Sunshine Salad Dressing
This creamy honey-mustard salad dressing recipe is lightened up with Greek yogurt. No mayo here! This homemade dressing is easy to make, too. I love it so much that I nicknamed it "sunshine salad dressing."
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on October 1, 2024
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Let’s rewind to my trip to Costa Rica last month with my grandmother. It was the last day on our group trip, and we arrived at Sibu for our final dinner together. Sibu produces the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted, and they greeted us with rum-spiked, spiced hot chocolate.
I was literally a kid in a candy store all night as they presented a lesson in chocolate history (with wine and chocolate) and moved on to an incredible dinner.
After appetizers, they handed us chopped salads that looked fairly basic at first glance—I remember lettuce, tomato, avocado, feta and dressing. Then I took a bite and forgot about chocolate for a minute. That dressing!
I immediately tracked down the owner of the place to ask about it. He said it was a “honey-Dijon vinaigrette with yogurt base” and I vowed to recreate it at home. Mind you, this dressing is quite different from a classic vinaigrette.
I started with the honey-mustard vinaigrette that I made for my cookbook, which I love as written. I reduced the oil and added plain Greek yogurt until it tasted like the dressing at Sibu.
This dressing is essentially a creamy honey-mustard dressing made with Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise. It offers a more luxurious texture than any other honey-mustard dressing I’ve tried. I’m usually skeptical of using yogurt in place of mayonnaise or sour cream (mayo and sour cream have their place), but this salad dressing wouldn’t be the same without it.
Healthy Honey-Mustard Dressing
The only problem with this dressing is that “honey-Dijon vinaigrette with yogurt base” doesn’t do it justice. “Healthy honey-mustard dressing” sounds bland, and “creamy honey-mustard dressing” doesn’t quite capture the tangy deliciousness of the yogurt.
I dubbed it “Sunshine Salad Dressing” since it brightens up my salads so well. I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer, so I’m sharing it today for all of your side salad needs. The recipe yields a lot (almost 1 1/2 cups). I don’t think you’ll have any trouble finishing it off. It makes a stellar dip for vegetables, too!
I’ve been keeping a big jar of it in my fridge for the past couple of weeks, and it goes with just about everything. Try this honey-mustard dressing with any of the following:
- Fresh greens of any kind
- Avocado
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Cabbage
- Kale
- Carrots
- Apples
- Bell peppers
- Goat cheese, feta or cheddar cheese
- Sunflower seeds, pecans, or almonds
Don’t miss my sunshine slaw with quinoa or my roasted and raw carrot salad with avocado, which both call for this dressing. I have more salads over here.
Please let me know how you like this honey-mustard dressing in the comments! I hope you love it as much as I do.
Watch How to Make Sunshine Dressing
Sunshine Salad Dressing
This creamy honey-mustard salad dressing recipe is lightened up with Greek yogurt. No mayo here! It’s so easy to whisk this dressing together. Recipe yields almost 1 ½ cups and keeps well for 10 to 14 days.
Ingredients
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt (any % fat will do)
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup Dijon mustard
- 3 to 4 tablespoons honey, to taste
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or more lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 10 twists of freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup or bowl, combine all of the ingredients as listed. Whisk until blended. Taste, and season with additional pepper if necessary.
- This dressing is intentionally bold, but if it tastes too tart for your liking, whisk in another tablespoon of honey.
- Store leftover salad dressing in the refrigerator, covered, for 10 to 14 days.
Notes
Make it dairy free: If you have a favorite unsweetened dairy-free plain yogurt, it should work well here.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
OH MY GOODNESS! I just made this dressing and it’s is superb! Bright, spicy and flavorful and so yummy! This will definitely be my go to dressing now. It’s fresh, no preservatives and the nutritional numbers are great! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. It is definitely a KEEPER! YUM!!! Gotta check out the rest of your website for some more gems!
Let me try my comment again because I forgot to add stars and this one deserves 10! OH MY GOODNESS! I just made this dressing and it is SUPERB! Bright, spicy and flavorful and so yummy! This will definitely be my go to dressing now. It’s fresh, no preservatives and the nutritional numbers are great! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. It is definitely a KEEPER! YUM!!! Gotta check out the rest of your website for some more gems!
Delicious! Such a great addition to my summer garden salad easy to whip up in smaller batches too.
My husband and I both loved this recipe and it was very useful to be able to store in the fridge for a couple of weeks. I didn’t have any Dijon mustard so the first time I made the dressing I used English mustard and it was far too strong so the next time I used a multigrain mustard as we like the bits in it and it’s much milder. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Sylvia!
This is my new go to salad dressing! So refreshing ,you can use what you have ,I used keifer and white wine, delightful and delicious. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Tamara! I appreciate your review.
I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve tried other DIY Salad Dressing recipes before and it didn’t really work for me. This is vibrant and tangy with just enough sweetness to keep me interested. I will definitely make this again. Well done Cookie and Kate!
Thank you, Lisa.
Do have the breakdown of macros? (Cal, fat,etc)
Hi Candice, the nutritional information is below the notes section of the blog. You will need to click to expand.
Made this salad dressing last week for family gathering. It tastes great with perfect blend of mustard and honey. It enhances the taste of salad so much.
It will be my go to dressing from now on.
I made it a couple times. We like it.