Fresh Mint Dressing
This mint salad dressing recipe is refreshing, delicious and easy to make! You'll need fresh mint, lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon mustard, and honey.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 27, 2024
Meet my latest salad dressing obsession! This mint dressing is as refreshing as they get. It’s made with freshly squeezed lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, and lots of fresh mint. Honey, Dijon mustard and garlic round out the flavors and make it irresistible.
This dressing is light like a classic vinaigrette, but offers loads of fresh mint flavor. It’s delicious on salads, of course, and I’ve listed some salad ingredients that play especially well with mint dressing below.
This “dressing” is also a fresh and lightly creamy sauce. I bet it would be great on orzo salad, in a pita sandwich, or on cooked fish, if you’re a fish eater. I’m eager to hear how you put it to use.
One of my favorite local salads features a fresh mint dressing (the chisaya mama at The Mixx, which is made with kale, arugula, quinoa, fennel, radish and Parmesan).
I finally developed one of my own for my fattoush salad recipe, but it’s so good that I decided it deserves its own post.
Homemade salad dressings, as a whole, taste infinitely better than the stale store-bought options. This one tastes particularly fresh since it’s loaded with fresh mint!
Mint Dressing Salad Suggestions
This mint dressing would be lovely with any of the following ingredients:
- Greens: kale, arugula, romaine, spring greens
- Berries: blueberries, raspberries, strawberries
- Melon: watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe
- Peaches
- Radish
- Fennel
- Cucumber
- Carrots
- Tomatoes
- Bell pepper
- Summer squash
- Red onion or green onion
- Fresh herbs: basil, cilantro, chives, dill, parsley
- Beans: chickpeas, lentils
- Whole grains: quinoa, farro, wheat berries
- Cheese: Parmesan, goat cheese, feta
Please tell me how you like this dressing in the comments! If you ever want to change things up, try my green goddess dressing, which is made extra-creamy with Greek yogurt.
Watch How to Make Fresh Mint Dressing
Fresh Mint Dressing
This mint salad dressing recipe is refreshing, delicious and easy to make! You’ll need fresh mint, lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon mustard, and honey or maple syrup. Recipe yields a little over 1 cup.
Ingredients
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- ¼ cup packed fresh mint (spearmint) leaves (about half of a ⅔ or ¾-ounce package)
- 3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 10 twists of freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a food processor, combine all of the ingredients and blend until smooth. Taste, and add more salt and/or pepper if necessary. Use as desired!
- This dressing will keep well, covered and refrigerated, for up to 1 week.
Notes
Recipe inspired by The Mixx in Kansas City, and adapted from dressing recipes in my cookbook, Love Real Food.
Make it vegan: Use maple syrup instead of honey.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
The recipe was easy to follow and turned out perfectly! I’m not a natural in the kitchen, so this felt great. I’m always assigned the green salad at supper club (guess why!)and even my foodie friends were impressed and wanted the recipe!
I’m happy it was such a hit! Thank you for your review, Sarah.
Truthfully, I haven’t made this yet but I certainly shall. The basic vinaigrette is a familiar friend. But the addition of mint is a beautiful, fresh idea.
Fresh mint is absurdly expensive in Dallas grocery stores, unless you drive out to an ethnic shop in the suburbs. Well, I got me a bunch of it right now and I’m delighted to find your recipe
Amazing. Seriously. I wanted to just drink the entire batch! Brings salad to life. Amazing.
I’m glad you loved it! Thank you for your review, Leptosiphon.
This dressing is delicious. I stumbled upon it while searching for a mint dressing to go on a salad with steak, grilled peaches, and Gorgonzola cheese, and it was delicious on that salad, but I’ve since made your Fattoush recipe and it was even better on that! If I’m making it for myself, I use honey, but if I’m taking it to gatherings where there are vegans, I use maple syrup.
(My secret for easy perfect salad dressing is to use an individual smoothie blender, the kind where you just screw the bottle onto the base and it blends. You don’t even have to chop anything, I just throw whole garlic cloves and mint leaves and all the other ingredients in there and blend for a few minutes until it’s nicely emulsified.)
That combination sounds delicious, Rachel! I appreciate your review.
This has been the most awesome thing to grace my kitchen! I have made it and made it for friends! I marinated lamb chops and grilled them
Address some mint for decorations to finished product. I have a small Meyer lemon tree and mint growing crazy in my back yard
It was a perfect match
Much loved thank you for charting this bodacious Ku awesome creations!
IMA in San Diego
Oh Mother this is good!! I thought it deserved some fanfare– something other than greens so I made a quinoa salad with black beans, fresh corn off the cob, red pepper, onion, cucumber–well you know how it goes….And.Then.I.Topped.It.Off.With.This.Dressing….
excuse me while get my rolled up eyes back and center. Suffice it to say I liked it.
Thank you for sharing how you made it, Kay! I appreciate your review.
This is my go-to salad dressing recipe, it’s amazing! Thank you so much!
