Let’s rewind to my trip to Costa Rica last month with my grandmother. It was the last day on our group trip, and we arrived at Sibu for our final dinner together. Sibu produces the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted, and they greeted us with rum-spiked, spiced hot chocolate.
I was literally a kid in a candy store all night as they presented a lesson in chocolate history (with wine and chocolate) and moved on to an incredible dinner.
After appetizers, they handed us chopped salads that looked fairly basic at first glance—I remember lettuce, tomato, avocado, feta and dressing. Then I took a bite and forgot about chocolate for a minute. That dressing!
I immediately tracked down the owner of the place to ask about it. He said it was a “honey-Dijon vinaigrette with yogurt base” and I vowed to recreate it at home. Mind you, this dressing is quite different from a classic vinaigrette.
I started with the honey-mustard vinaigrette that I made for my cookbook, which I love as written. I reduced the oil and added plain Greek yogurt until it tasted like the dressing at Sibu.
This dressing is essentially a creamy honey-mustard dressing made with Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise. It offers a more luxurious texture than any other honey-mustard dressing I’ve tried. I’m usually skeptical of using yogurt in place of mayonnaise or sour cream (mayo and sour cream have their place), but this salad dressing wouldn’t be the same without it.
Healthy Honey-Mustard Dressing
The only problem with this dressing is that “honey-Dijon vinaigrette with yogurt base” doesn’t do it justice. “Healthy honey-mustard dressing” sounds bland, and “creamy honey-mustard dressing” doesn’t quite capture the tangy deliciousness of the yogurt.
I dubbed it “Sunshine Salad Dressing” since it brightens up my salads so well. I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer, so I’m sharing it today for all of your side salad needs. The recipe yields a lot (almost 1 1/2 cups). I don’t think you’ll have any trouble finishing it off. It makes a stellar dip for vegetables, too!
I’ve been keeping a big jar of it in my fridge for the past couple of weeks, and it goes with just about everything. Try this honey-mustard dressing with any of the following:
- Fresh greens of any kind
- Avocado
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Cabbage
- Kale
- Carrots
- Apples
- Bell peppers
- Goat cheese, feta or cheddar cheese
- Sunflower seeds, pecans, or almonds
Don’t miss my sunshine slaw with quinoa or my roasted and raw carrot salad with avocado, which both call for this dressing. I have more salads over here.
Please let me know how you like this honey-mustard dressing in the comments! I hope you love it as much as I do.
Watch How to Make Sunshine Dressing
Sunshine Salad Dressing
- Author:
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 ½ cups 1x
- Category: Salad Dressing
- Method: Whisked
- Cuisine: American
This creamy honey-mustard salad dressing recipe is lightened up with Greek yogurt. No mayo here! It’s so easy to whisk this dressing together. Recipe yields almost 1 ½ cups and keeps well for 10 to 14 days.
Ingredients
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt (any % fat will do)
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup Dijon mustard
- 3 to 4 tablespoons honey, to taste
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or more lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 10 twists of freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup or bowl, combine all of the ingredients as listed. Whisk until blended. Taste, and season with additional pepper if necessary.
- This dressing is intentionally bold, but if it tastes too tart for your liking, whisk in another tablespoon of honey.
- Store leftover salad dressing in the refrigerator, covered, for 10 to 14 days.
Notes
Make it dairy free: If you have a favorite unsweetened dairy-free plain yogurt, it should work well here.
Vegetable enthusiast. Dog lover. I'm probably making a big mess in my Kansas City kitchen right now. 
K P
Just made this and it brought a spot of sunshine to my lunch today! My kid ate up all of his salad even though he initially refused! First time making dressing using Greek yoghurt as I normally make vinigrettes but this works beautifully.
I still have quite a bit of the dressing leftover. Does it work with pasta as well?
★★★★★
Kate
Hi KP! I’m glad it was a hit! I haven’t tried it with pasta, but it may work. It all depends on what you pair with it I think. Let me know what you think!
Jen
I have used this dressing for cold pasta salad many times! Wheat spiral or penne noodles, lots of chopped veggies (carrots, celery, peppers, brussel sprouts, red onion, etc.), add some chopped chicken or turkey. Chill so flavors blend. Perfect for a summer picnic!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you for sharing how you have used this dressing, Jen! I appreciate your review.
Kimberly Callahan
This is so delicious! Love it on my salads, but I also used it to marinate chicken breast and it was delectable! Thank you!
Kate
You’re welcome, Kimberly. I’m happy you enjoy this dressing!
Joe
Just made this. Whoa. Really good and so easy!
★★★★★
Kate
I’m glad you loved it!
