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Cranberry-Dijon Vinaigrette

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This pretty-in-pink cranberry vinaigrette is perfect for the holidays. Toss it with greens or use as a turkey sandwich spread.

Salad topped with a cranberry Dijon vinaigrette.

This fabulous cranberry vinaigrette recipe was sent to me by Jim Orvis, one of my lovely readers and cooking pen pals from upstate NY. Made with puréed fresh cranberries, the vinaigrette is pretty-in-pink, full of tangy-sweet flavor, and perfect for the holidays. I love it drizzled over an autumn salad of mixed greens, sliced apples, toasted walnuts, and goat cheese. It also makes a great turkey sandwich spread or sauce for roast chicken or pork. Feel free to use frozen cranberries when fresh are not available.

What you’ll need to make cranberry vinaigrette

Vinaigrette ingredients including red wine vinegar, honey, and canola oil.

How to make cranberry vinaigrette

It’s so easy to make. Simply combine all of the ingredients in a blender.

Cranberries in a blender.

And purée until smooth.

Cranberry-dijon vinaigrette in a blender.

That’s all there is to it. Enjoy!

Salad topped with cranberry-Dijon vinaigrette.

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Cranberry-Dijon Vinaigrette

This pretty-in-pink cranberry vinaigrette is perfect for the holidays. Toss it with greens or use as a turkey sandwich spread.

Servings: 1¼ cups
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Total Time: 10 Minutes

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • ¾ cup canola or vegetable oil
  • ¼ cup fresh cranberries
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons chopped shallots, from 1 shallot
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and purée until completely smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use. The dressing will keep nicely in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. Shake well before using.

Nutrition Information

Powered by Edamam

  • Serving size: 2 tablespoons
  • Calories: 162
  • Fat: 16 g
  • Saturated fat: 1 g
  • Carbohydrates: 4 g
  • Sugar: 4 g
  • Fiber: 0 g
  • Protein: 0 g
  • Sodium: 70 g
  • Cholesterol: 0 g

This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

Gluten-Free Adaptable Note

To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.

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Comments

  • How long does it keep in the refrigerator?

    • Hi Tim, I’d guesstimate 4 to 5 days. Hope you enjoy!

  • I had leftover cranberries from Jenn’s Cranberry Nut bread recipe so I figured I would try this. I did substitute olive oil for canola because I had no plans to store it as we were eating it that day. I made grilled chicken salads with walnuts, goat cheese, pears and spinach and they were super quick and delicious to throw together for lunch.

  • I brought this salad to a friend’s home as my contribution for a quiet, social distancing Christmas dinner, but I would gladly eat this any time of the year. The dressing is fantastic, and I used sliced pear instead of apple and substituted gorgonzola cheese for the goat cheese. Since then, I’ve used the apple and a mild goat cheese–it’s the perfect ANYTIME salad!

  • Hi! Will cranberry sauce work? Like leftovers from thanksgiving? Thank you!

    • Hi Isabel, I don’t think cranberry sauce would work here as it would throw off the other liquid measurements. Sorry!

  • Will dried cranberry work ?

    • Hi Elvin, dried cranberries won’t work but frozen will. Hope that helps!

  • So pretty, so perfect! This was a hit for Christmas brunch. Thank you!

  • This is my new favorite salad dressing! It comes together so quickly, and it’s so full of flavor. I toss it with walnuts and goat cheese like you suggested and it’s a huge hit. Thanks for another wonderful recipe!!

  • Any reason you use vegetable oil instead of olive oil? Just curious…

    • Hi Susan, It depends on the salad, but I sometimes find the flavor of olive oil to be too strong in salad dressings.

  • Made this dressing for my Thanksgiving salad. It was very good and fairly easy to make. The only thing is that the dressing came out quite thick..almost the thickness of mayo. It could have been because I doubled the recipe or maybe I processed it in the blender for too long. Either way..the dressing was very delicious. Thank you!

  • this is excellent. thank you

  • This is loved by all whom I’ve made it for. Thank you again Jenn!

  • Is it really only a 1/4 cup of cranberries? My measure of that amount looks much smaller than what appears in your photos –both the amount in the bowl in the photos of all the ingredients, as well as the photo of the blender. Any mine look pretty average-sized! I think there are only 15 cranberries total in my 1/4 cup.

    • Yes, that’s correct Julie. Hope you enjoy it!

  • I used frozen cranberries…also had to use apple cider vinegar & olive oil as that was what I had on hand and it turned out great! My dressing did not foam! I will make this again!

    • — Wendy G Schoenburg
    • Reply
  • This recipe was great! Served it over Romaine with apples, feta and walnuts at a girl’s night out and everyone wanted to know why the dressing was pink! Loved it and guess I will have to make more cause I have lots of cranberries leftover

    • — Judith Richardson
    • Reply
  • I made this dressing just after Thanksgiving and jested it over romaine, a very nice blue cheese, sliced honey crisp apples and some pistachios. It was fabulous! My husband, who is not typically interested in the salad, looked up and said, “what is the dressing on this salad? It’s terrific!”

  • I liked it a lot but my family did not care for the foamy texture. I’d give it a 4 star rating and they would give a 1 star.

  • I really need to eat more salad. I shopped for the fresh bagged cranberries. Then I walked across the produce section and picked up a large plastic box of organic spring mix. Then 2 Honey Crisp apples, which were on sale. A little feta cheese and a bag of shelled walnuts and I was outta there. When I got home I roasted the nuts on a iron skillet. Made the vinaigrette just as written. Simple, delicious salad. Thanks a lot Jenn, it was really good!

  • HOORAY! I’ve been looking for a cranberry vinaigrette. A local shop makes a fantastic salad with roasted pears (and blue cheese and walnuts). They used to have a wonderful cranberry vinaigrette to go with it, but for some crazy reason they’ve switched to a balsamic vinaigrette which overwhelms all of the flavors.

    But now I can make my own!!!

    Time to go home and roast some pears!!

    (I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I’m giving it five stars because I know that it will be outstanding!)

  • Hi. We don’t get fresh cranberries in this part of the world. Could I use dry cranberries instead? Thanks in advance..
    Vanita

    • Hi Vanita, Unfortunately, dried cranberries won’t work but frozen will. Hope that helps!

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