An all-purpose dressing, this Poppy Seed Salad Dressing recipe is light and bright, perfect for summer salads! The flavors are even great on veggies, chicken and pork.
Gather This
With simple ingredients, you can have this creamy poppy seed salad dressing ready to top all of your favorite tasty salads! A full list of ingredients with measurements for this recipe is available in the printable recipe card below.
- Poppy seeds – The star of the show- poppy seeds! If you’re worried about failing a drug test, check the section below for all kinds of poppy seed info.
- White vinegar – I always have a bottle of white vinegar in the pantry. However, you could use white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, champagne vinegar or apple cider vinegar is you prefer any of those.
- Brown sugar
- Kosher salt
- Dry ground mustard
- White onion
- Olive oil
- Honey or maple syrup
While it’s much easier to emulsify the dressing with a food processor, feel free to do this by hand and whisk it in a bowl or shake it in a mason jar.
Perfect Pairings
Poppy Seed salad dressing is an excellent choice for so many summer salads. You can use it on top of green salads or even my avocado crab or kale salad. The ingredients for my simple strawberry spinach salad are in the notes of the recipe card.
And you don’t have to stick to a vegetable salad, leafy greens or your favorite salad. If you want to get crazy, you could even use it to top fresh fruit in a fruit salad.
Poppy Seed Salad Dressing
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon dry ground mustard
- 2 teaspoons white onion , grated
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Instructions
- In a blender or food processor, combine 1/3 cup white vinegar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, 1 teaspoon dry ground mustard and 2 teaspoons white onion. Blend well.
- Add the 1 cup olive oil and blend until emulsified.
- Stir in the 1 tablespoon poppy seeds by hand and serve.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the ratings or comments.
Notes
Nutrition
Storage and Freezing
Store any leftover dressing in an airtight container, like a mason jar, in the refrigerator for up to five days.
Technically you can freeze it, but the consistency won’t be the same. You can freeze for up to four months.
Frequently Asked Questions
While all recipes will vary slightly, this poppy seed dressing is made from vinegar, brown sugar, salt, ground mustard, onion, olive oil and, of course, poppy seeds.
I am not a doctor, and I will never claim to give medical advice. However, poppy seed dressing does have a lit of vitamin K which is good for you.
Poppyseed dressing does not contain any known or specific GERD triggers. always consult your doctor for medical advice.
And the answer is NO. Not unless you eat a ton of them and everyday or a long time. In fact, I used to work at a drug treatment program and we tested this out on ourselves using poppy seed bagels. It took over a week of eating heavily poppy seeded bagels every morning before we got even a faint positive. So don’t worry, you won’t fail a drug test.
More Homemade Salad Dressings
Homemade sauces and condiments are my jam- especially salad dressings! Here are some of my favorites.
This recipe is fantastic! I had to sub stone ground and spicy brown mustard because it was what I had on hand, but I got the correct equivalents. I also used red onion in mine and refrigerated it overnight before serving. This is perfect for a mixed greens salad with some chicken and fruit!
Thank so much for coming back to let us know!
Love it! Would you say that one serving is 2 Tablespoons, like bottled dressing usually is? I’d like to try & stay within the calories, etc., which are posted.
Yes 🙂
I was in a pinch and needed a salad dressing to go with a Indian Cuisine menu…I didn’t have mangos but because it’s spring, I had greens, some extra cabbage, carrots and spring onions. Anyway, I saw this poppy seed dressing recipe and gave it a try. I didn’t have any dry mustard, but Joy of Cooking told me how to substitute wet prepared mustard for dry and all else was in place. It was a wonderful, light and fresh tasting dressing. Just a bit of tang really brought out the flavor of the greens. I agree the toasted pecans were a wonderful touch! Thanks
Love that you loved it! Thanks for stopping by to let us know!
This was GREAT! Simple & goes well on so many things. Way better than purchased
Thank you, Deb!
Wow! This was wonderful. I did cook the onion in some of the oil and about 1 t. of brown sugar before adding it to the blender. I turned out the best ever! Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for coming back to let us know! One of our favorites as well.
Poppyseed salad dressing on a bed of spinach with strawberries is my favorite summer side dish! Love this dressing recipe… perfection!
I’ve recently started making more of my own salad dressings, but haven’t tried poppy seed yet! I can’t wait to try this on a fresh strawberry salad – yum!
This sounds like the perfect dressing for summer salads!
Now I know what to do with this unused bag of poppy seeds that I have in the pantry
I just tried this poppy seed dressing and simply loved it! Thanks for sharing.