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Light, tangy, fresh, and perfect for any salad – this vinaigrette with champagne vinegar is loaded with flavor from shallot, walnut oil, and lemon juice for a simple dressing that is healthy and delicious!
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At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe – my goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
I want each reader to walk away with a solid knowledge of each recipe, with all of the tips I’ve gathered from extensive testing of each recipe. I also answer questions my friends and family have asked about my recipes, to help everyone better understand the processes we use – and why!
Table of contents
Champagne Vinaigrette Without Mustard
This salad dressing is light and easy to whip up, simply toss everything in a blender, whiz, and you have a gourmet salad dressing in no time! You can make a big batch and keep it in the fridge for up to six months, or make just enough for a week’s worth of salads.
Traditionally, champagne vinaigrettes contain dijon or mustard powder – but this recipe was designed to taste tangy, fresh, and delicious without mustard seed to accommodate for my mustard allergy. You can use dijon if you like, or skip it – but this recipe is pretty unique as its one of the only champagne vinaigrette recipe without mustard you will find.
I personally love the flavor of this dressing, and hope if you’re not a fan of mustard, you find this option as delicious and flavorful as I do!
Check out my web story on this dressing.
How To Make Champagne Vinaigrette
You’ll note, my recipe omits a popular ingredient of most champagne vinegar recipes – there is no mustard! If you would like to add in some Dijon for a bit of tangy kick, stir in 1/4 tablespoon dijon mustard.
To make this dressing, we will be blending the following ingredients until emulsified:
- Shallot, finely minced – shallot has a flavor similar to onion and garlic, with a bit less of a “hot” kick, which adds a great pungent, earthy layer of flavor to our dressing.
- Champagne vinegar – champagne vinegar is light, slightly sweet, without an overpowering smell or flavor – it is tangy, fresh, and acidic, and beautiful over salads.
- Walnut oil – walnut oil is an incredibly heart healthy oil that is loaded in omega 3 fatty acids and antioxidants, plus a nutty, rich flavor that is deeper and earthier than olive oil. If you can’t find walnut oil or don’t have any on hand, you can use extra virgin olive oil – but I feel the depth of flavors from walnut oil really shines in this dressing.
- Extra-virgin olive oil – extra virgin olive oil is a great lightly flavored oil that adds a subtle earthy richness to dressings.
- Maldon sea salt – you can substitute favorite salt, adjust to taste – I prefer using flake-style finishing salt in dressings as they break down well – partly dissolving, with a tiny bit of crunchy bits of salt leftover – without tasting overwhelmingly salty, as they tend to have a lower sodium content than table salt.
- Black pepper – for the best flavor, opt for fresh ground pepper, as the bright, spicy heat from peppercorns fades quickly as it is stored.
Tips to Perfect Champagne Vinaigrette & FAQs
Watch the salt. I’m calling for almost double the salt you will want to use if you don’t use flake-style salt – if using kosher, celtic, or table salt, reduce the amount of salt, as flake salt (like Maldon) is large and takes up a lot more space, and is less intensely salty tasting. If you don’t use maldon, no worries – just look closely at the notes in the recipe.
Add a splash of lemon. For a bit of a fresh kick, add some fresh squeezed lemon juice!
Great over meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit. Though walnut oil and shallot provide strong earthy layered flavors for this dressing, it is absolutely delicious over salads with chicken, steak, pork, fish, vegetables, and even fruit. It is truly a universal dressing.
FAQs
Champagne vinaigrette can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to six months – but I really like to consume it within a week or two for optimal freshness.
Traditionally, champagne vinaigrette includes dijon mustard or mustard powder.
I am allergic to mustard – and know many people are allergic to mustard or simply don’t like the flavor – and have created this recipe after tweaking lots of different recipes that used mustard and omitting it to find the perfect blend without it. You can add it in if you like, but try it without as well – this recipe is really delicious without the dijon!
Yes, in a sense – while we don’t use any champagne in the salad dressing, this dressing gets it’s name from champagne vinegar – which is made from converting champagne into vinegar, much like white wine vinegar comes from white wine.
The process to make vinegar involves converting ethanol (the alcohol that we drink) to acetic acid – which results in a bit of leftover alcohol in the process, though it is less than 2% and is considered negligible. You won’t have any effects from consuming champagne vinegar, let alone a vinaigrette that only contains two tablespoons.
While champagne vinegar, like all vinegars, contains trace amounts of alcohol – and alcohol should be avoided during pregnancy – the amount consumed is so tiny it is completely negligible and considered perfectly safe. Vinegar is not considered a food to avoid for pregnant women according to any health agency, and in fact, many pregnant women (like me when I was pregnant with both my kids!) use vinegar to help combat morning sickness.
Easy Salads You’ll Love
We love this vinaigrette over our Mediterranean Barley Salad, a light and fresh Orzo Pasta Salad Recipe, a super simple deli-style Julienne Kale Salad, or our Poppyseed Spinach Fruit Salad Recipe.
You can find the rest of our salad recipe archive here.
Easy Champagne Vinaigrette Recipe
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Easy Champagne Vinaigrette
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 small shallot, finely minced
- 2 tablespoons of champagne vinegar
- ¼ cup walnut oil
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes, or 1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, optional
Instructions
- Add ingredients to blender or food processor and whiz until very finely blended and emulsified.
- Place in jar or container with a tight lid if not serving right away and store for up to one week in the refrigerator.
- Separation may occur in the refrigerator when storing, simply give a shake before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made two batches. The first , I followed the recipe exactly and it is absolutely delicious. The second batch, I added honey and a few ripe strawberries.
The first batch works on all salads. The second, is used for a salad that includes feta, strawberries, blueberries, and pecans.
Thank you for the recipe!