This easy red wine vinaigrette is literally the BEST salad dressing recipe. It’s quick, easy, and full of everyday ingredients like olive oil, red wine vinegar, a touch of sugar, dijon mustard, garlic, and salt!
Look no further, this easy red wine vinaigrette is the best salad dressing. No joke, Trevor and I eat this vinaigrette at least once a week. We love it, because it’s quick, easy, healthy, packed with flavor, versatile, and goes on anything!
How to Make Red Wine Vinaigrette
This salad dressing literally comes together in 5 minutes or less. I love making a big batch at the beginning of the week and storing it in the fridge for salads all week long!
- Place ingredients: oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, garlic, and salt into a mason jar or tupperware.
- Seal and shake until well combined.
- Serve with your favorite leafy salad and enjoy.
This is a great last minute dressing, but it can also be made in advance!
Vinaigrette Ingredients
The standard ratio for a vinaigrette is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. Personally, I find that FAR too oily, so I love using a 1 to 1 ratio aka equal parts oil and vinegar. All that means, is that if you use 1/2 cup oil, you’ll use 1/2 cup vinegar as well. If that’s too tangy for your liking, feel free to add more oil.
- Olive oil. I typically use an extra virgin olive oil, but feel free to use non-virgin olive oil, as long as you like the flavor, you’ll be fine!
- Red wine vinegar gives this salad dressing a nice tang.
- Granulated sugar. It’s not the healthiest ingredient in the world, but a little goes a long way and adds a nice contrast to the tangy vinegar.
- Dijon mustard gives the vinaigrette a little extra “somethin’ somethin'” and also adds a little more tang.
- Fresh garlic adds a nice bite. I love using this garlic press to keep this salad dressing quick and easy!
- Salt. All recipes need salt for flavor!
Substitutions and Variations
This recipe is perfect as listed, but here are a few different variations if you have any food allergies or simply don’t have something on hand!
- Extra virgin olive oil can be replaced with any neutral flavored oil. Coconut oil is not recommended, because it firms up as it cools.
- Red wine vinegar can be substituted with apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, or balsamic vinegar. If using balsamic vinegar, you may need less sugar as it is a bit sweeter.
- Granulated sugar can be replaced with honey, maple syrup, agave, or even brown sugar. That being said, granulated sugar will give you the best flavor. If using agave, you’ll probably only need to use 1/2 as much.
- Dijon mustard can be omitted, if necessary, but I’d highly recommend keeping it if possible.
- Fresh garlic can be substituted with garlic powder, if necessary, but again, I’d highly recommend keeping it if possible. Start with 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and add more to taste, if desired.
What to use it on
This vinaigrette is absolutely to DIE for on my pear, blue cheese, and candied pecan salad, but works great on any leafy green salad.
This salad dressing can also be used as a delicious marinade for chicken and super delicious on a pasta salad like this greek orzo pasta salad.
What would YOU use this on?
How to store salad dressing
This vinaigrette should be kept in a sealed container such as a mason jar or tupperware. If you’re using it within a few hours, it’s fine to keep it at room temperature. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Pro tip: the dressing will coagulate somewhat when stored in the fridge. To fix this, simply leave the dressing out a room temperature for an hour before serving OR warm it up for 20-30 seconds in the microwave. Once warm, shake it to recombine before serving!
Is red wine vinegar dressing healthy?
Most vinaigrettes have a 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar ratio. I wanted to lighten that up a bit, so today, we’re using less oil and more vinegar. For a salad dressing, this is absolutely healthy! There’s 54 calories, 5 grams of fat, 1 gram of carbs and protein per tablespoon.
– Jennifer
Red Wine Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 4 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon salt more or less to taste
Instructions
- Place olive oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, dijon mustard, garlic, and salt into a sealed mason jar or tupperware container and shake until the oil and vinegar have fully combined.
Notes
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Nutrition Information
*Note: Nutritional information is estimated and varies based on products used.