Sunshine Salad Dressing

This creamy honey-mustard salad dressing recipe is lightened up with Greek yogurt. No mayo here! This homemade dressing is easy to make, too. I love it so much that I nicknamed it "sunshine salad dressing."

473 Reviews
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homemade yogurt honey-mustard salad dressing

Let’s rewind to my trip to Costa Rica last month with my grandmother. It was the last day on our group trip, and we arrived at Sibu for our final dinner together. Sibu produces the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted, and they greeted us with rum-spiked, spiced hot chocolate.

I was literally a kid in a candy store all night as they presented a lesson in chocolate history (with wine and chocolate) and moved on to an incredible dinner.

After appetizers, they handed us chopped salads that looked fairly basic at first glance—I remember lettuce, tomato, avocado, feta and dressing. Then I took a bite and forgot about chocolate for a minute. That dressing!

creamy yogurt-based honey mustard dressing ingredients

I immediately tracked down the owner of the place to ask about it. He said it was a “honey-Dijon vinaigrette with yogurt base” and I vowed to recreate it at home. Mind you, this dressing is quite different from a classic vinaigrette.

I started with the honey-mustard vinaigrette that I made for my cookbook, which I love as written. I reduced the oil and added plain Greek yogurt until it tasted like the dressing at Sibu.

This dressing is essentially a creamy honey-mustard dressing made with Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise. It offers a more luxurious texture than any other honey-mustard dressing I’ve tried. I’m usually skeptical of using yogurt in place of mayonnaise or sour cream (mayo and sour cream have their place), but this salad dressing wouldn’t be the same without it.

healthy creamy honey mustard salad dressing

Healthy Honey-Mustard Dressing

The only problem with this dressing is that “honey-Dijon vinaigrette with yogurt base” doesn’t do it justice. “Healthy honey-mustard dressing” sounds bland, and “creamy honey-mustard dressing” doesn’t quite capture the tangy deliciousness of the yogurt.

I dubbed it “Sunshine Salad Dressing” since it brightens up my salads so well. I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer, so I’m sharing it today for all of your side salad needs. The recipe yields a lot (almost 1 1/2 cups). I don’t think you’ll have any trouble finishing it off. It makes a stellar dip for vegetables, too!

I’ve been keeping a big jar of it in my fridge for the past couple of weeks, and it goes with just about everything. Try this honey-mustard dressing with any of the following:

  • Fresh greens of any kind
  • Avocado
  • Broccoli
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Kale
  • Carrots
  • Apples
  • Bell peppers
  • Goat cheese, feta or cheddar cheese
  • Sunflower seeds, pecans, or almonds

Don’t miss my sunshine slaw with quinoa or my roasted and raw carrot salad with avocado, which both call for this dressing. I have more salads over here.

Please let me know how you like this honey-mustard dressing in the comments! I hope you love it as much as I do.

green salad with honey-mustard dressing drizzled on top

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Sunshine Salad Dressing

  • Author: Cookie and Kate
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 1 1/2 cups

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 473 reviews

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This creamy honey-mustard salad dressing recipe is lightened up with Greek yogurt. No mayo here! It’s so easy to whisk this dressing together. Recipe yields almost 1 ½ cups and keeps well for 10 to 14 days.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup plain Greek yogurt (any % fat will do)
  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • ¼ cup Dijon mustard
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons honey, to taste
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or more lemon juice
  • 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 10 twists of freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup or bowl, combine all of the ingredients as listed. Whisk until blended. Taste, and season with additional pepper if necessary.
  2. This dressing is intentionally bold, but if it tastes too tart for your liking, whisk in another tablespoon of honey.
  3. Store leftover salad dressing in the refrigerator, covered, for 10 to 14 days.

Notes

Make it dairy free: If you have a favorite unsweetened dairy-free plain yogurt, it should work well here.

Nutrition

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.

Kate and Cookie

HELLO, MY NAME IS

Kathryne Taylor

I'm a vegetable enthusiast, dog lover, mother and bestselling cookbook author. I've been sharing recipes here since 2010, and I'm always cooking something new in my Kansas City kitchen. Cook with me!

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Comments

  1. Monica

    This was a fabulous base recipe❣️
    I cut the olive oil to 2TBL., instead of honey, used 2 doonks Stevia, and 2 large pinches black pepper (because I don’t have a twistie thingie) Total Sunshine on my salad❣️ Thank you

  2. Sarah

    This is by far my most favorite dressing recipe. I have been coming back to it for years. My children love it, I love it, and it is so versatile! Forever grateful for this gem.

  3. Sylvia

    Absolutely delicious dressing. I tried half measures at first as I was suspicious of the mix of ingredients but now make full jars regularly. Thank you so much for sharing it.

  4. Linda Daly

    I have been making it over and over we love it.

  5. Ryla

    This dressing is perfect, I made a red cabbage slaw and wanted a healthy alternative. It’s so good thank you so much