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."
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on October 1, 2024
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!
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 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.
Watch How to Make Sunshine Dressing
Sunshine Salad Dressing
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
- 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.
- This dressing is intentionally bold, but if it tastes too tart for your liking, whisk in another tablespoon of honey.
- 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!!!!! I’ve eaten this dressing every single day for 21 days :) I’m a huge fan of homemade dressings so I can control the fat content that goes in them and then into me….. This one is beyond delicious. The only thing I change a bit is instead of apple cider vinegar I use white balsamic. It’s a little hard to find but Whole Foods carries it. It’s much milder and tasty right out of the bottle. I so appreciate you taking time to recreate and then sharing this sunshiny recipe!
That’s wonderful! Thank you for sharing, Sharon.
So good, easy, and versatile! Better than any honey mustard dressing I’ve ever had, I’m never going back. I made this recipe almost every night this week, thank you!
You’re welcome, Luisa!
I am looking forward to trying this recipe!!!! What fat % of yogurt did you use to make the nutritional information?
Hi Renne! It’s whole milk.
We absolutely love this dressing! I’ve been trying to make my husband some healthy dressing. Not working out to good! Until I found you recipe! He really loves it! Even more since I told him it goes great on the veggies he eats. So we will be making this quite often! Thank you so, so much for your recipe!!! ❤
Hooray! Thank you, Rita. I appreciate it.
My husband doesn’t care for the tang of apple cider vinegar so I used white wine vinegar and used the 4T of honey. It was lovely. Also I used Chobani non-fat greek yogurt which has a nice silky texture. It complimented the recipe really well. This will definitely be a new staple dressing in my fridge. Thank you Kate!
I’m glad you were able to make it work, Terrie!
Absolutely Loved Loved this dressing!!!
Sooo fresh with a crispy garden salad!!! My husband even loved this dressing and went back for seconds. I will definitely let all my friends and family know about this dressing!! What a winner
Followed the recipe exactly, it was great!
I didn’t have yogurt, so I substituted light Mayo and used only lemon juice. This recipe is a keeper! So delicious!
I love your recipes Kate! This is my favorite dressing EVER made it a couple of times with a ceaser salad yum…thank you
You’re welcome! I’m happy you are enjoying them, RB.
So, so good!
This recipe was simple and is amazing. I opted for all lemon juice instead of apple cider and it wasn’t at risk of being too much.
This dressing is every bit as tasty as you’ve said. Expect it will be a keeper in my repertoire!
This dressing is my new favorite. I love it on spinach salad. Sooooo good first time I used it I li ked the bowl clean
Absolutely delicious!
I’m glad you loved it! Thank you for your review, Gail.
Amazing best salad dressing I ever made. I used Jalapeno mustard and aged wine vinegar
Very tasty and easy to make dressing. Happily giving 5* !!!
Thank you, Lenka! I appreciate your review.
Loved this salad dressing. Spooned it over some baked trout.
I love it! Thank you for your review, Margaret.
This salad dressing is fabulous! Thanks so much.
You’re welcome, Lizzie! I’m happy you enjoyed it.
OMWord, this is AMAZING! After weeks of trying different versions of vinaigrette, I have found my go-to! I cut the oil to only 1 1/2 oz. and used 3 tablespoons of honey. It’s got a great zippy tang to it, but mellows on a salad. Thanks so much!
You’re welcome! Thank you for sharing how you approached this recipe, Tammy.
I was skeptical that this recipe uses Greek yogurt. In my opinion, I always like the real thing versus the lighter substitution but I was looking for a dressing similar to a honey mustard vinaigrette I had at a restaurant recently and this dressing delivered! I love the acidity in it. 10/10 will be making this again.
Hooray! Thank you for sharing, Courtney.
Can you freeze it?
Hi, I don’t think this would be the best recipe to freeze. Sorry!
Can you substitute maple syrup for the honey?
Pat
Hi, sure that would work too.
I did and it’s delish!
Fantastic! Made it exactly as written and it was amazing. Will definitely make again!
That’s great! Thank you for your review.
This a fantastic salad dressing/dip.
Just stumbled upon this recipe because I wanted to change up my vinaigrette routine… WOW, it’s amazing!! My boyfriend said it’s the best salad dressing I’ve ever made! I poured it over romaine topped with black olives, feta and grilled corn and it was an amazing combo.
I love that, Natalie! Thank you for sharing.
Fantastic recipe! Made it this week but it will be on regular rotation from now on.
That’s great, Pattie! Thank you for sharing.
