Easy and Delicious Homemade French Dressing
We eat a lot of salad around here. Once the lettuce starts producing in the garden we eat salads at least once a day. Which means we eat quite a bit of salad dressing around here. Now I’ll purchase salad dressing at the store off and on but the homemade dressings are so much better tasting.
If you’ve never made your own salad dressing they are really easy to make. I shared a recipe for dairy free ranch dressing a while back. You don’t have to make it dairy free you can use regular dairy ingredients too. But maybe ranch just isn’t your favorite and you’d like something that’s a little sweet and tangy. If that’s you, you need to try this recipe for homemade french dressing.
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Here’s the printable recipe
Easy and Delicious Homemade French Dressing
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder
- 1/3 cup Sugar
- 1 cup Oil
- 1/2 cup Vinegar
- 1 cup Ketchup
- 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 2 teaspoons Paprika
- Pepper to Taste
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a jar and shake to mix.
- Refrigerate for a few hours.
- Shake again before using on salad.
The recipe above is one that has been in our family forever. My aunt gave me the recipe and it is really good and as you can see by the recipe above so very easy to make. Just in case you prefer to watch the dressing being made, I made a quick video tutorial of this recipe too.
Just so you know, some of the links below are my referral links. When you purchase through them I may make a little money at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support in this way. You can read my disclosure policy for more information.
Tips for Making and Storing the Dressing
You can mix the dressing in a blender, with a stick blender, or in a food processor if desired. I’ve tried them all but I find it’s just as easy to shake it in the jar I’ll be storing it in to mix it. A whisk also works well to mix the dressing.
After storing in the refrigerator the dressing can separate. Be sure to shake it well before each use.
If the dressing is too sweet reduce the sugar by half.
Store in a clean glass jar with a lid. I use wide mouth pint canning jars and the plastic lids to cover them. I like the plastic lids better so I don’t have to deal with the two-piece lids.
For the oil in the recipe, you can use whichever oil you prefer. It’s best to use an oil that is liquid at room temperature. Coconut oil won’t work well in this recipe and olive oil can turn hard in the refrigerator. I like to use canola or safflower oil.
Now that you see just how easy it is to make your own homemade french dressing do you think you’ll give it a try? I know I don’t purchase french dressing anymore I just make my own. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as our family does.
More Spring Recipes to Try,
Dairy Free Ranch Dressing
Chicken and Vegetable Couscous
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I didn’t know it was so easy to make french dressing at home. Thanks for sharing this recipe, Shelly. I’m pinning it! 🙂
My husband loves French salad dressing! I’m so glad that I can try making it at home for him 🙂
What can I use instead of ketchup? I had a recipe once that used tomato soup.
Yvonne, I’ve always used ketchup but I’m sure you could use tomato sauce or even tomato soup as you mentioned. If you give it a try with the tomato soup, let me know how it works for you.
Ketchup? One cup or half cup? Your video said 1/2 cup and the recipe says 1 cup.
Jewel, Sorry for the confusion. In the video, I was making a half batch instead of a full batch. So it’s one cup of ketchup like the recipe says.
I left the sugar out and tasted ok to me.
Wendy, Thanks to sharing how the french dressing turned out for you without the sugar.
The Catsup is very sweet in itself. I use Tomato paste. Then also drop to a quarter cup sugar.
Janice, thanks for sharing your modifications to the recipe. I know everyone has different tastes and I appreciate you taking the time to share.
What kind of vinegar?
I’ve used white, apple cider and rice vinegar in this recipe in the past. It turns out good with all of these. I hope this helps.
Thank you
How long will this last in the fridge? This recipe makes a lot and I have a large jar leftover.
We kept it for about a month without any problems. It goes quick at our house. I hope that helps.
Hi- Love your recipe! I made half of the recipe to test it out first. To reduce the pure sugar, I used 1 Tbsp of honey and one Tbsp of Lakanto Monkfruit sweetener (since I halved the recipe).
Thank you again for your post!
Brenda, I’m so glad you liked the recipe and thanks for sharing your tips on adjusting the sugar too. I’ll have to give it a try.
I use monk fruit also. I’m glad to see that someone adjusted to it. I’m going to try it.
Awesome taste!
Love this recipe….I used no salt Ketchup…..its wonderful..Thank you
Janet, so glad you liked the recipe.
Thank you for the recipe. I just made it for lunch for my salad. It was very delicious! Only thing I changed was I used brown sugar. Yummy stuff! Ten times better than store bought and so easy to make. Most ingredients are always kitchen stock.
Kathy, I’m glad you liked the recipe so well. It’s good to know it’s great with brown sugar too. I’ll have to try that substitution the next time we make it.
I’m alone now, so I just made 1/2 a batch. I use olive oil or coconut oil, even though she suggests we don’t do that, but I just take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before (while I’m preparing my lettuce salad), or if necessary I run the jar under warmish hot water for just a short time. It’s been working for me. I do not use canola or any other junk oil, sorry. I also used less sugar the first time I made it, which was fine, then the 2nd time I made it I used SweetLeaf Stevia (if I remember right I used 4 of the small packets each equal to 2 TBSP of regular sugar) but you can get by with less sweetner if you want. I sometimes crave sweetness and then other times, not so much. I’m not diabetic but I started using SweetLeaf when I was on a Fat Flush a few years ago (I’m also not fat, it was kind of “experimental” to see what I could or couldn’t get my family to eat. Sneaky, huh?!).
It’s a great recipe otherwise, though! Very tasty.
Love French dressing this was very easy to make and made it in a pinch. I was making taco salad and had no French dressing. My question is how long does this dressing last when you make it thank you.
Koula, we use our within a week. I hope that helps.