Southern Buttermilk Salad Dressing is a deliciously easy, flavorful, homemade, Southern-Style salad dressing that our family has made for years to enjoy over our favorite salad greens and fixings. Made with buttermilk, creamy mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, organic apple cider, and fresh herbs, Southern Buttermilk Salad Dressing brings a tempting flavor burst to any salad.
It’s that time of the year where we are all chopping up fresh greens and crisp veggies trying to shed a few of the holiday pounds, yet still, enjoy a bit of flavor to our food. Just like everyone else Southerners enjoy a good salad at lunch our as a side to our meals at dinner time. This Southern Buttermilk Salad Dressing is one of my favorite homemade go-to recipes to pour over my greens.
In the South, we love our Buttermilk and Mayonnaise so much you will find them in many of our iconic Southern-Style recipes. Fried Chicken? You guessed it we use buttermilk to brine the chicken to make it juicy and succulent. Mayonnaise? We use that creation in almost any anything right down to our Chocolate Mayonnaise Cakes. It’s a just Southern thing Y’all, we live for bold creamy flavors in our recipes.
Today, I decided I was in the mood for a healthy salad made with fresh greens, ripe avocados, grape tomatoes, juicy strawberries, and sweet plum blueberries with a good dose of my favorite homemade Southern Buttermilk Salad Dressing drizzled over the top of it. How can you go wrong with that combination? Sometimes I add white chicken breast strips in my salad but today I wanted to enjoy it as a side versus a meal.
This salad dressing if pretty straightforward and easy to make, however, I wouldn’t call it a diet dressing Y’all. If you’re looking for a diet salad dressing you’re looking at the wrong recipe. Now you can make a few adaptions to the recipe to make it more diet friendly such as using fat-free buttermilk, light mayonnaise, or yogurt, and Splenda Sweetener instead of sugar, but I can promise you it will not even remotely taste the same.
Ingredients needed:
- Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
- Dijon Mustard
- Mayonnaise
- Parsley
- Tarragon
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
- Garlic
- BUttermilk
- Sugar
- Kosher Salt
- Black Pepper

- 2 tablespoons Organic apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons Mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons Parsley Finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon Tarragon Finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon Extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves Garlic finely minced + more if desired
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- 1 Tablespoon Sugar
- Kosher salt to own taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to own taste
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Combine all the listed ingredients and the seasoning in a glass bowl and mix well. Whisk in the cold buttermilk until the dressing is smooth and creamy. Adjust seasonings as needed.
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Refrigerate for 1 hour before using over your favorite salad greens.
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Refrigerate remaining dressing in a container that has been tightly covered for up to 4-5 days safely. After 5 days discard any remaining salad dressing.
If desired place herbs in a small food chopper to chop finely
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© Heidy L. McCallum and The McCallum’s Shamrock Patch, 2019-2013 unauthorized use and/or duplication of content/ material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Heidy L. McCallum and The McCallum’s Shamrock Patch with proper and specific direction to the original content.
I haven’t had this dressing in ages! I love it. I know it’s not the most diet friendly, but it’s oh so good!!
Me too, Pam! I think balance is OK though…lol
Ha Ha, indeed Pam, not diet friendly but so darn good! Thank you for stopping by.
Yum! Definitely better than store-bought! All those flavors sound incredible. The salad looks beautiful too.
Thank you so much Tara!
I love making my own salad dressing! This creamy buttermilk dressing looks so good and zesty.
Good Morning, Rika, so glad you liked the recipe.
I do love buttermilk fried chicken, but never use it in my salad dressings…. I definitely need to change that! So creamy and I love the tang 🙂
Sues
You definitely have to try it…such a different flavor!
Hey there, Sue! Yes, it’s really a flavorful addition to the salad dressing.
Digging what you’ve got going on here. Tarragon, too. Love it, and this is the perfect salad dressing recipe for it. (Great looking salad combo, too.)
Thank you, tarragon has such a great flavor. I use Mexican tarragon here in Florida as French tarragon can’t handle our heat index.
This buttermilk salad dressing is so good it’s become a staple in our house, almost the only one I’m ever using and everybody loves it!
I’m so thrilled to hear this Patty, makes my day. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! Tarragon, yay we love the flavor and this recipe is bookmarked. Thanks for this supa gorgeous summer salad, looks terrific.
Thank you. I really appreciate the sweet comments you leave! I’m so happy you bookmarked it for later!
Now, there’s nothing good about a salad without a good dressing! This Southern Buttermilk version looks so creamy and delish!
Thank you, Shanika, I agree–I remember a diet I was on and you could only dip your fork in the dressing then pick up the salad with the fork–I decided after a few days–*Fork That!* lol I need my dang dressing!
Sounds like the perfect salad dressing to have on hand – can’t wait to give it a try!! 🙂
Thanks, Kate, I hope you’ll let me know if you enjoyed the recipe soon! Have a great day.
Definitely a unique Dressing. Cant wait to make this Salad for my Guest at a party. I love it.
Thank you, Veena! I hope your guests enjoy it!