Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe | The Gracious Pantry (2024)

ByTiffany McCauley

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This Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe is fast, easy, and super cheap to make. It’s delicious too!

Making a quick vinaigrette at home is so much easier than running down to the store for a bottle of store-bought additives. The flavors are fresher and more robust, and it’s so simple to make. In fact, while this recipe calls for a blender, you don’t even really need one. Just put the ingredients into a jar with a lid and shake!

Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe | The Gracious Pantry (1)

Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe Without Mustard

If you don’t like mustard, you can certainly make this without it. The dressing recipe is quite versatile. So omit or add anything you need or want to.

Healthy White Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe With No Sugar

While I highly recommend adding some sort of sweetener (even if it’s different from honey), you can certainly make this without. Omit it if you choose, or use an alternative sweetener.

Healthy White Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe

You can also make this balsamic vinaigrette with white balsamic vinegar, and it will turn out just fine.

How To Use This Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe

The obvious choice is to put it on a basic salad. But this also goes great with a spinach salad or makes a great marinade for chicken or steak. You can also simply baste your chicken with it before baking. And lastly, this is great in pasta salad or rice salad.

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Recipe Tips

  1. If you can’t afford the expensive balsamic vinegar, buy the cheap stuff and boil it down by half. (soft boil) So for this recipe, I started with 1 cup of balsamic vinegar and boiled it down to the ½ cup called for in the recipe.
  2. Don’t use olive oil or extra virgin olive oil. It doesn’t taste very good with the mustard. I used safflower oil, but you can also use grapeseed oil.
  3. You don’t have to use copious amounts of oil to get the needed effect in your salad. A little oil goes a long way. I used ¼ cup for this recipe, but my guess is you could get away with using ⅛ cup and still get the same effect with half the fat. Experiment and see what tastes good to you. Just shake your dressing well before applying.

Optional Additions

To help add even more flavor to this already flavorful dressing, you can blend in some shallots if you like. You can also toss in a garlic clove or two.

About The Ingredients

Balsamic vinegar– You can use regular or white. I used Modena.

Oil– Any light-flavored oil will work. I used unflavored coconut oil. Avocado oil will work well here too.

Dijon mustard– No sugar added.

Honey – You can also use maple syrup or any sweetener you like.

Italian Seasoning– Find it in the spice aisle ormake it at home. You can use fresh herbs if you prefer. But I find that the dressing goes bad much faster if you do.

Salt

Ground pepper

How To Make Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette

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Add all the ingredients to a blender tumbler. You can use a food processor, but the herbs won’t be blended as fine.

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Blend until smooth. (About 1-2 minutes)

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Transfer the dressing to an airtight container and use as needed.

Storage

This should be stored in the refrigerator at all times. A great option for storage is to keep this in a mason jar with a tight-fitting lid. As long as it’s kept in the fridge, it should last for up to about 2 weeks.

Freezing

Freezing is not recommended for this recipe.

Recipe Supplies

I can highly recommend this Ninja blender because that’s what I have and use. I love it.

More Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

  • Raspberry Vinaigrette
  • Strawberry Vinaigrette
  • Garlic Lemon Vinaigrette

More Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes

If vinaigrettes aren’t your thing, try one of these delicious homemade dressings

  • Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
  • Lemon Tahini Dressing
  • Thousand Island Dressing

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Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe Card

Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe | The Gracious Pantry (15)

Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe

A cheap, tasty, simple and easy dressing you can make in minutes.

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Condiments

Cuisine: American, French

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 servings

Calories: 51kcal

Equipment

  • 1 Blender

Ingredients

  • ½ cup balsamic vinegar (see notes above)
  • ¼ cup oil (any light flavored oil will work)
  • 2 tsp. prepared Dijon mustard (no sugar added)
  • 1 tsp. honey
  • 2 tsp. Italian Herb (find it in the spice aisle or make it at the link above)
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • ½ tsp. ground pepper

US CustomaryMetric

Instructions

  • Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend for 1 to 2 minutes or until it's completely blended.

Notes

Please note that the nutrition data below is a ballpark figure. Exact data is not possible.

