Ditch bottled dressing and add a fun kick to your next salad with this quick and spicy Sriracha Vinaigrette. Â Easily customized for your heat, oil and sweetness level preferences!
Say bye-bye to bottled salad dressing because once you go Sriracha Vinaigrette you won’t ever want to go back 🙂
A staple in our house, this vinaigrette takes just a few minutes to throw together and adds a fun kick to any salad.  Just toss everything into a mason jar, put on the lid and shake.  Thirty seconds later you have a homemade vinaigrette customized to your tastes and full of ingredients you recognize.
About the customizing…when it comes to vinaigrette’s it seems there are two camps: high oil or high vinegar.  We’re a high vinegar house especially when it’s a light clean flavored white balsamic vinegar (We ♥ you Trader Joe’s).
If you prefer more oil, up the olive oil to 4 tablespoons and reduce the vinegar down to 2 or 3 tablespoons. Â Play around with the ratios until you find your sweet spot.
Speaking of sweet…the reason we use agave for this recipe is two-fold.  Before both of us stopped sweetening our morning coffee we used to purchase two bottles at a time from Costco meaning there’s A LOT in our cupboard.  Mostly though we use it because sometimes honey can be a bit of a bully overpowering all of the other flavors, especially in a vinaigrette or dressing.
Using agave in this recipe helps to mellow the tartness of the vinegar and heat of the Sriracha sauce without diminishing their flavors. Â You can substitute honey for the agave but start with just 2 teaspoons and work up from there. Â If you like your salad dressing sweet you can always increase the agave up to 2 tablespoons.
For the spices, we keep it simple with just salt and pepper since our preferred brand of Sriracha sauce (green cap – big rooster) already has quite a few.  The dried parsley adds a touch of mildly bitter herb flavor, if you have fresh parsley that’s even better.
This Sriracha Vinaigrette is quite versatile.  It pairs nicely with a veggie-filled Quick Kale Apple Salad, tastes great with sautĂ©ed Brussel’s sprouts and if you follow us on Instagram you might have seen it recently drizzled on a big green salad full of toaster oven baked potato chunks.
And if you’re a big enough Sriracha fan to want to cover your salads in it you might enjoy a little extra spicy food love with our Sriracha Tempeh Lettuce Wraps, Mango Sriracha Potato Veggie Bowls, Spicy Sriracha Roasted Red Potatoes and Cheddar Sriracha Cornbread Donuts!
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes (optional)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon light agave nectar
- 4 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
- 1-3 teaspoons sriracha sauce
- In a small mason jar combine the salt, pepper, parsley flakes, olive oil, agave and vinegar. Secure lid on jar and shake well. Add sriracha sauce one teaspoon at a time until desired heat level is achieved shaking the jar well between additions.
- Store leftover vinaigrette dressing in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. Bring to room temperature and shake well before each use.
If you prefer a more muted vinegar flavor up the olive oil to 4 tablespoons and reduce the vinegar down to 2 or 3 tablespoons.
If you like a sweeter vinaigrette increase the agave. Play around with the ratios until you find your sweet spot.
Nutritional Information is an estimate for 1 Tablespoon.
Can you make this without the agave?
It’s really going to depend on your flavor preferences Sasha. I actually made some this week and totally forgot to add the agave, we didn’t notice it one bit 🙂 so I plan to leave it out from now on. I’d try making it without the agave and taste the vinaigrette. If you think it is too spicy or tangy add some agave or a sweetener of your choice (like honey or maple syrup) a 1/2 teaspoon at a time until it meets your taste preferences.
Best dressing ever
Yay! I’m so glad you liked it Sharon : ) and thanks so much for stopping by and letting us know!