Erin ElizabethApart from being one of the healthiest options, salads open a world of culinary possibilities. Your creative freedom is limitless when it comes to preparing a salad. It can be a simple plate of lettuce, or it can be a 20-ingredient rainbow of vegetables, grains, and fruit.
Salads can be sweet, savory, or a mix of the two. Salads can be raw, cooked, or a combination of the two. Salads can have a lettuce base or no lettuce at all. There’s no real rule when it comes to salad.
The only thing that salad enthusiasts can agree on is that the dressing is the culinary glue that brings a salad’s ingredients together. Salad dressings unite seemingly random ingredients together in one bowl, endowing them all with a flavorful coating.
Most Popular Salad Dressings
Read on to explore the most popular salad dressings to give you ideas on how to spruce up your next salad.
Ranch Dressing
Ranch dressing is one of the most popular salad dressings in North America. It’s known for its perfect trifecta of creaminess, herbs, and an oniony bite.
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Ranch is so popular that it isn’t just relegated to salads. It’s a beloved dipping sauce for wings and crudites. It’s also used on sandwiches and pizza.
In my opinion, it adds a creamy coolness that goes well with spicy ingredients.
Ranch dressing has a base of one or more creams, including sour cream, mayonnaise, and buttermilk. Then it incorporates fresh and dried herbs like dill, parsley, and thyme.
Onion and garlic powder with a kick of black pepper add tang to the sauce. Ranch is a timeless classic that’ll add flavor and heft to any salad.
Check out our favorite ranch dressings you can find at grocery stores!
Bleu Cheese Dressing
Bleu cheese may be an acquired taste for even the most sophisticated palates.
Its bright blue veins of edible mold give it a strong flavor that pairs wonderfully with sweet and savory ingredients.
Bleu cheese dressing is almost an extension of Ranch dressings. It contains all the same ingredients as a foundation to which blue cheese crumbles get added and lightly blended.
Bleu cheese is my go-to dressing for Cobb salads, as it pairs well with bacon and egg. I love using it to dress spinach salad with berries and candied pecans.
Caesar Dressing
With a name like Caesar, you know that this salad dressing is a regal and decadent concoction.
Ancient Greek references aside, Caesar salad dressing came to fruition in the 1920s. Italian restauranteur, Caesar Cardini, threw the dressing together after running out of his house dressing.
Caesar dressing is a mixture of anchovy paste, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, Dijon mustard, parmesan cheese, olive oil, and black pepper.
The creamy grainy texture of Caesar dressing is what I love the most about it.
It is so flavorful and complex that Caesar salad is a staple at most restaurants. All you need is crisp romaine lettuce, croutons, and shredded carrots.
Italian Dressing
Despite its name, Italian dressing is an American creation. It’s one of many products of the American dream, invented by first-generation Italian American Florence Hanna in the 1940s.
Italian dressing was her adaptation of an old family recipe that she served at her family’s Massachusetts restaurant.
It remains one of the most popular salad dressings in the States. It consists of an oil and vinegar base laden with Italian herbs, lemon juice, finely diced bell peppers, and garlic.
It’s a lighter dressing that brightens up any mixture of greens and raw veggies. I love mixing leftover veggies with Italian dressing.
Honey Mustard Dressing
Sweet, spicy, and tangy, Honey mustard dressing is yet another American classic. This dressing has a pervasive appeal.
Honey mustard is a popular dipping sauce for breaded chicken tenders, fries, and other savory foods.
While honey mustard dipping sauce often has a mayonnaise base, honey mustard dressing usually has an oil base that blends with honey and high-quality mustard, like Grey Poupon.
Like its dipping sauce counterpart, honey mustard dressing tastes great with grilled chicken salads.
If you want to pair it with vegetables, I recommend drizzling it over a warm salad of hearty root vegetables like potatoes, and brussels sprouts.
Vinaigrette dressing
Vinaigrette dressing is the most versatile salad dressing, referring to an entire family of sauces with a foundation of oil and acid.
As its name implies, vinaigrettes usually combine oil with vinegar. Combinations of aromatics, herbs, or condiments then get added.
Balsamic vinaigrette mixes balsamic vinegar with olive oil, garlic, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper.
Greek dressing is also a vinaigrette as it is a simple mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper.
Vinaigrettes taste good on any kind of salad, whether it’s lettuce-based, a lentil salad, or a pasta salad.
Russian Dressing
Another deceptively named condiment, Russian dressing, is an American creation. It once included caviar as a key ingredient.
Invented in the early 1900s by New Hampshire native James Colburn, Russian dressing combines mayonnaise, ketchup, horseradish, pimento peppers, and chili sauce.
The sweetness of the ketchup and creaminess of the mayonnaise offers an indulgent base for the other strong-flavored and spicy ingredients.
Russian dressing is a heavy and tangy addition to any salad, sandwich, or vegetable dish.
It tastes best with hard-boiled eggs or potatoes but is most famous as a key ingredient on Reuben sandwiches.
Thousand Island Dressing
If you’re wondering what the difference is between Thousand Island and Russian dressing, there are a few subtle differences.
Thousand Island dressing has more wiggle room. It consists of a combination of ingredients with the same mix of creamy, spicy, tangy, and sweet.
It’s generally sweeter than Russian dressing because it calls for the addition of pickle relish to the mayo and ketchup mixture. Thousand Island also uses chili paste, paprika, and sometimes mustard.
It tastes great on Reuben sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, wedge salads, and protein-heavy salads. For me, the pickle relish puts it a cut above Russian dressing as it adds texture.
French Dressing
French dressing is essentially a vinaigrette with the addition of ketchup instead of, or along with, mustard.
It’s an old-school American favorite that you might not be as familiar with. It’s worth trying as a dairy-free alternative to Thousand Island or Russian dressing.
It’s on par with honey mustard in terms of sweetness, as it usually has added sugar. You can increase its tanginess with a mixture of vinegar, mustard, onion powder, salt, and Worcestershire sauce.
French dressing is a light and vibrant dressing with a lovely reddish-orange color. I recommend using it over simple green salads or hearty chef’s salads full of cheeses and cold cuts.
Most Popular Salad Dressings
Final Thoughts
With millions of possible combinations, salads are a never-ending opportunity for experimentation. You can make them as complex or simple as you’d like, but a salad is only as good as the dressing you toss it with.
With my list of the most popular salad dressings, you can turn a bowl of chopped raw vegetables into a cohesive culinary masterpiece.
Check out other salad toppings to create a delicious and healthy meal, or check out our favorite salad chains for a healthy lunch on the go!
