sibu produces the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted, and they greeted us
with rum-spiked, spiced hot chocolate.

I was literally a kid in a candy store all night as they presented a lesson in
chocolate history (with wine and chocolate) and moved on to an incredible
dinner.

After appetizers, they handed us chopped salads that looked fairly basic at first
glance—I remember lettuce, tomato, avocado, feta and dressing. Then I took a
bite and forgot about chocolate for a minute. That dressing!

I immediately tracked down the owner of the place to ask about it. He said it
was a “honey-Dijon vinaigrette with yogurt base” and I vowed to recreate it at
home. Mind you, this dressing is quite different from a classic vinaigrette.

I started with the honey-mustard vinaigrette that I made for my cookbook,

which I love as written. I reduced the oil and added plain Greek yogurt until it
tasted like the dressing at Sibu.

This dressing is essentially a creamy honey-mustard dressing made

with Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise. It offers a more luxurious
texture than any other honey-mustard dressing I’ve tried. I’m usually skeptical
of using yogurt in place of mayonnaise or sour cream (mayo and sour cream
have their place), but this salad dressing wouldn’t be the same without it.

Healthy Honey-Mustard Dressing

The only problem with this dressing is that “honey-Dijon vinaigrette with
yogurt base” doesn’t do it justice. “Healthy honey-mustard dressing” sounds
bland, and “creamy honey-mustard dressing” doesn’t quite capture the tangy
deliciousness of the yogurt.

I dubbed it “Sunshine Salad Dressing” since it brightens up my

salads so well. I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer, so I’m sharing it today
for all of your side salad needs. The recipe yields a lot (almost 1 1/2 cups). I
don’t think you’ll have any trouble finishing it off. It makes a stellar dip for
vegetables, too!

I’ve been keeping a big jar of it in my fridge for the past couple of weeks, and it
goes with just about everything. Try this honey-mustard dressing with any
of the following:

Fresh greens of any kind

Avocado

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Kale

Carrots

Apples

Bell peppers

Goat cheese, feta or cheddar cheese

Sunflower seeds, pecans, or almonds

Don’t miss my sunshine slaw with quinoa or my roasted and raw carrot salad
with avocado, which both call for this dressing. I have more salads over here.

Please let me know how you like this honey-mustard dressing in the
comments! I hope you love it as much as I do.

Watch How to Make Sunshine Dressing

Watch how to make healthy honey mustard dressing in this short recipe video! It's so easy to m…

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Sunshine Salad Dressing

Author: Cookie and Kate Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 0 minutes
PRINT SAVE
Total Time: 10 minutes Yield: 1 1/2 cups 1x

4.9 from 440 reviews

This creamy honey-mustard salad dressing recipe is lightened up with Greek

yogurt. No mayo here! It’s so easy to whisk this dressing together. Recipe yields
almost 1 ½ cups and keeps well for 10 to 14 days.

Ingredients 1x 2x 3x

½ cup plain Greek yogurt (any % fat will

do)

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup Dijon mustard

3 to 4 tablespoons honey, to taste

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or more lemon juice

1 clove garlic, pressed or minced

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

10 twists of freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
1. In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup or bowl,
combine all of the ingredients as listed.
Whisk until blended. Taste, and season
with additional pepper if necessary.

2. This dressing is intentionally bold, but if

it tastes too tart for your liking, whisk in
another tablespoon of honey.

3. Store leftover salad dressing in the refrigerator, covered, for 10 to 14 days.

Notes
MAKE IT DAIRY FREE: If you have a favorite unsweetened dairy-free plain
yogurt, it should work well here.

Nutrition SHOW NUTRITION

CATEGORY: SALAD DRESSING METHOD: WHISKED CUISINE: AMERICAN

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FILED UNDER: egg free, fall, favorites, gluten free, independence day, inexpensive, naturally
sweetened, nut free, pantry friendly, recipes, salad dressing, salads, soy free, spring, summer, tomato
free, winter

INGREDIENTS: honey, yogurt

NEWER OLDER
Sunshine Slaw with Quinoa Classic Minestrone Soup

HELLO, MY NAME IS

Kathryne Taylor
I'm a vegetable enthusiast, dog
lover, mother and bestselling
cookbook author. I've been
sharing recipes here since 2010,
and I'm always cooking something
new in my Kansas City kitchen.
Cook with me!

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Comments

DOREMI
June 25, 2024 at 6:18 PM This ad will end in 12

OH MY GOODNESS! I just made this dressing and it’s is superb! Bright, spicy
and flavorful and so yummy! This will definitely be my go to dressing now. It’s
fresh, no preservatives and the nutritional numbers are great! Thank you so
much for sharing this recipe. It is definitely a KEEPER! YUM!!! Gotta check out
the rest of your website for some more gems!
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