How to Make Healthy Salad Dressing with Grape Juice

By Amy Gorin, MS, RDN

Hello, healthy, homemade salad dressing! How about a low-calorie salad dressing that's also antioxidant rich? You'll love this one!

I hope you enjoy learning how to make salad dressing, especially a Concord grape vinaigrette dressing recipe that's nutritious and low calorie. It tastes just as yummy (or even more so!) than store-bought salad dressings.

I don't know about you, but I'm a pretty big fan of salad. It's fun to dress greens up with tasty salad dressings, but I don't love how some are pretty high in calories, fat, sodium, and sugar. I'm looking at you, Caesar and ranch dressings!

So I decided to create this grape vinaigrette recipe that takes just minutes and uses ingredients you probably already have in the house.

If you're wondering how to make healthy salad dressing with 100% grape juice, I put together this little primer for you. Making grape juice healthy dressing takes just minutes.

How to make healthy salad dressing? If you're wondering how to make dressing, it's really super simple to whip up a healthy salad dressing recipe. In fact, I often get asked to bring a homemade vinaigrette salad dressing recipe to dinner parties and potlucks.

I've been making my own salad dressing recipes for years. Although there are so many different versions out there, most salad dressing vinaigrettes have a few things in common:  

I like to use a couple of Tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil in my healthy homemade salad dressings. If you want to double the recipe, you could go for 1/4 cup of oil.

Most vinaigrettes contain vinegar. While this recipe incorporates red wine vinegar, you could easily make a balsamic vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar or a lemon vinaigrette with lemon juice and apple cider vinegar.

You don't have to add a sweet ingredient to your recipe for salad dressing, but I find that the addition makes it much more palatable. This DIY salad dressing features both honey and grape juice as the sweet ingredients. You could also use a combination of orange juice and maple syrup.

I typically use a mason jar to shake the olive oil salad dressing and combine the ingredients. If you like, you can use a salad dressing shaker to make a salad dressing recipe.

How to make grape juice dressing for salad? All you need to make this grape vinaigrette salad dressing is grape juice, honey, extra-virgin olive oil, and red wine vinegar.

I like this homemade grape juice vinaigrette recipe not only because it's yummy but because it supplies antioxidants called polyphenols from the grape juice, as well as healthy fats from the olive oil.

You get sweetness from the honey without too much added sugar, and each two-Tablespoon serving of this dressing is only 45 calories.

It goes great with pretty much any salad combination! Salads are a wonderful addition to any clean eating meal plan.

So add it to your favorite salad, or you can swap it out with the dressing in my Citrus Quinoa Salad with Prunes, Sweet Cranberry & Apple Lentils, or Vegan Power Bowl. These are all delicious salad dressing recipes, and the latter is a great choice if you prefer that Dijon mustard taste, which I find is a great substitute for honey mustard dressing.

And if you love the taste of sweet grapes, you'll also love my Greek yogurt parfait recipe and my smoothie with grape juice.

• Small glass bowls
• Small angled measuring cup
• Medium whisk
• Salad dressing shaker 

This blog post was updated in December 2020.

What are your favorite salad vinaigrette sauce and salad sauce creations? What are your tips for making a low calorie salad dressing? I'd love to hear from you if you make this dressing for salad.

Now that you know how to a salad dressing, will you be making this grape juice recipe soon?

Comment below, or tag @amydgorin on Instagram  and Pinterest and @amygorin on Twitter 

and Facebook.

Find this post helpful? At no additional cost to you, support the maintenance of running this site by using my Amazon affiliate links to shop. Thank you!

And don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get updates delivered straight to your inbox! Also download my free plant-based grocery list and meal plan.

Want to go shopping with a dietitian? Here's your chance! I just opened up my very own storefront, full of my fave tip sheets, cookbooks, kitchen products, and more! 

Also check out my Etsy shop! Use code 10PERCENT for 10% off!