woman pouring Sweet Onion Salad Dressing on green salad

Sweet Onion Salad Dressing Recipe

/3 Comments/in /by Mary Hunt
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Grating and cooking the onions briefing is the secret to this outstanding and versatile sweet onion salad dressing. Use it as a dipping sauce for French fries, or marinade for chicken, pork, or fish.

woman pouring Sweet Onion Salad Dressing on green salad

For this homemade sweet onion salad dressing, the onions are grated and cooked briefly. When cooked, they become even sweeter, mainly because they’re mixed with sugar and other ingredients you’re likely to have on hand

Makes a great dipping sauce for French fries, chicken fingers, or fried fish. Or use it to marinate poultry, pork, or fish.

Sweet Onion Salad Dressing

You’ll need:

  • sugar
  • salt
  • dry mustard
  • celery seed
  • sweet onion
  • vegetable oil
  • vinegar
Woman adding tasty sauce to salad in dish on table
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5 from 3 votes

Sweet Onion Salad Dressing

Grating and cooking the onions briefing is the secret to this outstanding and versatile salad dressing. Use it as a dipping sauce for French fries, or marinade for chicken, pork, or fish.
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook15 minutes
Total Time20 minutes
Course: Condiment
Cuisine: American
Servings: 12
Calories: 95kcal
Author: Everyday Cheapskate

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar See NOTES
  • 1 tspn salt
  • ¼ tspn dry mustard See NOTES
  • ¼ tspn celery seed
  • 1 medium sweet onion, grated like Vidalia, Walla Walla,
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • ½ cup vinegar See NOTES

Instructions

  • Combine sugar, salt, mustard, and celery seed in a small saucepan.
  • Stir in vinegar, oil, and grated sweet onion. Set pan over medium heat. Heat and stir until the sugar is completely melted.
  • Cool and serve. Or use warm.
  • Store in the refrigerator in a covered container for up to two weeks

Notes

  1. In place of the dry mustard you can use 1 to 2 teaspoons of prepared grainy mustard or a Dijon mustard.
  2. Add a clove of finely minced garlic to the pan with the onions.
  3. Puree the entire salad dressing in a high-speed blender.
  4. The recipe calls for vinegar—use white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, or apple cider vinegar. Red wine or balsamic vinegar would be overpowering.
  5. If you wish to reduce the sugar, you can go as low as 1/2 cup. Or substitute the sugar with 1/2 cup honey instead.
  6. You can use any neutral vegetable oil such as canola or even straight olive oil if you like, but if you use extra virgin olive oil the taste of the oil will be more pronounced.
  7. Cool and refrigerate, or serve as a warm dressing.

Nutrition

Serving: 1tbsp | Calories: 95kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 35mg | Potassium: 34mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 1mg
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3 replies
  1. Gina Stevens says:

    5 stars
    I made this simple dressing and it was delicious! I cut the sugar to 3/4 cup, but followed the rest of the recipe as written. Rave reviews were received with my salad, making this recipe a keeper. Thanks, Mary. You’ve brought daily sunshine to my inbox since the mid nineties. You are an absolute blessing!

    Reply

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