Nutrition

Serving: 1tbsp. | Calories: 51kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Sodium: 109mg | Potassium: 19mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 7IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 0.2mg

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Healthy Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe | The Gracious Pantry (2024)

FAQs

Is balsamic vinaigrette dressing healthy? ›

The polyphenols found in balsamic vinegar have antioxidant properties that multiple studies show may help improve cardiovascular health. While not a substitute for medication, incorporating balsamic vinegar into a heart-healthy diet could be a small but flavorful step toward maintaining healthy blood pressure.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when making vinaigrette? ›

12 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Making Homemade Vinaigrette
  • Estimating measurements for all ingredients. inspiredbyart/Shutterstock. ...
  • Using the wrong oil. ...
  • Using the wrong vinegar. ...
  • Leaving out the emulsifier. ...
  • Skipping the mustard. ...
  • Forgetting to check expiration dates. ...
  • Not using fresh herbs. ...
  • Using vinaigrette only on salad.
Aug 18, 2022

What's the difference between balsamic vinegar and balsamic vinaigrette? ›

Balsamic vinegar is pure vinegar. Balsamic vinegar is dark brown in color and has a very robust, slightly sweet flavor. Balsamic vinaigrette is a mixture made with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sugar, salt and/or other spices. It is typically used as a salad dressing but has other uses in the kitchen as well.

Is balsamic vinaigrette healthier than ranch? ›

Generally speaking, the healthiest salad dressing will be a vinaigrette like balsamic or oil and vinegar, while Caesar, ranch or anything with the word “creamy” will be the unhealthiest.

What is the healthiest dressing to put on your salad? ›

Try one of these six simple ideas to get you started.
  • Classic lemon and olive oil. This is a very easy dressing that is good with strong-flavoured leaf salads, such as rocket or kale. ...
  • Lime and chilli dressing. ...
  • Simple balsamic vinaigrette. ...
  • Raspberry vinaigrette. ...
  • Creamy cucumber dressing. ...
  • Creamy mint dressing.

What is the most unhealthy salad dressing? ›

Depending on the ingredients, some dressings tend to be less healthy than others.
  1. Caesar. And at the top of that list? Caesar dressing. ...
  2. Thousand Island. Next in line is Thousand Island. ...
  3. Blue cheese. The delicious crumbles that make blue cheese dressing a fan favorite can also make it dangerous for a balanced diet.
Oct 27, 2023

What can I use instead of balsamic vinegar in balsamic dressing? ›

For every 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, substitute 1 Tbsp. cider vinegar or red wine vinegar plus ½ tsp. sugar.

Why do Italians use balsamic vinegar? ›

Italians use balsamic vinegar in specific ways—as a tonic (either straight or in water), dribbled carefully on asparagus, parmigiano-reggiano, or strawberries, maybe as a flavoring in a salad dressing mostly based on ordinary wine vinegar.

What is the best dressing to put in a salad to lose weight? ›

Harris-Pincus explains, "Those looking to follow a lower-carb plan or people watching added sugars would do better avoiding sweeter dressings like Honey Mustard, Thousand Island, French or Catalina, and choose oil and vinegar or a balsamic vinaigrette."

What is the healthiest vinegar for salad dressing? ›

Balsamic vinegar contains beneficial antioxidants, no fat, and very few calories. (You can read more about its health benefits here.) It packs a lot of flavor into a small amount, so it goes a long way on salads.

What to avoid in salad for weight loss? ›

But add-ons like tortilla strips, cheese, croutons, candied nuts and bacon bits can negate the whole point of eating a salad for health and weight-loss reasons, Burak says.

Is balsamic vinaigrette high in sugar? ›

Balsamic vinegar is usually safe to add to foods. It contains very few calories, is low in sugar, and is fat-free. In addition, there are several potential health benefits associated with balsamic vinegar.

What are the benefits of balsamic vinaigrette? ›

Balsamic vinegar contains no fat and very little natural sugar. It's been proven to lower cholesterol, stabilize blood pressure, support weight loss, and improve your skin.

Is salad with balsamic vinegar good for you? ›

The best way to dress your salad is with a little olive oil (healthy fat!) and lemon juice, or olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Balsamic vinegar contains beneficial antioxidants, no fat, and very few calories.

Are salads with vinaigrette healthy? ›

“In general, the healthiest choices are oil and vinegar or a light vinaigrette,” Dobbins says. Still, she cautions that it is important to watch your portions because this dressing has a relatively high sodium-per-serving level.

References

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