This homemade poppy seed dressing adds sweetness, tang and a delightful crunch to salads and fruit bowls. And, like most of our homemade salad dressing recipes, it’s a cinch to make.
In this recipe, we use a blender to ensure an even consistency. The poppy seeds end up neatly distributed over every green leaf and morsel of your favorite side salad.
Our poppy seed dressing features simple seasonings, leaving you lots of room to play around with different flavors and ingredients. If you enjoy poppy seed recipes, you’re going to love this dressing.
Ingredients for Poppy Seed Dressing
- Canola oil: Canola oil is a neutral-flavored, lightweight oil that lets the seasonings shine. If you prefer, you can swap in olive oil. Since olive oil has a stronger flavor, it will mute some of the sweetness of the dressing.
- White vinegar: Plain white vinegar is the acid in this oil-and-vinegar-style dressing. You may swap in another mild vinegar, such as apple cider, white wine or champagne vinegar.
- Sugar: While many salad dressings lean savory, this one is sweet. Plain sugar dissolves easily into the dressing, but you can also try honey.
- Spices: To balance the sweetness, a dash of onion salt and ground mustard adds a savory, slightly earthy note. If you prefer, you can substitute plain salt for the onion.
- Poppy seeds: Poppy seeds add a delightful crunch and a mildly toasted flavor to the dressing. Store poppy seeds in the freezer to keep them tasting fresh if you don’t use them up quickly.
- Fresh fruit or salad greens of choice: This dressing tastes delicious on leafy green salads and fruit salad recipes alike.
Directions
Step 1: Combine the ingredients
Place the oil, vinegar, sugar, onion salt and ground mustard in a blender; cover and process until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the poppy seeds.
Step 2: Chill until ready to use
Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve. Give the dressing a good shake or stir before using to redistribute the seeds. Serve with fruit or salad greens.
Editor’s Tip: You might want to save time and put the poppy seeds in the blender with everything else. We don’t recommend this because the blender’s blades may nick the seeds, making them taste bitter.
Recipe Variations
- Add citrus: Poppy seeds and citrus fruits taste delicious together (think of classic lemon poppy seed muffins). Channel that flavor here by adding the juice of one lemon to the dressing instead of white vinegar. Add the zest for even more fragrant flavor. Orange juice and zest are also a tasty match that’s perfect for winter.
- Add berries: This dressing tastes great with fruit, so why not add fruit directly to the recipe? Swap some or all of the white vinegar for strawberry or raspberry vinegar, along with a squeeze of lemon or orange.
- Make it savory: If you don’t have a sweet tooth, try a savory alternative. Add minced onion, garlic, Dijon mustard and/or black pepper to the dressing.
- Change up the spices: Add fresh or ground ginger to complement fruit-forward salads, ground cumin for smoky flavor or Dijon mustard to underline the tangy notes of the dressing.
- Make it creamy: Stir in a dollop of mayonnaise along with the poppy seeds for a rich, thick dressing.
How to Store Poppy Seed Dressing
Leftover poppy seed salad dressing should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, where it will keep for at least one week. It will separate as it sits, so shake it up again before serving.
Poppy Seed Dressing Tips
How do you use poppy seed dressing?
Sweet and tangy poppy seed salad dressing tastes delicious on fresh salads, especially those that feature fruits, such as berry spinach salad, crunchy Waldorf salad or fruit and spinach salad. Poppy seed dressing also enhances savory salad toppers such as nuts or cheese.
You can toss your favorite fruit salads in poppy seed dressing to add crunch and sweetness, or make a simple strawberry salad or fruit bowl. The crunchy dressing is a nice match with coleslaw too.
Think outside the salad bowl. Try a drizzle over roasted sweet potatoes with a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds, or toss roasted Brussels sprouts with a bit of dressing and top with dried cranberries and almonds.
Is poppy seed dressing good for you?
This poppy seed dressing isn’t notably unhealthier than other dressings, but it is a bit high in sugar and comes in at about 219 calories per serving. To make it healthier, try swapping canola oil out for olive oil and replacing the sugar with one of these sugar alternatives.
