This homemade creamy pesto salad dressing will only take five minutes to put together but tastes amazing! It’s the perfect accompaniment to an Italian meal. This recipe makes enough basil pesto dressing for one salad.
The photos for this recipe were updated in January 2022 – if you’re a repeat visitor, don’t worry, this is still the same recipe you know and love!
Tomorrow is the start of June so… it’s salad time.
Time to stop comfort eating and start appreciating the cooling, crunching joy of a fresh salad.
And I don’t know about you, but I am always on the hunt for a good salad dressing.
Hel-LO, creamy basil pesto dressing.
I think we can all agree that store bought dressing doesn’t taste as good – but sometimes making a great dressing from scratch feels like too much effort on a lazy summer’s day.
When the sun is shining, you don’t want to be hovering in the kitchen too long. Many home made dressings require you to squeeze lemons, chop herbs, blend stuff… how many times have you planned to do this and then resorted to just using oil and vinegar because you couldn’t be bothered to get out the food processor?
Nothing wrong with oil and vinegar. But sometimes you want something a little different.
Like this super creamy pesto dressing with the delicious flavour of basil knocking around.
This is a little bit of a compromise because you are using some jarred mayonnaise and jarred pesto for the sake of ease. But it still tastes a whole lot fresher than a bottled dressing from the supermarket, for absolutely minimal effort.
And if you’re like me, these things are always in your fridge. (Especially since Sacla pesto started coming in squeeze bottles– how cool is that?!) So you can make this whenever you want with no pre-planning required.
Green or Red Pesto?
Classic basil pesto is my default for this, but I have tried it with red pesto, and it’s delicious too!
This is a great way to use up homemade pesto too. If you’re making some homemade pesto, just set aside a little to make this dressing the next day.
(Speaking of which, check out my guide on How to Make Pesto in Every Color for 65 amazing homemade veggie pesto recipes!)
What to do with your pesto salad dressing
Wellll, you’ll probably want to put it on a salad. Naturally. But more specifically…
- Mix into a super leafy, crunchy salad with lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions and olives.
- Try my Roasted Chickpea & Halloumi Salad
- Use it in a pasta or tortellini salad (but make sure the pasta or tortellini is cold before you add it, because anything with mayo is weird warmed up and then cooled down again).
- Make an Italian inspired potato salad with artichokes, olives and red onions, and use this as a dressing.
- This would be awesome on a salad pizza! Bake a pizza and scatter some rocket / arugula on top, then drizzle this pesto dressing over the whole thing.
Love simple salad dressings?
You should also check out my smoky yogurt ranch dressing!
Simple Creamy Pesto Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1.5 Tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- ⅛ tsp caster sugar
- 1 Tbsp basil pesto
- A few grinds each of salt and pepper
Instructions
- Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl, until creamy and emulsified.
- Yep, that’s it! Now pour into your salad.
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I’ve made this a few times, got to enjoy it again the other week, visiting relatives in South Africa!
This was excellent — just what I was after. Will definitely make again :)Thanks for posting!
This was excellent — just what I was after. Will definitely make again :)Thanks for posting!
This was excellent — just what I was after. Will definitely make again :)Thanks for posting!
Fantastic find. Very delicious. I’m also one to use ingredients that are in the fridge to make something fresh. Thanks for the share.
Thank you Michael, I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed this!
Fantastic find. Very delicious. I’m also one to use ingredients that are in the fridge to make something fresh. Thanks for the share.
Fantastic find. Very delicious. I’m also one to use ingredients that are in the fridge to make something fresh. Thanks for the share.
I’ve made this a few times, got to enjoy it again the other week, visiting relatives in South Africa!
I’ve made this a few times, got to enjoy it again the other week, visiting relatives in South Africa!
Christine, bravo! What a great idea! Love this. I’m sure this is incredibly delicious!
Christine, bravo! What a great idea! Love this. I’m sure this is incredibly delicious!
Christine, bravo! What a great idea! Love this. I’m sure this is incredibly delicious!
Made this sauce to put in my hamburger was amazing I used brioche Bun and garnished the burger with caramelized onions sauté mushrooms, and blue cheese and arugula best hamburger I ever made!
Just the right taste and texture!
I want to make 10 ounces of this dressing for a bottle. What increase ratio should I use?
You’d want about 5x as much as the recipe calls for.
My go to! Over salad with fresh cobia tonight. Thanks
Excellent dressing. I will make it again. Thank you for posting it.
You’re so welcome, I am glad you enjoyed it!
Did you leave the dressings aside for own serving? Do you mix the two dressing into the whole salad?
Never rated a recipe before-use a recipe like it save it don’t like it bin it! Had pesto jar leftovers I wanted to use! Used whole grain mustard only because it was the first I came to. Didn’t add sugar mainly because I stuck my fingers in the mix and didn’t want to spoil perfection. Side salad with lasagne plus a second salad to use the rest of the dressing and mopped the bowl with garlic bread. Lasagne was cold when I got to it! Thank you! Making this again! (Soon)
So happy you enjoyed it! 🙂
Wow! Delicious! I wasn’t sure about the apple cider vinegar and Dijon mustard, but wow!, it all comes together perfectly! Our salad was fantastic, can think of many other salads and uses. Will be making again and again!
I am so happy to hear this Maria, thank you for the feedback! 🙂
Know & Love !!!!
This is SO good! I was looking for a recipe to use up some store bought pesto that has been sitting in my pantry for a spell. Just happened to have the ingredients to make this dressing. Served it to myself over a bed of fresh crisp romaine, shredded carrots, chopped pecans, finely sliced red onion and freshly shredded parmesan. YUM! I feel like I am having a fancy lady lunch at a posh hotel, except I am sitting in my living room. 😂 Such a great marriage of flavors and not like anything I have ever tried before! Thank you so much for sharing. I will definitely be making this again and can’t wait to share with friends!
Oh I am so happy you enjoyed this, and your salad sounds delish!
It was tasty but I thought the mustard over powered the pesto. I think I’ll reduce the mustard by 1/2 a teaspoon and add 1/2 teaspoon of pesto next time. I appreciate the good idea, I just need to tweak it.
That’s worth a try for sure, and it might even depend on the individual pesto because some can be a little more punchy than others. I hope you find a variation that works for you!
I almost never leave comments but this dressing was amazing and surpassed all expectations. I didn’t add the sugar though 😉
So happy to hear this! 🙂
Way too much vinegar for the amount of sugar. Also why are the comments repeated?
Sorry it wasn’t to your taste. It’s definitely a tangy dressing. Your mayo or pesto or another ingredient may be more tangy than mine to begin with which might skew the flavors too vinegary. You can try it with more sugar or even some honey (I’ve tried it with honey, I did find that too sweet but you might not).
Comments repeated – at one point my comments and ratings system was overhauled and everything older ended up getting duplicated, it wasn’t intentional and I should probably spend some time cleaning that up, sorry.