Nancy
This dressing is delicious – I am making it for the third time. Thank you!!
★★★★★
Annette
Kate, thank you for all your recipes. Every single one is spot on, the best I’ve ever had. I was looking for some sort of savory sweet summery vinaigrette and when this recipe popped up in my search and I saw “Cookie and Kate” I figured my girl Kate never steered me wrong, this would for sure be a winner – and I was right! This was BRILLIANT! I didn’t have yogurt so I used cottage cheese and it worked out amazing! I can only imagine how good it is with the yogurt! So many interesting notes throughout this dressing with just the right amount of tangy sweetness, not too light, not too dense – just right!! This will be a go to dressing recipe again and again! Thank you!
★★★★★
Henry
My family loves this healthy and diet friendly salad dressing. Thank you! We bough and greatly enjoy your excellent cookbook.
Laura
This is really good. I made a version of Outback Steakhouse’s Alice Springs Chicken and drizzled this dressing over it. So delicious! I’ll have it on salads too, of course. And I’ll never buy pre-made honey mustard dressing again from the store! Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
ABB
This dressing is AMAZING. I made it with cashewmilk dairy-free yogurt and a mixture of spicy dijon + stone ground mustard and it turned out delicious. Hands down the best honey mustard dressing recipe I’ve found.
★★★★★
Diane
Delicious! Just the taste I was looking for and low calorie too! Definitely fits the bill! Thanks!
★★★★★
Adriana
This is my absolute favorite salad dressing and have made it dozens of times!! Many friends have asked for the recipe. I love your recipes and will buy your cookbook soon!
★★★★★
Kate
I’m delighted to hear that, Adriana! Thank you for your review. I hope you love my cookbook!
Sandra Parker
I made this dressing today and I loved it .Wanted to use it on pasta and chicken salad I only had Frenches spicy mustard but worked great thanks for recipe .
★★★★★
Danielle Gilbert (Weil)
I don’t usually leave reviews, but this dressing is magic!!! I’m afaid I might just put it on everything. It’s so tangy and healthy! My husband agrees. Great name for a great dressing. Thanks for sharing :)
★★★★★
Marie
Perfect! Lately I’ve been making all of my salad dressing from scratch, honey mustard was the only one I couldn’t master. Thanks to you I now have two new honey mustard dressing. I just made this recipe again using a couple of chipotle peppers for a Spicy & Smoky kick.
★★★★★
Barbara Symes
Wow! I’m Impressed! So easy to make and even better being low calorie using fat-free Greek yoghurt!
Many many thanks!
★★★★★
Missy55
This dressing is very very good. I always use plain greek yogurt in my creamy dressings and my husband loves honey mustard dressing. This was a hit with him. The only thing I changed was the oil since we like the flavor of toasted sesame oil in our dressings.
★★★★★
Laura Dely
This was very good! I just happened to have all ingredients on hnad and whipped it together in a 4 Cup Messaure. I used Plain Kefir, which is a little runnier than yogurt, but the dressing turned out just fine.
★★★★★
Sophie Krich-Brinton
Delish! Used sour cream since we had no yogurt, and it was wonderful.
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you for sharing!
Samantha Shapira
This is really good to know! I don’t have the yogurt so I’ll try sour cream. Thanks!
Ben
Thanks for this Kate. Gorgeous dressing and fantastic recipe. It actually worked great with chicken in a sandwich too. It’s quite hard to believe it’s not super fattening.
★★★★★
Kat
I absolutely love this dressing! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Lynda Wadland
Hello Kate, The Sunshine Salad Dressing is absolutely the best!
Went together quickly and easily. Just the right amount of thickness. The taste is superb. It is my go to for now on.
Thank you!
★★★★★
Lucia Feijoo
I made the sunshine salad dressing and your basic vinaigrette, and girl I am fell in love!!! a total success, my husband loved it, I can’t go wrong with your recipes. Thank you so much!
Lucia
★★★★★
Anne
Very easy to make & my husband’s new favourite salad dressing – thank you!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you for your review, Anne!
Martha
Loved this! I used an extra TB of both lemon and cider vinegar because I like things tangy and I also tripled the garlic because I love garlic. This will be a keeper recipe at this house! Tried it on a kale salad and on a watercress and orange salad and it worked beautifully in both. (It’s also a very pretty color!)
★★★★★
Denise
Absolutely delicious
★★★★★
Lori
A bit too tangy for me. I used 3 T of honey and followed the rest of the directions. I will try it again and use less apple cider vinegar and more honey. Thank you!
★★★★
Kate
I’m sorry you didn’t love it, but happy you will try it again with adjustments for your tastes. I appreciate your review, Lori.
