Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe
by Sommer Collier — last updated on Oct 13, 2025 
The Very BEST Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe – This tangy Balsamic Dressing will make your salads sparkle, and takes only 5 minutes to prepare!
Sommer’s Recipe Notes
Is there anything more satisfying than skillfully whipping up your own balsamic dressing right at home? It makes you wonder why you ever bothered buying the bottled stuff at the store.
Why This Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe Is The Best!
This homemade salad dressing recipe for the Best Balsamic Vinaigrette is one I’ve tweaked over the years to be perfectly tangy-sweet and silky in texture.
The tantalizing flavor is based on good quality aged balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, honey, a touch of Dijon mustard, and herbs. It is fabulous over robust spinach and kale salads, romaine salads, and even over roasted vegetables!
And you can easily make larger batches of balsamic dressing and keep it in the refrigerator for several weeks.
Ingredients You Need
With just a handful of ingredients, you can make a balsamic dressing recipe that rivals any store-bought brand in taste and cost.
- Aged balsamic vinegar – It’s important to buy very good aged balsamic vinegar. The longer the vinegar has been aged, the sweeter, milder, and richer it becomes.
- Extra virgin olive oil – My personal favorite for making vinaigrettes, but you can substitute it with avocado or any other light-flavored oil you prefer.
- Honey – You’ll need less honey in this recipe if you use an older vinegar and/or if you prefer a more savory and less sweet dressing.
- Dijon mustard – For that perfect tangy element that brings out the boldness of the balsamic.
- Dried thyme – This balances the sweet and zesty notes of the dressing with a mild earthy flavor.
- Minced garlic – Because every good vinaigrette needs garlic!
How To Make Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Place all the ingredients in a jar and seal tightly.
- Shake vigorously. The mustard will help emulsify the vinaigrette and give it a thick, luxurious quality. Alternatively, you could whisk the ingredients together in a small bowl!
Find the full Balsamic Dressing Recipe with ingredient proportions, detailed instructions, and a video tutorial in the printable form at the bottom of the post.
Serving Suggestions
Use this homemade balsamic dressing on all of your favorite green salads, over freshly sliced tomatoes and mozzarella, or as a dressing on top of roasted veggies! Here are some of my favorite things to pair with it:
- Italian Pasta Salad
- Cucumber Dill Salad
- Oven Roasted Vegetables
- Fried Goat Cheese Salad
- Broccoli Cauliflower Salad
- Bell Pepper Salad
- Easy Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower
Tips & Tricks
- Olive oil and vinegar will separate after sitting in the fridge! When you use it after storing it, be sure to give it a good shake. High-quality olive oil will even solidify sometimes, so give it a few minutes to warm up and then shake again.
- Use high-quality ingredients! High-quality ingredients go a long way in creating a homemade balsamic dressing that tastes amazing. However, you don’t need the most expensive balsamic vinegar either! Just use one that you know you like the taste of.
- Adjust to taste! Everyone likes their vinaigrettes a little bit different. Taste it and adjust it with extra vinegar, more oil, or perhaps more honey if you want it a little sweeter!
Best Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup aged balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2-3 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Pour the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, 2 tablespoons honey, Dijon mustard, dried thyme, and garlic clove in a jar. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper.
- Place the lid on the jar and shake vigorously to combine. Once smooth, taste. Then add more honey or salt if needed.
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
This dressing will keep well for 2-3 weeks, if you place it in an airtight container in the fridge. Just give it a good shake before serving.
Balsamic vinaigrette dressing is delicious, drizzled on cold salads loaded with fresh greens and veggies, and on warm salads with quinoa, chickpeas, and/or cooked stone fruits like grilled peaches or poached pears.
It adds a wonderful depth and tanginess to hearty roasted veggies, such as carrots and Brussels sprouts, as a balsamic glaze after cooking.
Try a bit of this balsamic vinaigrette recipe with fruits like watermelon and strawberries for a terrifically savory and sweet treat. Adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream turns the salad into an instant dessert.
You can even use it as a marinade over proteins like steak, pork, and chicken.
You absolutely can. Use whatever mild flavor oil you prefer (like paleo-friendly avocado oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil), substitute maple syrup for the honey to make it vegan, and it’s perfectly okay to use other mustards like stone-ground or yellow mustard if you don’t have Dijon.
Authentic balsamic vinegar is made in only the cities of Reggio Emilia and Modena, Italy. It is highly regulated for quality, so the traditional methods and production process is monitored by a special certification agency in Italy.
Traditional balsamic vinegar begins with grape must, which is a thick juice or mash made of whole pressed grapes, including every component from skin to seeds and stems. They must achieve the perfect balance in flavor after cooking to concentrate the liquid, then fermenting for several weeks. It is then aged in barrels made of chestnut, oak, cherry, mulberry, and juniper wood to create unique flavor notes.
Easy and delicious!!
I have tried a few different recipes for balsamic vinaigrette dressing, this is so delicious that I’m drinking it by the tablespoon.
Just made this tonight and OMG, it’s ah-mazing!! Way better than any store bought balsamic dressing. Definitely adding this to our spring and summer salad repertoire!
Just made this recipe a couple of hours ago. I have yet to taste it, but I’m looking forward to trying it once it cools. It’s simple and I like the ingredients, particularly the olive oil in place of the more common canola and soybean oil. I used a basil infused olive oil because it’s what I had, so I’m expecting a bit of a different taste, and I subbed a tablespoon of mild molasses for 1 of the tablespoons of honey because of an article I read in Cook’s Illustrated that stated that it helped to keep the oil and vinegar from separating. After about 3 hours in the refrigerator it appears to be doing just that. Even if I’m not overwhelmed by the flavor of this first batch, I will continue to use this basic recipe as my template because I really like the bones. I won’t stray too far from these ingredients.
Really fantastic- best dressing I’ve ever made 😍
So much better than store bought and so easy to prepare.
We really enjoyed this. It’s a beautiful blend of flavors and no one flavor over powers the others. I did leave out the fresh garlic but added a bit of ground. Thanks for the recipe.
Delicious! The next time I’d pull back to maybe 1 to a 1/2 tablespoon of honey as it was a little too sweet to my taste.
I’m surprised as the 1-1 Oil to Vinegar ratio, generally dressings are 2-1 or 3-1. Does this end up quite tart?
I love this dressing but i make it 1 qt at a time. It stores just fine in the cupboard for weeks. I often mess up and sometimes just guess at the measurements of the ingredients. Would you please provide the measurements of ingredients for 1 quart? It would certainly be appreciated.
Thank you
Dave
Hi Dave,
I’m so glad you like the dressing so much! This will get you close to a quart…
1 1/4 cups aged balsamic vinegar
1 1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
10-15 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
5 teaspoons dried thyme
5 cloves garlic, minced
I made this recipe for our dinner salad and to avoid soybean oil. I was pleasantly surprised at how absolutely delicious the dressing turned out. I am making a larger batch to keep for other meals. Thank you for sharing.
I really like this recipe. But I’m wondering out these nutrional numbers are correct. It looks to make 10 or at most 11 Tablespoons of dressing. I’m thinking 8 servings of 2 TBSP is not possible. Bummer. I wanted the liw calorie option.