You’re welcome, Aria! I’m delighted this salad dressing is a go-to for you.
Good but use a lot less honey. I like sweet dressings but this was extreme. I recommend two teaspoons here.
This dressing is sublime!!! Thank you so much ♥️♥️♥️
You’re welcome, Kathryn!
So very delicious on my squash and fennel salad. My only concern is that two tablespoons is supposed to be 8 servings. I used three table spoons on just my own salad. Whoops.
This is soooo good! Thanks for posting it.
You’re welcome, Morgan! Thank you for your review.
Made your Mint salad dressing and it was outstanding!!! It was fresh and savory and just delicious. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Tiina! I appreciate your review.
I am growing Chocolate Mint herb in my garden, wondering if I could use that in this dressing? I envision putting it on a salad with fresh sweet strawberries, maybe some nuts, several kinds of lettuce and who knows what else. Your thoughts?
You can try it. Let me know what you think, Susan!
Really delicious, thanks for the recipe! I used lime and agave instead of lemon and honey, but did everything else per the recipe and it was fantastic.
You’re welcome, Jordan! Thank you for your review.
So fresh, flavorful and vibrant in taste. Enjoyed it on greens with avocado, red onions, red peppers, garbanzo beans and tomatoes. Amazing!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Neeta!
I made this last week and I am making it tonight again! It is amazing!
Thanks for all your great recipes!
I’m glad you love it, Stu! Thank you for your review.
Delicious! We enjoyed this dressing over salmon and salad. I did cut the amount of honey a bit, but all else was as written. Definitely will make this on repeat!
That’s great to hear, Wendy! Thank you for sharing.
Super yummy! Replaced fresh mint with leftover mint jelly.
I’m so thankful to have found this recipe. It is so good and many friends at SDA church wanted recipe. Thank you for sharing!! God bless!
I’m glad it was a hit, Pai!
Holy smokes was that delicious! I have not left a review ever on a website, but this recipe requires her review so that other people make the effort to get mint. It has a nice balance of tangy sweet yet creamy. Absolutely perfect.
I’m glad you loved it, Judy!
I replaced the olive oil with yogurt and it was so good! I used it on a Mediterranean type salad with orzo, arugula, chicken, Greek olives, cucumber, etc.
Great to hear, Carrie!
Excellent!
Thank you, Laz!
OK. This dressing was DA BOMB!
I LOVE this website! ‘Tis a service to humanity. ;-)
I love this recipe! It’s fantastic, foolproof, and easy to scale up. I had friends ask me to make the salad for their wedding and I ended up doing this dressing with arugula, mango, blackberries, and pepitas. It turned out great :)
That’s great to hear, Julia! Thank you for your review.
This recipe was amazing as everyone said it was and I had no doubt as I have loved any recipe of yours I have made! Thank you!
You’re welcome, Sabina!
This dressing was AMAZING! I did reduce the amount of honey, but otherwise, followed the recipe. Just threw everything into my blender. I do love the addition of Dijon to dressings, as it’s a great emulsifier. I used it in a quinoa and asparagus salad and it was the hit of the potluck BBQ! Next time, I’m going to try swapping out lime and cilantro for the lemon and mint – for cowboy caviar!
This is divine! Had it on a salad today with feta cheese. You could drizzle it on a flip flop and it would taste amazing!
I’m excited you enjoyed it!
SO GOOD! Have madethis several times and it always disappears quickly. Thank you!
That’s great to hear, Tori!
My favorite local organic shop stopped carrying a mint mojito salad dressing. This was an excellent approximation. I found it a touch sweet with 3 tablespoons of honey but it did add some nice flavor. Will make again!
Wonderful to hear, Sonia!
We make this dressing almost weekly. It’s delicious!
Great to hear, Katy!
I grew lemon cucumbers and this sounded like the perfect dressing … and it was. (I added a little less honey, but that’s just me.) The dressing was so delicious that after pouring the dressing out of the food processor, I confess I ran my fingers around the inside of the food processor bowl and licked them so that I wouldn’t waste a drop!
I made this dressing for dinner tonight. It’s New Year’s Eve … just my husband and me. He made lamb. I halved the recipe. I used lime instead of lemon. I don’t have a food processor so I mixed it with a fork. It was sublime. Delicious. So very good.
I was looking for a recipe using fresh mint. So glad I found this – it is delicious! I usually make my own dressing, and the base is almost always oil, lemon/vinegar, mustard, honey, salt and pepper. Adding mint makes it extra special! Thank you.
Cracked wheat with chickpeas, spring greens, grape tomatoes, and toasted pecans topped with this summery fresh mint dressing and was phenomenal for lunch today! Had a ton of mint from the garden I needed to use.
This dressing is the easiest way to use up an excess of mint! I’m glad you enjoyed.
After reading through the comments, I decided to swap the olive oil for yogurt, as one reviewer suggested, as I’m trying to cut back on fat. The recipe was amazing!! So delicious! I’m sure it would be even better with the olive oil. Thank you!!!