Grab some strawberries, some spinach, and toss it up with the easiest salad dressing ever! Thanks to Poppy Seed Dressing, all of a sudden, life is sweeter. It’s old-fashioned, versatile, and better than any bottle at the store.
Made as-is, this Poppyseed Dressing recipe is naturally vegan, unless you sweeten it with honey. And if you’re looking for low-sugar salad dressings, there are some really great reader-tested alternatives for you down below.
Making Poppyseed Dressing for a potluck? Make a big batch and dress the salad once you get to the party. Click and slide the number next to “servings” on the recipe card below to adjust the ingredients to match how many you’re feeding—the recipe does the math for you, it’s that easy.
Poppy Seed Salad Dressing ingredients:
- Red wine vinegar. Alternatively, use balsamic, champagne vinegar, or white balsamic if you have it.
- Oil. Light olive oil, vegetable oil, or grapeseed oil are all good choices. Find a neutral oil that you don’t mind having in your pantry.
- Sugar.
- Poppy seeds.
- Dried mustard.
- Salt.
How to make Poppyseed Dressing:
Once you gather your six pantry ingredients, then it’s a flick of the whisk or a shake of the jar away.
- Mix together the vegetable oil, red wine vinegar, dried mustard, poppyseeds, sugar, and salt. Some cooks prefer to emulsify the vinegar and oil up in a bullet or blender for a creamier end result—it’s up to you.
- If you’re making a salad right away, keep the dressing out at room temperature to let the flavors mingle while preparing the salad. (However, you can make it up to 4 days in advance.)
Help! I don’t have any mustard powder!
Ground mustard powder balances out the sweetness a little bit and gives another layer of flavor to the dressing. If you don’t have it, that’s okay! Use an equal amount of dijon mustard in place of mustard powder.
Healthy Poppyseed dressing:
This dressing definitely contains sugar. But if you’re watching your sugar intake, you can still enjoy a low-sugar, no-sugar version of poppyseed dressing by experimenting with a natural sweetener, such as:
- Honey
- Maple syrup
- Pineapple juice
- Monk fruit
- Swerve, a natural sugar replacement that Keto enthusiasts love.
- Stevia
How long does Poppyseed Dressing keep?
According to research, about 4 days. However, the ingredients are all shelf-stable, pantry ingredients that on their own would last months. Use your best judgement, and by all means, eat more salad!
Are Poppy seeds good for you?
Poppy seeds have amazing benefits! Not only are they delightfully crunchy and loaded with fiber, poppy seeds are high in calcium, zinc, magnesium, and phosphorus, which builds strong bones and provide heart, digestive, and immune support. They’re also a good source of B vitamins.
Are poppy seeds bad for you?
Eaten in amounts that are normally found in muffins, cakes, and sprinkled on a bagel, poppyseeds are safe to eat. Some people have allergies to poppyseeds, but this isn’t common.
Central European and Balkan recipes all use generous amounts of poppyseed paste in their delicious pastries, made from sugar and ground seeds. The paste is nutty, sweet, and irresistible—much like this salad dressing.
Because the outside of the seeds can contain trace amounts of morphine, when eaten in much larger amounts, poppy seeds can possibly make a person get a false positive on a drug test. Mind you, it wouldn’t register as high as someone who actually had opiates in their system.
To counteract this, most poppyseeds are rinsed thoroughly before they’re packaged and sold commercially. Using poppyseeds in a salad dressing, in cakes and muffins, or scattered across your bagel is a delicious way to enjoy them safely.
Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing Recipe
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil or light olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon dried mustard
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- In a small bowl with a whisk, or in a jar with a tight-fitting lid, add the vegetable oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, dried mustard, poppy seeds, and salt to taste (I like 1 teaspoon).
- Stir or shake to combine. Allow the flavors to blend at room temperature while preparing the salad.
This is a great recipe.
Thank you Anne!
very tasty easy to make poppy seed dressing! This is the 2nd time I am making it—I use a good olive oil and 1 less tbsp of sugar. I have just recentlrth ity started making my own dressing instead of using bottled and the extra effort is worth it. Thanks for the recipe!