Sarah
This is the best salad dressing literally EVER. You and your loved ones will become salad addicts.
★★★★★
Kate
I’m happy you love this one, Sarah! Thank you for your review.
Bernadette Hermes
my family really enjoyed this dressing
thank you for a low cal deliscious choice
★★★★★
Susie
This dressing was amazing first time I made it tonight
I started making it and discovered I’d forgotten to buy a lemon
What I did was use balsamic vinegar in place of the apple cider vinegar and omitted the lemon
It’s so good I’ve scraped my bowl clean
I had the dressing over a big mix of rocket baby spinach cherry tomatoes baby cucumbers red onion red capsicum avocado mushrooms black olives and warm falafel
I had dinner on the table in 10 mins
So good that we are having the same thing tomorrow night
Seriously this dressing takes a big healthy salad bowl to the next level
★★★★★
Yazmin Avinante
I’m on a macro diet, freely following it and trying it out. This recipe really worked for me! Love homemade dressings but love more that you were able to cut the fat so much with this recipe. It tasted amazing and was super flexible because i didnt have any citrus. Also, I am learning to incorporate Greek yogurt as much as possible in my diet because of the high protein content and because of the probiotics.
★★★★★
Wania Khan
So I didn’t have access to Greek Yoghurt or Dijon mustard. I made it with home made yoghurt with a bit of mayo and I used regular mustard but half the quantity and I used a milder honey and it turned out GREAT! My family loved it so much they wanted to eat it with EVERYTHING! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome, Wania! Thank you for your review.
Wendy
This recipe is wonderful! This last time I made it, I added half of a log of warmed goat cheese to make it a dip for sweet potato fries. So many compliments! Thank you for always sharing your wonderful, healthy recipes!
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome, Wendy! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Lucienne Wilde
This is the best honey mustard dressing I’ve had. The yogurt makes it tangy and light. Thanks.
Anita Hanson
Kate, just wanted to thank you for your recipes. I’m not even a vegetarian and love everything I’ve made from your collection. Your
Sunshine dressing is a staple in my household. I make it constantly because my husband loves it so much. Thank you for being such a master of flavor! Here’s to 2021 :-)
★★★★★
Kate
You’re so kind, Anita! I’m delighted you are enjoying so many recipes and that this one is a staple.
Siddiqa
Made this today delicious !
★★★★★
K
This was fresh and delicious. I didn’t have Greek yoghurt so I swapped the Greek yogurt for buttermilk and sour cream combi but I think just regular yogurt would be fine too. This is a keeper!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you, K! I’m happy you loved it.
Wendy
Amazing! Super flavourful and delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe… will definitely be making this again!
★★★★★
Dell Tamblyn
Best salad dressing EVER!!!!!! SOOOOO GOOD! I can finally make a salad at home that tastes like a great restaurant! Thank you so much for sharing with us!!
I’ve also made with lime juice instead of lemon juice. That is yummy too!!
★★★★★
Kate
I’m excited you loved it, Dell! Thank you for your review.
Sam
I almost threw out what I started to make because I saw that my bottle of honey mustard was 60 cals at 2 tbsp… then I realized that bottle isn’t for dressing (too thick). Glad I continued because this turned out the consistency I hoped for, tastes great, and I calculated mine to be about 35 cals per 2 tbsp! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
★★★★★
Mary Angell
Just made this for our salmon salad dinner- OMG- it is HEAVENLY! I even used nonfat Greek yogurt and used avocado oil in place of evoo. This is a GREAT dressing!
★★★★★
Kate
I’m glad you loved it, Mary!
Dustin Gamester
I ran out of honey with only one tbsp. in (poor planning, woops). It turns out, I didn’t need the rest. I like how tart it came out. It was delicious on the brussels sprout and arugula salad!! keep up the great work!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you, Dustin!
Karen Hibpshman
Best dressing I’ve had in a long time
Kate
Great to hear, Karen!
Marie
Thank you for sharing such a great recipe! We LOVED the flavor! I didn’t have lemon juice so I used regular vinegar and thought I might have messed it up but it’s still amazing. Will use lemon next time!
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome, Marie! Thank you for taking the time to make the recipe and leave a review.
Alex
Obsessed with this dressing, it really does brighten up any salad & so easy to whisk together! I’m a vegetarian, but my mom even drizzled it over her salmon and loved it!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you for sharing, Alex! I’m delighted you all loved it.
Ngaire
This is a very tasty dressing.. Thank you so much!
Anna
Couldn’t use tahini dressing in herbed quinoa salad (friend is allergic to tahini), so used this one instead. Oh my! Delicious! It really does go with everything!
