Salad Dressing Mix Up

I get high blood pressure when I walk by certain sections in the grocery store. The salad dressing aisle is example 1A. Last time I checked there were approximately 4,000 different salad dressings you can buy in the grocery store. Many of them are some combination of salt, sugar, cheap oil, and a few pinches of spices.

But, in their defense, they are super convenient. If the step that gets you to eat more salads in your life is having convenient salad dressing in the fridge, then cool.

But, I thought I’d show you all how I’ve been rocking salad dressings recently. Essentially, I make up big batches of just the dried spice mixes. These keep for months and months. Then when you want a batch of homemade salad dressing, you just add some of the mix to a few simple ingredients and you’re ready to go!

I didn’t do the exact calculations, but I’m pretty sure that if you buy these spices in bulk (not in the little containers, but at an actual spice shop), these homemade salad dressing mixes are cheaper than the same amount of salad dressing from the store.

Three Dry Salad Dressing Mixes

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Author: Nick Evans

Servings: 8 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes minutes

Simple homemade salad dressing mixes for ranch, Italian, and Greek. Each includes a few simple dried spices and then you just have to add a few ingredients.

Ingredients 

Chipotle Ranch Dressing Mix:

• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon dried chives
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground dill
• 1 teaspoon dried chipotle
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Ranch Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon mix
• ½ cup yogurt
• ⅓ cup buttermilk

Italian Dressing Mix:

• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon celery salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Italian Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon mix
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup red wine vinegar

Greek Dressing Mix:

• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried mint
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon dried chives
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Greek Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon mix
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup white wine vinegar

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Instructions

• For each dressing mix, combine ingredients in an air-tight container. Dressing mixes will keep fine for 2-3 months in the pantry.
• Mix each dressing by whisking ingredients together or adding to a jar and shaking vigorously. Mixed dressing will keep for 1-2 weeks in the fridge. You can also adjust mix amount to your liking for each dressing.

Course: Appetizers, Pantry Staples, Salad, Side Dishes

Homemade Salad Dressing Mix Basics

These mixes look long, but they are all pretty basic actually and have easy-to-find spices. Nothing too exotic. Also, all the mixes include sugar, salt, and pepper. I tried leaving the sugar out, but I found that a little sugar really helped the flavor. It’s still way less sugar than most jarred store salad dressings.

You could try the mix without sugar though and then always add a little honey or something to the dressing later if you wanted it.

Chipotle Ranch Dressing Mix

Ranch dressing is something that I usually buy at the store if I’m in a rush, but the flavors are actually pretty easy to nail down. I like to add some spice to my mix with some dried chipotle pepper flakes, but that’s optional. Leave it out if you want a more traditional dressing.

To keep the dressing on the light side, I mix it with yogurt and buttermilk (instead of mayo). It’s packed with flavor. You could also thicken the dressing with more yogurt or some sour cream and it would be a perfect veggie dip.

Italian Dressing Mix

Italian dressing is a pretty vague term. The only real rule (in my opinion) is that it has olive oil and vinegar. The spice mix is pretty up to you.

This mix that I use though gets pretty close to the “store-bought” Italian dressing flavor. It has a little more flavor to it though. I find I need less of it on my salad because of that. A little goes a long way and the mix would last you a long time even if you eat salads every day!

Greek Dressing Mix

This mix makes the largest amount of mix. It’ll fill up a small canning jar about half way. I just stuff in all kinds of dried herbs and the resulting dressing is pretty intense. Personally, I love the mint in it. It really makes the flavor pop.

The only other difference in this mix and the Italian mix is I like to use white wine vinegar for the Greek salad dressing. This kind of shows off the herbs a bit more. The truth is that you could use either vinegar for either mix and be in pretty good shape.

Storage Times

Since the homemade salad dressing mixes are completely made of dried spices, they will keep beautifully in airtight containers for months. I’d say after 3 months though the spices will start to really lose their flavor.

Once they are mixed in a dressing, they will last 1-2 weeks without too much issue. The ranch will have the shortest shelf life thanks to the dairy.

Help spread the word on how easy salad dressings can be to make at home!

Here’s my little visual guide to all these mixes. Facebook it. Pinterest it. Save it as a reference!!