Homemade Thousand Island Dressing Recipe

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Make your own homemade thousand island dressing with this easy recipe! This tastes perfect on a Reuben sandwich or a cheeseburger and uses ingredients you probably already have in your refrigerator. It’s that simple!

homemade thousand island salad dressing

Homemade Thousand Island Dressing Recipe

This homemade thousand island dressing is really fantastic! Once you try it, you will never want to buy the bottled version again. The best thing about this sauce recipe is that it’s really easy to make, too.

Even people who think they don’t like thousand island dressing will love this! It’s yummy, light, and there is no added sugar – the only sugar is from the ketchup and the sweet relish.

A bowl of homemade thousand island dressing

This salad dressing relies on the sugar from the ketchup and the sweet relish to add the sweet flavor. If you want to make it completely sugar-free, you’ll have to use pickled relish and sugar-free ketchup.

Homemade Thousand Island Dressing Recipe

How To Make Homemade Thousand Island Dressing

Here’s how to make your own homemade dressing. I highly recommend making a large batch – it’s so easy to make, that you’ll want to use it as your new favorite dip and salad dressing!

Ingredients for homemade thousand island dressing

First, chop the onion into the smallest pieces you possibly can and put it in a bowl.

Next, add the mayo, ketchup, sweet pickle relish, paprika, and salt to the onion. Put this mixture in a large bowl so that you have room to mix everything together.

Mixing together the ingredients for homemade thousand island dressing

After that, squeeze the lemon over the other ingredients.

Mixing the homemade salad dressing in a mason jar

Finally, mix all the thousand island dressing ingredients with a spoon until it is well combined.

homemade thousand island salad dressing

Cooking Tips

  • Don’t have time to chop onions? The best way to speed that up is to use frozen chopped onions! Just let them defrost first and then pat them dry.
  • Fresh lemon juice has a much better flavor, but if you don’t have any fresh lemon, you can squirt a little bottled lemon juice on it instead.

How To Serve Homemade Thousand Island Dressing

There are lots of different ways you can use this homemade dressing beyond just on top of your favorite cold chopped salad.

This would taste amazing on top of some air fryer hamburgers or serve it on the side as a scrumptious dipping sauce for some air fryer acorn squash fries!

Instead of using it on a salad or as a dip, you can also use it as a sauce on cold sandwiches. Try it with some roast beef and sharp cheddar cheese. Add some shredded lettuce and sliced tomato for a sandwich you’ll never forget!

A close-up of homemade thousand island salad dressing

This dressing also tastes amazing as a marinade. Simply let some chicken legs, thighs, and wings, marinate in the dressing overnight. Then, bake or grill it!

It comes out juicy and with the most amazing flavor with a hint of sweetness!

A spoon inside homemade thousand island dressing

Finally, pour this dressing on top of poached eggs sitting on toasted rye bread and roast beef. This is an open-faced thousand island eggs benedict. Delicious!

A spoonful of homemade thousand island dressing

More Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes

If you loved this homemade thousand island dressing, check out some of my other dressings, dips, and marinades.

These are some of my go-to’s:

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Homemade Thousand Island Dressing

This thousand island dressing recipe is amazing! Once you try homemade 1000 island dressing, you'll never want to have the one from the bottle! So easy to make and so yummy!
Prep Time10 minutes
Total Time10 minutes
Course: Condiment
Cuisine: American
Keyword: 1000 island dressing, thousand island dressing
Cooking Method: No-Cook
Diet: Vegetarian
Servings: 8
Calories: 203kcal

Recipe Video

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mayo
  • onion
  • 2 tbsp ketchup
  • 2 tbsp sweet pickle relish
  • ¼ lemon
  • ½ tsp sweet paprika
  • ¼ tsp salt

Recommended Kitchen Tools (click the links below to see the items used to make this recipe)

Instructions

  • Chop the onion into the smallest pieces you possibly can and put it in a bowl.
  • Add mayo, ketchup, sweet pickle relish, paprika and salt to the onion.
  • Squeeze the lemon over the other ingredients.
  • Mix all the thousand island dressing ingredients with a spoon until combined.
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Nutrition

Calories: 203kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 315mg | Potassium: 29mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 145IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 1mg
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3 Comments

  1. I love making my own dressings, b/c I can use lower fat ingredients (in this case light mayo) and less sodium. 1000 Island Dressing is one of our favorites, especially the kiddoes’, so thanks very much.

  2. 5 stars
    I’ve tried many recipes for Thousand Island dressing, but this one is the best homemade I’ve come across so far.

5 from 2 votes

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