★★★★★
Tamara KurilyNeel
How many calories?
Kate
Hi! All the nutrition information can be found below the notes.
LindaPNW
I had no lemon so I went without. my garlic was old so I used garlic salt to taste. this was delicious as noted. I stored in refrigerator; however, I used this on day 10 and got quite an upset stomach ache so I advise using well before then.
★★★★★
Carrisima Mascarenhas
The taste is simply amazing. Another plus is that it’s very easy to make. I didn’t have lemon juice and added garlic powder instead of minced garlic and still love the flavour. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
★★★★★
Kate
I’m delighted you think so! I appreciate your review, Carrisima.
Tex
We love this dressing! It has become a staple in our house. We love it for dipping chicken tenders in as well.
★★★★★
Kate
I love to hear that! Thank you for sharing, Tex.
Manu
Absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
Meetali
A smashing twist on the traditional French vinaigrette! Absolutely delicious! I’ll be making this over and over and over again! :) YUM! Thank you for sharing! x
★★★★★
Sharon Whillock
Kate!!!!! I’ve eaten this dressing every single day for 21 days :) I’m a huge fan of homemade dressings so I can control the fat content that goes in them and then into me….. This one is beyond delicious. The only thing I change a bit is instead of apple cider vinegar I use white balsamic. It’s a little hard to find but Whole Foods carries it. It’s much milder and tasty right out of the bottle. I so appreciate you taking time to recreate and then sharing this sunshiny recipe!
★★★★★
Kate
That’s wonderful! Thank you for sharing, Sharon.
Luisa
So good, easy, and versatile! Better than any honey mustard dressing I’ve ever had, I’m never going back. I made this recipe almost every night this week, thank you!
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome, Luisa!
Renee
I am looking forward to trying this recipe!!!! What fat % of yogurt did you use to make the nutritional information?
Kate
Hi Renne! It’s whole milk.
Rita Helms
We absolutely love this dressing! I’ve been trying to make my husband some healthy dressing. Not working out to good! Until I found you recipe! He really loves it! Even more since I told him it goes great on the veggies he eats. So we will be making this quite often! Thank you so, so much for your recipe!!! ❤
★★★★★
Kate
Hooray! Thank you, Rita. I appreciate it.
Terrie Davis
My husband doesn’t care for the tang of apple cider vinegar so I used white wine vinegar and used the 4T of honey. It was lovely. Also I used Chobani non-fat greek yogurt which has a nice silky texture. It complimented the recipe really well. This will definitely be a new staple dressing in my fridge. Thank you Kate!
Kate
I’m glad you were able to make it work, Terrie!
Jenny
Absolutely Loved Loved this dressing!!!
Sooo fresh with a crispy garden salad!!! My husband even loved this dressing and went back for seconds. I will definitely let all my friends and family know about this dressing!! What a winner
Reina
Followed the recipe exactly, it was great!
★★★★★
Lisa
I didn’t have yogurt, so I substituted light Mayo and used only lemon juice. This recipe is a keeper! So delicious!
★★★★★
RB
I love your recipes Kate! This is my favorite dressing EVER made it a couple of times with a ceaser salad yum…thank you
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome! I’m happy you are enjoying them, RB.
Amy
So, so good!
★★★★★
LW
This recipe was simple and is amazing. I opted for all lemon juice instead of apple cider and it wasn’t at risk of being too much.
Marilyn
This dressing is every bit as tasty as you’ve said. Expect it will be a keeper in my repertoire!
★★★★★
Kimberly States
This dressing is my new favorite. I love it on spinach salad. Sooooo good first time I used it I li ked the bowl clean
★★★★★
Gail Cain
Absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
Kate
I’m glad you loved it! Thank you for your review, Gail.
Russ
Amazing best salad dressing I ever made. I used Jalapeno mustard and aged wine vinegar
★★★★★
Lenka no Charvatova
Very tasty and easy to make dressing. Happily giving 5* !!!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you, Lenka! I appreciate your review.
Margaret Dawson
Loved this salad dressing. Spooned it over some baked trout.
★★★★★
Kate
I love it! Thank you for your review, Margaret.
Lizzie Brown
This salad dressing is fabulous! Thanks so much.
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome, Lizzie! I’m happy you enjoyed it.
Tammy Hershberger
OMWord, this is AMAZING! After weeks of trying different versions of vinaigrette, I have found my go-to! I cut the oil to only 1 1/2 oz. and used 3 tablespoons of honey. It’s got a great zippy tang to it, but mellows on a salad. Thanks so much!
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome! Thank you for sharing how you approached this recipe, Tammy.