What makes a salad dressing great? Sometimes you want a dressing that highlights the flavors of the salad, while other times you are looking for a dressing that lets the other ingredients of the salad shine. This parsley vinaigrette salad dressing is the latter: it dresses each salad wonderfully without overpowering the other salad ingredients.
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This salad dressing brightens the flavors of any salad it touches. It is a perfect dressing to brighten up any salad, and it can also double as a marinade. This recipe is the one that inspired my creamy parsley vinaigrette dressing. If you're looking for a more lemon-forward dressing, give my lemon pepper vinaigrette a try.
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💕 why you'll love this recipe
🌱 light & fresh. Simple ingredients like fresh parsley, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar keep this dressing light and flavorful.
🥗 works on any salad. This dressing complements nearly any salad, from side dishes to mains.
⏱️ quick & easy. My favorite part about making homemade salad dressings is that they can be made so quickly. Seriously, 15 minutes or less is all you need!
🛒 ingredients
Truly simple to its core, this parsley vinaigrette recipe only has a handful of ingredients. You'll need:
- parsley - fresh parsley is the flavor highlight in this salad dressing. I use flat-leaf parsley, or Italian parsley, and prefer it in this dressing. Curly parsley is much more delicate and grassy in flavor, while flat-leaf parsley is more herbaceous in flavor.
- garlic - as a self-proclaimed garlic girl, I believe no kitchen should ever be without fresh garlic. I admit I often go rogue and add anywhere from 2-6 cloves of garlic in this recipe, depending on how garlicky I want it that week.
- lemon juice - fresh lemon juice is key to keeping the flavors bright and zesty in this dressing.
- balsamic vinegar - use a good quality balsamic vinegar for your dressing. I prefer to use Balsamic vinegar of modena, which is an Italian-specific balsamic vinegar with a sweet, smooth taste. It is rich and dark in color.
- olive oil - sometimes, a high-quality oil is worth splurging for when you're making things like simple salad dressings. In this recipe, opt to use a higher-quality oil. The flavor profile of this dressing is super simple, so the flavor of the olive oil will be pronounced.
- maple syrup - use whatever maple syrup you have. It doesn't have to be an "A" grade, either!
- salt and pepper - the two standby spices that always help amp up the flavor of any dish. I opt for kosher salt, diamond brand.
See recipe card for quantities.
🍳 instructions
This parsley salad dressing is super simple to make. It comes together in about 10 minutes or less. The thing that takes the longest is prepping the parsley! 🤪
See the recipe card for the full instructions.
Hint: If you don't feel like de-stemming the parsley, leave the stems on! The stems don't adversely affect the flavor, but they will thicken the dressing a bit more, or result in a "chunkier" dressing.
💡 tips and tricks for getting it right
🍽️ Serving Tips - Serve this dressing with any salad you choose, it works well on nearly every kind of salad, from side dish to main dish! You can also use this dressing as a marinade for the protein you're using on your salad. This creates a flavor echo, which is great for layering flavors!
ℹ️ Troubleshooting Tips - Fresh herbs will make the best dressing, but you can also make this with dried herbs. If you are using dried herbs, use ¼ of the amount and taste your dressing, increasing by one teaspoon at a time as needed.
Avoid pouring all the olive oil in at once, and instead, slowly stream it in as you are blending the mixture so that it emulsifies. Emulsifying means the ingredients blend and bind together instead of being separated.
⚖️ Scaling Tips - This recipe can easily scale to be doubled or tripled if you need to make a large batch. If you need to double it, use a blender or a food processor for a larger batch.
🔆 top tip
Make sure to slowly stream in the olive oil when adding it to the ingredients. This helps to emulsify the salad dressing so it all comes together and helps the ingredients bond together!
♻️ substitutions
- oil - while the flavor of olive oil works well in this recipe, you can absolutely use another oil! Avocado oil, canola oil, or grape seed oil are all great options.
- sweetener - use whatever sweetener you have on hand! Maple syrup works great, but I've also used honey and agave for this recipe.
- other herbs - use whatever fresh herbs you have on hand for this dressing. Basil, oregano, and thyme would all work well!
🎛️ variations
You can make this lemon parsley vinaigrette salad dressing your own in true “best-of” recipe fashion!
- garlicky - I LOVE garlic, so I will often double the amount of garlic in this recipe. I also love to use roasted garlic to add a sweeter garlic flavor to the salad dressing.
- Greek yogurt - I’ve added Greek yogurt to give it a cool and creamy twist.
- saltier or sweeter - You can add more sweetener to complement a saltier salad or omit the sweetener altogether for a healthier variation.
🧰 equipment needed
Here's a list of the special equipment needed in order to whip up this salad dressing. I've included some affiliate links to my favorite tools.
- Immersion blender - this handy tool will allow you to blend things up right in a jar, pot, or mixing bowl without needing to transfer from the jar of a blender or bowl of a food processor.
- OXO Squeeze bottles - these squeeze bottles from OXO are my favorite way to store a variety of things in the kitchen, including salad dressings like this lemon parsley vinaigrette!
- Mixing bowl or jar - you'll need a mixing vessel for your dressing! I love using ball wide mouth jars because I can measure and mix in the same container!
🫙 storage tips
Store your parsley salad dressing in the fridge for up to 10 days!
💬 q+a
A vinaigrette is a type of salad dressing. Originally, vinaigrettes referred to French salad dressings. Typically, a vinaigrette is made up of a mix of vinegar and oil, with a few other ingredients as well. In this case, this parsley salad dressing has lemon juice, parsley, maple syrup, salt, and pepper-- so it qualifies as a vinaigrette!
Yes. Because of the addition of fresh ingredients like garlic, lemon juice, and parsley, you need to store this salad dressing in the fridge.
Absolutely not! You can make this whole recipe by hand, but you'll need to finely dice the parsley. You can also use a blender or a food processor. I'd recommend using a blender, immersion blender, or food processor so you can stream in the olive oil while the other ingredients of the dressing mix together.
🍽️ recipe
If you make this recipe, please leave a review in the comments and a star rating!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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🥣 recipe
Parsley Vinaigrette
Equipment
- 1 immersion blender
- 1 mixing jar or bowl
- 1 airtight storage container
Ingredients
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup may use honey or agave
- ¼ teaspoon pepper freshly ground
- ½ teaspoon salt kosher
- ¼ cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- ½ cup olive oil extra virgin
- 1 bunch parsley de-stemmed, if preferred
Instructions
- Combine lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, and garlic in a mixing jar.
- Blend well with an immersion blender.
- While blending, slowly drizzle in the olive oil.
- Add the de-stemmed parsley, and blend well.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 10 days.
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