Lemon Olive Oil Dressing

This Lemon Olive Oil Dressing is a light, lemony salad dressing you’ll want to add to every salad you make.

This lemon and olive oil dressing is ridiculously easy, quick to make and only requires two ingredients, but packs a tart punch to top off a salad. 

Easily mistaken as a spring or summer salad dressing, lemon salad dressing tastes great any time of year, including during the cold, dark depths of winter. Lemon is, after all, a comforting flavor reminiscent of warm, sunny days. Who doesn’t want to be reminded that winter doesn’t last forever?

When I was working on the quinoa salad recipe, I knew I wanted a light dressing to fit the flavor profile of Mediterranean cuisine. A lemon dressing came to mind, as it’s light, yet flavorful enough to stand up against the sea of rainbow vegetables that comprise the quinoa salad.

Olive oil—in all its satiating, slightly nutty goodness—is a natural extension of lemon for this salad dressing.

Lemon and Olive Oil Salad Dressing Ingredients

Easy and quick to make, lemon and olive oil dressing calls for only two namesake ingredients. That said, you can easily make variations of this dressing by simply adding spices.

Here is the list of ingredients you will need:

• Lemon juice - Fresh squeezed or 100% lemon juice (not from concentrate) is what you want in this dressing. Tart, tangy lemon juice awakens the senses, while combining well with other ingredients. I like to use 365 organic lemon juice. It’s not from concentrate as well as being regularly available at Whole Foods.
• Olive oil - The richness of extra virgin olive oil makes this salad dressing what it is. It adds a slightly nutty taste, tempered by emulsifying the oil and lemon juice together. One of my favorite olive oils is La Tourangelle Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, single-sourced from Andalucía, Spain.

Notes and Substitutions:

This recipe is very forgiving. You can easily add a tablespoon (or two) of lemon juice to make this salad dressing more, well, lemony, while keeping the olive oil ratio the same.

Likewise, if you prefer a more subtle lemon flavor, increase the olive oil by a tablespoon or two.

How to Make Lemon Olive Oil Dressing

This is probably one of the easiest salad dressings to make. If you already have lemon juice in a bottle, this may only take you around 5 minutes to make.

1. Add the lemon juice to a small dish. (I made a small batch for this post that goes in a quinoa salad I make, so I used this white porcelain ramekin to demonstrate.)

2. In the same small dish, add the olive oil.

3. Mix well to emulsify the lemon and olive oil together.

4. Serve over salad.

Serving Suggestions:

This dressing makes a wonderful topping to a leafy green salad, a heartier quinoa salad or as a dressing on a sandwich.

How to Store Lemon and Olive Oil Dressing

Olive oil and lemon may try to separate over time, while olive oil has a tendency to congeal during refrigeration. If you refrigerate the dressing, stir to combine once it has been removed from the refrigerator.

If you mix this dressing into the salad, and store the salad in the refrigerator, depending on the longevity of the salad itself, you should consume it within a few days.