Hello, i was wondering if we could use regular yogrut instead of greek yogrut?
Hi Nadine, You can it will have a slightly different taste and a runner consistency.
So delicious! Eating it right now on romaine with cucumbers, sunflower seed kernels, and a few raisins. Yummy! Thank you.
Just tried this recipe and it was great! I like recipes with ingredients that are typically on hand. I used the extra lemon juice as I didn’t have the cider vinegar. Also love how you can easily double or triple the recipe. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Anne! Thank you for your review.
This dressing made me love salads again. I haven’t been able to find a dressing I really liked until this recipe. I love that it is a bit tart, something usually lacking in most honey mustard dressings. Thank you!!
You’re welcome! I’m happy you enjoyed it, Jessica.
Hi, this recipe sounds amazing and would love to try it- how many calories does a serving have? thank you
Hi! All the nutritional information is below the notes of the recipe.
Just made this for the 1st time. So freaking good!!!! I would’ve just eaten it with a spoon but I was really hungry. Used it on a vegetarian “chicken” patty wrap. I might have to make another one just to have more of the dressing! Didn’t have any lemons so I just used another tablespoon of vinegar. Also added a little spicy brown mustard with the Dijon. Amazing!!!
Wonderful! Thank you for sharing, Lauren.
Made a vegan alternative of this with coconut yogurt and maple syrup instead of honey and it’s delicious!
Made this tonight and it is delish. Working the Weight Watchers program and this will definitely keep me on track. I thought about using monk fruit for the sweetener but decided it’s worth it for the honey flavor. Did not disappoint! Thank you for sharing.
My family was planning on a salad tonight, but we realized we didn’t have any dressing or vinegar (lol) and found this while looking for things to make!! Seriously a lifesaver and absolutely delicious, thanks for sharing!!
I’m glad this recipe came in handy for you, L! Thank you for your review.
Wow!! This salad dressing is sooo freaking delicious! Even my finicky husband thought it was yummy:) And one of the best things was that I had every ingredient on hand.
I followed the recipe except I used whole grain mustard instead of dijon (personal preference) and only used about 2 tbsp of honey, which was plenty sweet for me. This is an excellent dressing and I feel the uses for it are endless…could be a salad dressing, pasta sauce, sauce for meat/fish, dip. Will definitely be making this again!
Thank you for sharing, Karen! I’m happy you were able to enjoy it with your modifications.
COuld i use sour cream instead of greek yogourt?
It could, but consistency will be different, different taste and nutritional value.
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This is the most delicious dressing I’ve ever had. I used it on a salad with salad greens, quinoa, roasted zucchini, roasted yellow squash, raw bell pepper, and roasted green beans.
Sounds delicious, Melissa! Thank you for sharing.
Made today for a giant cobb salad & it was DELICIOUS! I used 0% fat Fage greek yogurt. It was such a hit at dinner.
Love this dressing. Have it saved in favourites. Changing up the lemon for lime and adding a dash of chilli flakes tonight for a prawn and avocado salad. Thank you!
It sounds so delicious. I have to be careful with salt and Dijon mustard has much more salt than other mustards. Would you be able to recommend a substitution? Thank you!
Hi Nancy, you can adjust or omit the salt as needed.
i just tried this and im disappointed.. there is a lack of flavour, not the best dressing
Hi Lola, I’m sorry you didn’t love this recipe. What type of mustard did you use?
This was a hit! So delicious! Many asked me for the recipe. This will be a regular in my salad dressing rotation.
I’m happy to hear that, Chantal!
This dressing reminds me of a cooked dressing that my mother made when I was growing up (a long time ago). I love it. I ate many more salads since I made it than I had been eating. I made one large salad with mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, and sweet corn and shared it with my 93 year old neighbor. She just asked me for the recipe. Thank you for all the wonderful recipes.
I love that! Thank you for sharing, Lois.
A gorgeous bright dressing and yet it has a soft creamy edge to it. Haven’t tasted much out there like it. So refreshing!
Thank you for sharing, Carolyn! I’m glad you liked it.
Loved it
That’s great, Hanna! Thank you for your review.
Delish! And so easy to whip together! Perfect over mixed greens and salmon.
I have made this dressing a number of times and it is really adaptable to so many changes. For example, sometimes I use half smooth Dijon mustard and half of the whole grain. Sometimes I do half Greek yogurt and half mayo (only Hellmann’s will do for me). Sometimes I do a combo of lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. Anyway you do it, comes out great to use your recipe as a template.