Just made this dressing and used a high end balsamic vinegar. It was absolutely delicious. Would you think storing in the pantry in an airtight jar would work.
Hi Sandy, while there is nothing in the ingredients that is highly perishable, combining them changes things. There is nothing in the ingredients to make it inherently shelf-stable. I think you should store the dressing in the refrigerator. Thanks for the question! -Meggan
I’m so happy I found this recipe! It tastes wonderful, looks fabulous, and is so easy to make. Thanks for sharing it
Hi Megan!
I substituted Swerve to make this keto friendlier and nobody noticed. It tasted great tossed with a salad I topped with strawberries,blueberries,pecans and feta! Talk about a hit….multiple requests for the dressing recipe!
Could you please tell if I could substitute Steva for the sugar and if so how much Steva would I use? As I am a diabetic and sugar is not a healthy choice for me.Thank you so much for your help and May God Bless you.
Hi Kim, I will let you know, I’m going to test this on Monday. I am glad you are making the right choices for you! And I’ll be happy to share this info in the post too for everybody else. Thanks!
Excellent flavors but the first time I made it the oil separated out. The second time I added a Tbs Mayo to the rest of ingredients except oil. Using a Cuisinart I slowly added the oil to the dressing. Not sure if it was the little mayo or the adding oil slowly in the Cuisinart but it emulsified and did not separate. Next time I will double the recipe as the family used it on sandwiches, chicken, and salads.
Could I use Safflower oil in place of vegetable oil? If so, is it equal parts? Thanks!
Hi Traci, yes! Equal parts! It’s all pretty much the same, a light flavorless oil. :) Thank you!
Could I use Stevia in place of sugar in the poppyseed dressing?
When do I cook it for the 1 minute?
Hi Renata, sorry for the confusion on this. “Cook time” just refers to how long it takes to make the recipe. There is prep time (the time it takes to get the ingredients ready to go) and “cook time” which is the time it takes to complete the instructions. In this case, there is no cooking. It is literally just the time it takes to mix everything together. Does that make sense? I hope so. Sorry for that. Cook time = how long it takes to follow the directions.
I had mustard seed so I put that in my Ninja first, used rice vinegar and a tablespoon of red wine. Turned out awesome! Used it on spinach, walnut strawberry salad. Added cranberries and get a as well to my salad. My husband asked me to remember this recipe since I cook a lot with no recipe
How long would this be good for?
I generally go by the guidelines from the CDC, the National Restaurant Assocation, and Cook’s Illustrated. In this case, they unanimously say 4 days. However, I can’t point to anything specifically that would go bad in a week, or 2 weeks, or even 3 weeks. These are all shelf-stable, pantry ingredients that on their own would last months. So if you combine them, why would it drop to 4 days? I have no idea. Maybe it doesn’t. But I don’t want anyone to get sick so I always follow the guidelines!
How many servings would this have? The calorie and sodium seem very high or am I missing something?
Yes, the nutrition info is all wrong, sorry about that! That was the info for the total recipe. It should be 8 servings (2 tablespoons each) and I’m fixing the label right now to show the right calorie count. Sorry about that!
Mine came out a bit oily. I added a dash more vinegar and put in the Nutribullet. Perfect!
Hey KeyKey! Sorry about that. Things like the amount of oil are probably a personal preference, but I’m so happy you knew how to fix it up for yourself. The Nutribullet is a brilliant idea! Thanks so much for your feedback on the recipe.
This dressings so delicious! I used an extra tablespoon of white vinegar and used dijon mustard instead of dried ( I didn’t have any). This was absolutely delicious and so light! Thank you!
Thank you, Leslie! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. :) Good call on the dijon, I am going to try that!
Has a salad dressing ever looked so pretty? Noooo it hasn’t. This looks gorge and it’s so simple. Yummmmay!
This dressing came out to be such a beautiful ombre! It looks like a sunset :)