Poppy Seed Dressing Lightened up! Serve with Greens & Summer Fruit
A delicious light poppy seed dressing flavored with raspberry vinegar and only 1 teaspoon olive oil along with a combination of tasty spices. This dressing is delicious on a bed of greens and summer fruits.
Poppy Seed Dressing Recipe
I love experimenting with homemade salad dressings trying different combination of ingredients.
One way to try to keep the dressing low-calorie is by adding part water in place of the oil, but the only problem is that the dressing doesn’t seem to coat the greens the way I prefer it to.
Plus, you DO know that water and oil aren’t friends, right? So, it’s expected that the two don’t jive!
The division of the two is clear when you put them together in a jar.
The oil is firmly planted on the bottom as the water floats to the top. You gotta force them to mingle by shaking the jar vigorously.
How to thicken poppy seed dressing
Well, I found a way around that scenario by heating the ingredients of water, vinegar, and only a teaspoon of oil with a teaspoon of cornstarch or arrowroot which thickens the dressing.
Now everyone is playing nicely together!
This recipe is from Allrecipes and have made it a hand full of times, so I can share a couple of tips.
First, the original recipes says it only serves two. I think it’s enough to serve four, but I don’t drench my salads in dressing.
Double the recipe if you like to go heavy on the dressing or want to have extra on the side.
Also, it only takes a few seconds for the dressing to thicken, so keep a close eye on it.
Whisk the ingredients and remove it from the heat as soon as it begins to bubble otherwise you’ll end up with a gel-like consistency.
Don’t fret though, you’ll be able to add more water, to thin it up, but then you’ll need to adjust the spices.
Lastly, you do need to plan ahead and make this dressing at least an hour before serving so that the dressing can cool.
Summer fruits to add to salad
For this salad I used the sweetheart of summer fruits, peaches!
I also grilled them by simply sprinkling the peach halves with salt and pepper like I did for this Grilled Peaches and Yogurt Cream recipe.
Very tasty combination, but if you want to keep out of the heat and skip turning on the grill, the peaches are also good just sliced up!
You can also add some feta or goat cheese to this salad for another layer of flavor.
Try a combination of your favorite summer fruits:
- strawberries
- cherries
- blackberries
- nectarines
- apricots
- plums
Enjoy this salad with light poppy seed dressing with these baked chicken tenders. Stay cool friends 🙂
Poppy Seed Dressing
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup raspberry vinegar or cider
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
- SALAD
- 3 cups baby arugula
- 3 cups Gem Lettuce or butter
- 2 peaches sliced
- 3/4 cup blueberries
Instructions
- DRESSING
- In a small saucepan add water, vinegar, honey, olive oil, cornstarch, salt, onion powder, mustard powder and poppy seeds. Bring ingredients just to a boil whisking constantly. Remove form heat when desired consistency is reached (no more than 30 seconds). Let cool before serving.
- SALAD
- In a large bowl combine lettuce, sliced peaches, blueberries and glazed pecans. Add Dressing and gently toss or add dressing to individual plates.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Please note that the nutritional information provided are guidelines and may vary based on the brand of products used. For your specific nutritional goals use My Fitness Pal or Verywell Fit recipe calculators. All content within this site is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical expertise.
Dressing adapted from Allrecipes.com
I love poppy seed dressing and use it on so many things! This is perfect for all the farmers market salads this summer and even on my grilled chicken!
I made this dressing for a Salad on Saturday and had some leftover. I tossed it onto some grilled asparagus… Wowzers… even got my niece to eat vegetables she liked the dressing so much!
Poppyseed dressing is a summer favorite of mine!! Getting to add all of that fresh fruit to my salads and this dressing! YUM! This is a great recipe!
I love homemade salad dressings and this looks so good! The tips you’ve shared really help too – thank you!
Such a light and summery salad dressing recipe you have here! We love poppy seeds in a salad dressing and will be trying this one soon! Thanks for the delicious inspiration.
I love poppy seed dressings. They don’t have good poppy seed recipes in my local grocery store, so, I end up making my own. This sounds like a great recipe and I will try it over the weekend.
Your salad looks amazing and the salad dressing technique is something I haven’t seen before! I’ll have to give it a try!
Let me know what you think, Shelby! I’m making more for next week!
Yum! Love that this is lightened up. Looks so fresh-tasting!
Thanks a bunch, Kristin!
I love making my own homemade salad dressing too, this sounds so good! And I love that you were able to lighten it up by heating it with the corn starch, great idea.
I bet that same method can be incorporated into any flavor of dressing. It’s fun to experiment 🙂
I love reading about different techniques for reducing fat in salad dressing. I usually substitute Greek yogurt. Cornstarch is such an interesting idea. Can’t wait to try it.
This works really well, Christie! I was actually going to experiment more by adding Greek yogurt as well for a creamy dressing.
I love that you figured a way to make this work and incorporate together well. I’ll have to try the heating method!
Thank you, Christine! I like the slightly thicker consistency it adds to the dressing. I was so pleased with the way it turned out in this recipe.
I am obsessed with poppy seed anything!! I love that you used this in a salad dressing,what a nice change!
Me too, Lizzy! I need to find more ways to add poppyseed to foods. This poppyseed dressing is a good start 🙂
This is a great salad recipe. This time of year I cannot get enough of them.
Salads are a staple for me! Love them, especially with seasonal fruit!
Beautiful salad dressing…poppyseeds are a great addition!
I love those little crunchy poppyseed nuggets 🙂
Homemade dressing are the very best – love this is light. Looks so delicious!!
I’ll take a homemade dressing over the bottled stuff every time! Thanks for the compliment, Debra!
I love experimenting! This is a great dressing and those peaches look so good!
The combination is TAS-TY!