Combine a few simple ingredients to make your own oil and vinegar salad dressing to dress up a simple salad.
Jump to RecipeSo many salad dressings on the store shelves have preservatives and added ingredients in them. Making your own at home is a great way to control exactly what goes into your food.
Sometimes, a simple oil and vinegar salad dressing is all you need to dress up a regular salad. It’s easy to mix up a few basic ingredients and have your own homemade dressing. If you don’t like something in this mix, switch it out. Make this your own so you don’t have to buy store-bought dressings again!
Getting the perfect balance of oil to vinegar is the most important part of making homemade vinaigrettes. I find that about 3 parts oil to 6 parts vinegar works best. Or, in other words, a 2:1 ratio.
This recipe will make about 1/2 cup of dressing. If you need more, you can easily scale the recipe by adding more of everything.
Additional Add-Ins for Oil and Vinegar Salad Dressing
There are a lot of ways you can add some flavor or a different taste to your homemade salad dressing.
- Switch the white wine for red wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
- Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
- Add fresh garlic cloves, fresh herbs, dried herbs, or red pepper flakes for more taste
- Mix in a little bit of Dijon mustard or mustard seed
- Make it sweeter with a pinch of sugar or brown sugar
How to Serve
Oil and vinegar dressing is delicious over a bed of leafy greens or on kale salads.
It’s also delicious as a simple bread dip (especially if you use garlic) or for a drizzle on soups.
Add some cooked meat to a bed of greens with bell peppers and red onions and sprinkle it with oil dressing.

Oil & Vinegar Salad Dressing Step by Step
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp garlic, minced, dried
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper

Preparation
In a small bowl, stir all ingredients together.

Use immediately or cover and store in the fridge.

Oil & Vinegar Salad Dressing Leftovers
Storage: Put extra salad dressing in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator. I like to store it in a mason jar. Give it a good shake before using it again.

Recipe
Originally Published On: May 23, 2022
Last Updated On: October 18, 2023

Oil and Vinegar Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp garlic (minced, dried)
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- In a small bowl, stir all ingredients together
- Use immediately
All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutrition content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
Salad Dressing Recipes to try
- Oil and Vinegar Salad Dressing
- Dijon Vinaigrette Dressing for Salads or Marinades
- Southwestern Salad with an Avocado Dressing
- Chicken Tortellini Salad with Lemon Dressing
- Italian-Style Croutons
- Green Goddess Dressing
- Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Breast with Thousand Island Dressing
This looks so good and refreshing! During summer we are all about fresh salads because it is so hot in South Florida. This salad dressing is perfect and not heavy! Can’t wait to try
Simple vinaigrettes like this have always been my favorite. They’re so light and flavorful.
Nnniiiccceeeee…how can I even have my salad without vinegar dressing? Like how?! It’s so good. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Oil and Vinegar is my favorite dressing for a salad. I use it on pasta salad as well.
Wow, this looks so good. I’m not really a fan of Salad, but I would like to try it with this oil and vinegar. Thank you for sharing!
Wow! This salad dressing recipe looks absolutely delicious. Perfect match for any salad we want to do especially the veggies type of salad.
This dressing is so healthy and it really spices up simple salads like lettuce and cucumber. This is definitely a make again recipe for me.
I really need to learn how to make a salad dressing, and this looks like I’ll use this all the time! Thank you for this 🙂
This is my favorite kind of dressing. Nothing fancy but still just the right touch.
I love oil and vinegar dressing! I am going to make this for my family this weekend.
Love how simple and delicious this dressing is. Thanks for sharing.
I haven’t made my own dressing in a long time but this reminds me I should try again! This recipe sounds delish!
Always stoked about a new DIY! Nd the ones that taste great are always the best!
I love oil and apple vinegar dressing. Sometimes I sub vinegar with lemon juice, soooo good and healthy.
This sounds so much more exciting and tastier than a basic oil and vinegar dressing. I love the addition of the garlic. That would be perfect for my salad tomorrow.
Thank you for sharing this recipe, I always wanted to know how to make a salad dressing.
I love this simple dressing which is perfect in a pinch. I love a fuss-free oil and vinegar dressing.
My favorite salad dressing ever!!! I love how simple and yet delicious this dressing is. I have it with all my salads.
Totally my favorite type of dressing! I love keeping things simple yet flavorful. Adding lemon zest is great!
We don’t buy salad dressing anymore. Most times I just add a little apple cider vinegar but this sounds yum and my husband loves adding lemon to his salads.
I love a good salad dressing, but never use it enough to buy some. And this is so easy to make, I’d probably add loads more garlic haha x
I love eating salad! For sure, I will be trying this oil and vinegar salad dressing recipe!!!
Adding in garlic and lemon zest is a really good idea. It really does give the salad dressing that extra flavour kick. This is one of my favourite dressings.
Oh how interesting – I love the sound of this. I always put straight olive oil and balsamic on, I never mixed or added additional flavours, sounds great!
Nothing tops a simple salad dressing like this when you need one in a pinch. I think homemade is better and healthier too so I always try to make my own.
I love a good, simple salad dressing! They go with so many different types of salads.
I have never made my own salad dressing before. But this looks really easy and simple to do.