Basil Vinaigrette

This easy to make Basil Vinaigrette is bursting with summer flavour and makes everything it touches infinitely better! Use it in green salads, bean salads, or drizzled over grilled fish, chicken, or vegetables.

When you have an abundance of basil growing in your garden, or you come home with a huge bouquet of it from the market, you simply must make this vinaigrette. Full of flavourful herby aromas, it’s magically great with all the things I love this time of year; tomato salads, leafy greens, panzanella salad, and grilled fish, chicken, vegetables or steak.

Sure you could make pesto, but this basil vinaigrette is even more versatile, requires less ingredients, and is so, so easy to make. Zesty, herby, and oily this is an insanely delicious dressing that is ready in minutes and fine to keep in the fridge for days. You won’t be able to resist drizzling it over everything.

Reasons To Love This Basil Vinaigrette

• Fresh and vibrant, it’s full of sweet fresh flavours that are perfect for summer.
• Even a simple salad will sing under this dressing.
• Takes 5 minutes to whip up.
• Healthy and delicious.
• Keeps well in the fridge for days (no it doesn’t turn brown!).
• This basil vinaigrette is vegan, low-carb, gluten-free, nut-free, and sugar-free.

Ingredients

To make this simple basil vinaigrette recipe, you will need:

• Fresh basil: This is of course the star player in this simple, sophisticated dressing. You’re going to need at least 2 cups of leaves (no stems please).
• Extra virgin olive oil: Use a mild-flavoured olive oil here if you can so it doesn’t overwhelm the basil. Or you could use an avocado oil.
• Shallot: For the tastiest dressings, I almost always add shallots and this one is no exception. Because the dressing is blended you don’t even need to dice it.
• Garlic: For more deliciously sharp flavours.
• White wine vinegar: Or you can use red wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, sherry vinegar, apple cider vinegar or even rice vinegar.
• Dijon mustard: Optional, but this is another ingredient I almost always use in my dressings for extra punchy flavour but also because it helps emulsify everything.
• Kosher salt and freshly-cracked black pepper: A well seasoned dressing is essential.
• Crushed red pepper flakes: Optional, but just a pinch helps keep this dressing bright and more flavourful.

How To Make Basil Vinaigrette

This dressing incredibly easy to to whip up and stores well in fridge for days.

1. Remove the basil leaves from the stems; discard the stems. Measure 2 cups of semi-tightly packed leaves (approx 4 oz) and gently wash them with cold water. Drain and use a clean kitchen towel or paper towels to gently pat them dry.
2. Add the basil leaves along with the rest of the ingredients to a blender. Blend until smooth.
3. Note – If your blender is having difficulty blending all the ingredients, add a few tablespoons of water.

Pro Tips By Sandra

• Use very fresh basil. For the tastiest dressing, always use the freshest basil you can find.
• Don’t use the stems. Though some small, tender stems should be okay to use, the thicker basil stems can be bitter and overpower the dressing. Omit them if in doubt.
• Always give the leaves a gentle wash. Even when you grow your own basil, they could be covered with light dust and tiny insects. The dust won’t kill us but it could dull the flavours. The insects, well, you decide if you want them in your dressing or not 😉
• Before storing, top the dressing with a thin layer of olive. This prevents oxidation and helps retain the bright green colour.

Ways To Use It

This basil vinaigrette makes everything it touches infinitely better and truly irresistible. Here are some of our favourite ways to use it:

Drizzled over capers salads, or any tomato salad. It’s also fantastic on anything starchy such as baked potatoes or white beans.

It is excellent for drizzling over grilled food such as chicken, fish, steak, or vegetables. In particular, I love it with grilled asparagus, cauliflower, halloumi cheese, and zucchini.

This dressing is also fantastic over pizza, scrambled eggs, or any roasted veggie.

We also spread it over toasted flatbread or tuck it into sandwiches or wraps.

I also highly recommend you drizzle it over soup over such as this tomato soup or this Italian wedding soup.

Storage Suggestions

This basil vinaigrette can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 5 days. Remember to allow time for it to come to room temperature before using. 

If  you give this Basil Vinaigrette recipe a try, please feel free to leave a comment and/or a star rating below. We appreciate and welcome all your feedback. Thank you!