Lemons. Citrus. Sweet, tart and perfect for a salad or the base for a quick marinade. A tangy Lemon Vinaigrette will brighten your day, every time.
Making dressings yourself is easy, saves you money and allows you to control the ingredients. This dressing is essentially just lemons, olive oil and Dijon mustard. You dress it up by adding herbs, garlic, zest or finely diced shallots. You can dress it down by leaving out all seasoning until you taste it. Some lemons are sweeter and won’t need the sugar, some more sour and may need extra. Salt helps counteract the sour and the pepper looks cool flecked throughout but how much you add is up to you.
I use this dressing on my salads, drizzle over grilled vegetables, toss through green beans or some steamed asparagus. It also makes a lovely quick marinade for chicken with garlic, parsley and oregano – only needs 10-20 minutes, dry then grill or roast.
Make it my way, then make it your own. Use some Herbs fresh from your garden this summer, but buy the lemons now because they’re cheaper during winter…unless you have your own tree, then we should talk!
Gather your ingredients.

Juice the lemons and take a video of everything from now on. Measure all your ingredients. Put everything into the jar and shake thoroughly. Then pour it carefully into a smaller jar and take a photo. You’ll need to do this twice because your glasses went missing and you really cannot see properly without them.

Leave oil mark on the phone, wipe it off and accidentally erase the video. Realize no-one will care because how hard is it to measure a few basic ingredients? Depends whether my glasses are on my face or missing…again…
I had this tangy lemon vinaigrette on my salad all week. It’s delicious and a perfect pick me up to brighten your day in the depths of winter. If you want to know what to do with all those leftover lemon rinds…try here.

Lemon Herb Vinagrette
This is a truly simple, fresh and tasty dressing. One I use as a base for a marinade, for a salad and to drizzle over roasted veggies.
Ingredients
- 1 Pint Jar with lid or reuse a clean dressing bottle
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup Olive Oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons ground mustard (I use Dijon usually)
Instructions
Put all ingredients in a jar and shake well.
Store this dressing in the fridge for a week or so.
Notes
You can add other herbs and spices but be careful about keeping longer than a few days. We often add shallots, lemon zest or garlic or even fresh herbs (especially oregano, mint, basil and rosemary but not necessarily at the same time).
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