Green Salad with Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette
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This all green salad is made with only green things – spinach, kale, artichokes, pea shoots, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, broccoli pistachios or any other green things you can come up with, and it’s topped with my favorite homemade lemon thyme vinaigrette.
It’s almost St. Patricks Day! I have been sharing lots of St. Patrick’s Day recipes, but this Green Salad with Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette really only have one thing that makes it St. Patrick’s Day-ish. The color!
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I got the idea for this salad from two places actually.
Last March, my husband and I attended our church’s annual dinner, dance and auction. St. Patrick’s Day landed on a Saturday, and we belong to St. Patrick’s parish. It was only fitting that the theme was all about St. Patrick’s Day and green.
When we sat down to the dinner they had salads ready for all of us to start. I don’t remember the dressing, but I do remember that everything on the plate was green! I thought “self, you need something similar on the blog.” Took me a year — but here we are!
The dressing comes from a local favorite restaurant of mine, called Dante. They have a big salad they serve family style. It has this absolutely delicious Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette. But wanna know something weird? I am not a huge fan of thyme. This dressing just works.
I am actually known to substitute oregano in every recipe that calls for thyme. There is a fine line between enough and too much in my book.
How did I get the recipe?
I just asked! Have you ever done that? You’re at a restaurant, and something is really good, so you ask for the recipe? Most of them chuckle nervously and don’t give it out. But some do! I learned this when a bunch of food bloggers asked for an infamous Cheese Soup recipe from Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas a couple of years ago. I couldn’t believe they just printed us all copies of the recipe!
Now, I just ask. What’s the worst that can happen? They say no? You say okay and keep eating your food. This night, I asked and the waitress pulled out a piece of scratch paper that had the ingredients on it, I snapped a picture and went back to eating my food.
The only problem, no measurements.
But I figured it out, and only made one change. I left out the egg. I know, it’s not exact, and I know true Cesar salad dressing has egg, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around that part. I tasted the same, just a little less creamy. You start this dressing the day before my infusing some canola oil with sprigs of fresh thyme.
Ingredients in Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette:
- canola oil
- fresh thyme
- juice and zest of lemon
- honey
- white balsamic vinegar
I took a couple of photos of some of my favorite kitchen gadgets I got to use while I made it, too!
Upper left, my zester. I use the heck out of it, if you haven’t added one to your kitchen, I’d recommend it. Next up, my citrus juicer. It makes juicing citrus fruits so much easier than the traditional method. It certainly makes preparing a Moscow Mule so much easier! Lastly, the upper right corner, is an herb leaf stripper. It has multiple sized holes to make it a breeze to get the leaves off of those fresh herbs for your recipes.
Finally, my Swiss Diamond Jêt Immersion Blender. This little guy packs some serious power. I grab it more than my blender and my hand mixer combined.
Once my oil was infused with thyme, I drained it and used the immersion blender to mix together the thyme, infused oil, lemon juice and zest and the honey. It’ll get a nice creamy texture, and the flavor is sensational!
^pin it to find it later^
There are so many options of things you can add to this green salad. The day I shopped for ingredients, we had a snowstorm coming. The grocery store was a madhouse and the shelves were wiped clean. It was also during one of the romaine lettuce recalls. You can choose whatever lettuces you like. This time I used Kale, spinach and butter lettuce. I liked the difference in the textures.
I added chopped broccoli, sliced baby cucumbers, Brussels sprouts and green onion. I added pea shoots, and wanted either sugar snap peas or snow peas, but they were out. Lastly, artichoke hearts and lightly salted pistachios. The pistachios really make the salad. That crunch and their flavor with the dressing is top notch! Roasted and salted pepitas are also really good with it.
What would you add to your green salad?
Other options would be things like arugula, broccoli rabe, asparagus, cabbage, green beans, green bell pepper, kohlrabi, celery, zucchini, pickles, green olives and even pickled okra!
^LOVE IT? PIN IT!^
So, whether you have happened upon this salad and want to make it for your St. Patrick’s Day green celebrating, or if you found it some other time, I hope that you give it a try and you enjoy it as much as we do.
See All of my Salad Recipes and See All of my Lemon Recipes
Let’s make this delicious Green Salad with Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette, shall we? 
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Green Salad with Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- small bunch of fresh thyme 6 sprigs for infusing 2 teaspoons of the leaves for the dressing
- 2 Tablespoons lemon zest divided 1 T. for infusing and 1 T. for the dressing
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 cup white balsamic
Instructions
- 24 hours before: Place about 6 sprigs of fresh thyme and 1 Tablespoon lemon zest into the canola oil and let it infuse 12-24 hours. Drain.
- Chop up all of your green ingredients for your salad.
- Using a stick blender or regular blender, blend together all of the remaining ingredients.
- Use what you need, refrigerate the remaining for up to one week.
I love making homemade dressing like this bc it’s so much better than store bought. You are making me wish I had an immersion blender! This looks like a great dressing to meal prep and have on hand all week!
I loved this salad dressing! I’m doing Keto, so I skipped the honey in the dressing but didn’t need to make any other changes. I ate it with kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli and pistachios. Really good recipe.
Thrilled you loved it, Emily!
This dressing sounds like something I would want to just drink! I have some extra fresh thyme in my fridge that I need to use up. I’m going to give this a try – for salad I mean, of course!
Lemon and thyme are a beautiful pairing, so I can only imagine how good this dressing must taste. A decent dressing can really jazz up a salad!
One of our favorite restaurants is Dante too! This dressing looks amazing and that isn’t just any ordinary green salad. I just love the shaved Brussels and artichokes! Pinning to my favorite board so I don’t lose it!
We should meet there!! 🙂
I love using fresh herbs in vinaigrettes and dressings. They make every flavor pop so much more than a bottle ever could! This one looks fantastic.
Now this is what I call a delicious salad! This is stunning, flavorful and perfect for spring time!
I know it’s for St Patrick’s Day, but everything about this crisp, fresh salad screams spring. And the lemony dressing is just perfect for that, too. Delicious!
Sometimes it’s the simple recipes that blow me away. This is one of those! So easy but so tasty!
I love all things green so I know I will love this. Your vinaigrette sounds lovely as well.
I threw together a salad for dinner last night and used the lemon thyme dressing. It’s SO GOOD!!
This is such a gorgeous salad! The dressing sounds so phenomenal!
This is one of those dressings that you’ll make over and over again. I love the thyme with the lemon. So tantalizing, especially over fresh greens. Great recipe!
I wasnt sure about leaving the egg out, but wow… you were right.. I actually liked it better! Makes eating a healthy salad way less boring with a great dressing like that!
Such a lovely salad! So green and fresh with all the flavors of spring!
Thank you for this recipe. I would rather make my own dressings than buy them, so this definitely will be in my recipe box. I wondered if you have used a different oil or perhaps a combination of oils.
I haven’t. I always make it the same way! I agree – homemade is so much better!
The dressing recipe is so good.
I used olive oil.
I grow lemon thyme and don’t have enough uses for it.
I used that in this recipe. Now I am wondering if I have enough of it in my garden.
I am so happy that you love it!! It’s one of my favorites!!
This looks great, and my Lemon Thyme is almost ready for some harvesting. How many servings do you get from this recipe?
Also, is there a reason you use canola oil vs olive oil?
This makes about 1 1/3 cups of dressing.A typical serving size of dressing is 2 Tablespoons per person. I used what I made to dress a large salad. There is no reason that you couldn’t use olive oil instead of canola.
Wonderfully delicious salad! It’s now on rotation. Thank you!
I am so happy to hear that!