French Dijon Mustard Vinaigrette Dressing Recipe

📕 What is a Vinaigrette?

A vinaigrette is a salad dressing commonly prepared in France. Oil, vinegar, salt, and optionally mustard, make up a good vinaigrette emulsion.

Vinaigrette was popularized in France. The word contains the French word vinegar, vinaigre.

The perfect ratio is ⅓ of vinegar and ⅔ oil for this homemade salad dressing.

Dijon's mustard doesn't only enhance the flavors of your mustard dressing but also helps to make it creamy because the mustard paste is an emulsifier.

🥣 Ingredients

• Vinegar — White vinegar, apple cider vinegar or also flavored vinegars.
• Dijon Mustard — A yellow smooth ground yellow mustard paste, originally from Dijon, France.
• Salt
• Black Pepper — Ground
• Oil — Oils such as extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, sunflower oil or vegetable oil. Cold-pressed oils tend to make a better dressing.

🔪 How to make it?

Here is an overview of how this Dijon vinaigrette recipe comes together. The full recipe is located further below in the recipe card.

Step 1

Add salt, pepper, and mustard paste to the vinegar.

Step 2

Mix/Shake it all up to create a smooth blend.

Step 3

Now pour in the oil.

Mix/Shake it all again until you have a smooth vinaigrette.

🍱 Storing

I think the best way to make and store the dressing is in a small glass bottle or in a salad shaker bottle.

That way you just need to fill the bottle, shake it and it's ready.

Keep your bottle with the dressing in the fridge until further use.

The dressing will last 2–3 weeks refrigerated, but use it up by that time.

Freezing

You don't need to freeze your dressing because it remains good in the fridge and because making it from scratch will take you only 5 minutes.

Defrosting and thawing your vinaigrette would take longer and is not recommended.

📜 Types of Vinaigrette in France

Saffola Oil, Sunflower oil or even olive oil are a good choice for a basic vinegar dressing.

I usually use white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar to make this salad dressing.

In northern France, they like to combine walnut oil with apple cider vinegar.

In southern France, Lemon juice is used instead of vinegar, in combination with olive oil. Making it a Mediterranean vinaigrette dressing.

A mustard vinaigrette in France is traditionally prepared with classic Dijon mustard, but you can use other French mustard too, such as whole grain mustard or flavored mustards (like the ones from Edmont Fallot)

Here are some more types and ideas. Use the following ingredients:

• with infused vinegar — Raspberry vinegar or herb-infused DIY vinegar.
• with boiled cut egg — to serve with cooked leeks and boiled potatoes
• with honey — for a sweeter salad dressing.

🥣 Use and Serving

Use your vinaigrette as a classic salad dressing with a simple green lettuce salad or with tomatoes, cabbage, cooked cauliflower or broccoli.

I like in with a green bean salad too, and in northern France we make a fresh endive salad tossed with this dressing.

You can also use various green lettuce varieties such as field salad.

Or how about quinoa, ebly instant wheat berry or couscous salad with your homemade vinaigrette?

Besides salads, a good mustard vinaigrette can be served as a sauce too with cooked asparagus, artichokes, smoked salmon, steamed or boiled fish and even with fresh oysters.