This dijon-tarragon salad dressing recipe offers a delicious, homemade dressing for salads as well as vegetables. I made it over the weekend and used it on a kale salad, a green salad, and even over rice. It got rave reviews from everyone in the family!
To make this recipe, all you need is a clean Mason jar, a plastic cap, and the ingredients. That’s it. No fancy equipment, no special items.
Fresh Lemon Juice Adds Flavor
I prefer to use fresh lemon juice in all my salad dressing recipes that call for citrus. I think that freshly squeezed lemon juice has a brightness to the flavor that I never taste in bottled lemon juice.
Did you know that you can tell which citrus fruit will be juicy by its weight? Pick up the lemon and hold it in your hand and compare it to another. A lemon, orange, or other citrus fruit with “heft” and weight to it is likely to have more juice in it than a lighter one. Lightness in citrus fruit indicates it has dried out.
Dried Herbs or Fresh?
The original dijon-tarragon salad dressing recipe that this is based on, found in Victoria Magazine, calls for fresh tarragon. I only have fresh tarragon from the garden during the summer. I substituted dried tarragon instead and the recipe came out just as tasty.
If using fresh tarragon, add two tablespoons of diced leaves.
Along with the tarragon substitution, I also substituted plain white vinegar for champagne vinegar in the original recipe. If the local Wal-Mart doesn’t sell it, I can’t use it, period. I live in a rural area, and we have only two small supermarkets plus the giant Wal-Mart supercenter nearby. I have to find all my recipe ingredients at these stores or the Amish store – and I guarantee you they won’t carry champagne vinegar!
Ready to whip up some homemade salad dressing?
Dijon-Tarragon Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
Instructions
- Squeeze the lemon and pour the juice into the Mason jar. (I use an old fashioned glass juicer but the picture in the article before the recipe shows you a modern one.)
- Pour the olive oil and vinegar into the jar with the lemon juice. Cover and give the jar a shake.
- Add tarragon, garlic powder, and a dash of ground pepper if you wish. Shake, and serve.
- Store in the fridge. Allow it to sit at room temperature for half an hour to soften the olive oil which will turn solid in the fridge.
Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.
