Creamy poppy seed dressing made with yogurt instead of mayonnaise — you’ll love the flavor of this light and easy to make dressing!
My mom made a salad over the holidays with a poppy seed dressing that I just loved. The salad had lettuce, kale, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember. All I can remember was that it was good and it had poppy seed dressing. Oh, and the most delicious little candied sunflower seeds. So good!
Poppy seed dressing has always been one of my favorites so of course I asked her for her poppy seed dressing recipe and then I completely changed it because for some reason I can’t help myself!
I kept her original version on file and might just have to share that one in the future too, but I wanted to share this creamy version, a thicker, richer feeling dressing.
How to Make this Poppy Seed Dressing
The base of the dressing is Greek yogurt, one of my favorite ingredients. I love that you can eat Greek yogurt as is or even use it as a marinade. I use it in countless recipes (proof: check out my Greek yogurt archives) and it always has a spot in my fridge.
For this dressing, yogurt stands in for heavier ingredients such as mayonnaise or sour cream (although don’t get me wrong, those both have a place in my heart too!).
The dressing is a nice blend of tangy and sweet — my mom’s recipe called for granulated sugar but I like honey for a smooth and flavorful way to sweeten this dressing.
It’s a simple and straightforward dressing that goes great on salads with fruit toppings but could easily stand its own on a salad topped with vegetables too. This poppyseed dressing would be fantastic for spinach salad as well. Psst: Come back Monday for a salad recipe that this creamy poppy seed dressing is perfect on!).
As a bonus, it’s likely you already have all the ingredients you need in your pantry and fridge.
Try this dressing on:
- Sweet Kale Salad – like the kind you can buy at Costco!
- Kale Quinoa Salad – with Walnuts and Cranberries
I store my poppy seeds in the fridge so they don’t go rancid. If you are looking for more ways to use poppy seeds, try orange poppy seed cookies or lemon poppy seed bread.
PPS: Per my calculations (see disclosures, folks!), you can eat two tablespoons of this creamy poppyseed dressing and only add 33 calories to your beautiful salad!
More Homemade Dressings
- Creamy Avocado Lime Dressing with Cumin
- Sweet and Tangy Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
- Fresh Raspberry Vinaigrette
- Reduced Fat Ranch Dressing Recipe
Poppy Seed Dressing
Ingredients
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together in a jar, cover and shake well to combine. If you prefer, you can stir all the ingredients in a small bowl. Use immediately or refrigerate in a covered container. Stir before serving.
Notes
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
Where’s the Olive oil?
I was in the process of making your dressing while following the video. In comes a shot of olive oil???? I don’t see it mentioned in the recipe or listed in the ingredients. The first time I try something I like to follow the recommended portions and ingredients. No substitution’s no alterations. Soo what type of oil and how much? Or no EVOO just he yogurt
Hi JT! We’re in the process of updating this recipe. We retested it and updated the recipe card to reflect that (because it was better than the original version), but we haven’t updated the rest of the post, or the video yet. So sorry for the confusion it caused! The written recipe is correct, the video is no longer accurate.
Wow very tangy. I was hoping to find a recipe that tasted similar to store bought. I know they have sugar and this one doesn’t but most healthy recipes I find with maple and honey instead of sugar have a very similar flavor . This was way off. Kids are not going to eat this one!
You could definitely add some sugar if that fits your tastes better. :) Dressings are easy to adjust.
This was surprisingly good for how simple it is?! I didn’t have any poppyseeds, but I wanted a sweet dressing. I subbed the honey for maple syrup out of convenience and it was excellent. Will definitely be adding this to my homemade dressing rotation! Thank you!
So happy you liked it! Thank you for the review!
I was looking for a healthier dupe for the sweet kale grocery store salads. That dressing is much more sweet than this one. I couldn’t taste anything but vinegar. Even after I doubled all of the other ingredients, and added way more honey than I should have, it was still much too vinegary for me. Would be great if you love heavy vinegar-flavored dressing, I’ll have to keep looking for that dupe though.
Sorry to hear that – it is a lower calorie version so it doesn’t have the exact same taste. But I think I can help you! Try using mayonnaise instead of yogurt (yogurt is tangier than mayo and can contribute to that bright/tangy flavor) and then reduce the vinegar to 1 tablespoon and use sugar instead of honey – it will match more closely with the store-bought flavor. And then taste and add sugar as needed until you get that desired flavor. I hope that helps!
Made exactly by recipe and it is by far my new favorite.
So happy to hear you enjoyed it! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
I liked it very much
I’m so glad to hear it!
Great dressing!
Thank you!
What do you think about apple cider vinegar?
That should work!
What are your thoughts on using raspberry vinegar?
I think that would be tasty!
I love baking my fish with store bought poppyseed dressing so I loved your momz recipe and I used honey 2 raw… it’s good over Swai fish and Cod baked… I’m marinating salmon in fridge over night will see how that taste 2ma
Oh yum, I’ll have to try that!