Thousand Island Dressing

Thousand Island dressing is a super-savory, slightly sweet, wildly versatile dream come true. Use it as salad dressing, burger sauce, reuben sandwich spread, and more. Includes vegan and keto versions.

Why we love this recipe

This dressing is an American classic. Its name comes from the Thousand Islands region along the upper St. Lawrence River between the U.S. and Canada, where various origin stories claim its beginnings in the late 19th or early 20th century. I like to think the name also comes from the many tiny islands of savory minced pickle and onion it contains among its multitudes.

This version:

• Leans into the savory side of things
• With a touch of sweetness
• Is beautifully balanced
• While keeping things simple
• Can easily be made vegan or keto if you like
• Is wildly versatile

For me, this recipe joins the likes of Quiche Lorraine, creamed spinach, deviled eggs, and the gin gimlet in feeling nostalgic in all the right ways. It somehow harkens back to my own childhood in 1980s NJ and prior generations in the midcentury and roaring 20s all at once — while also fitting seamlessly into the modern world.

What you’ll need

Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe.

• A good-quality supermarket mayo is the right choice for this sauce
• Same goes for the ketchup — nothing fancy needed or wanted
• You’ll see some recipes calling for sweet pickle relish, but I much prefer some simple minced dill pickle, which tilts things a little bit more savory and less unnecessarily sweet.
• Good old yellow onion gets minced up, too.
• Use regular sweet paprika to round out the flavor profile.

How to make it

Here’s an overview of what you’ll do to make a great batch of Thousand Island dressing. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.

1. Place mayo in a mixing bowl.
2. Finely mince the pickle and onion — the smaller and more even the better.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and stir until well-combined.
4. Let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour before using as salad dressing, on burgers, corned beef sandwiches, and more.

Variation: keto Thousand Island dressing

Since this recipe is mayo-based and doesn’t use the dreaded sweet pickle relish, it’s very easy to make it keto-friendly. The original recipe only has 1.7 grams of total carbs (1.2 grams sugars) per tablespoon. Depending on your needs, you can further reduce these numbers by using a sugar-free ketchup or swapping in two tablespoons of tomato paste instead of the ketchup. That’s it!

Variation: vegan Thousand Island dressing

All you have to do to make this recipe vegan is to swap in a good-quality vegan mayo for the regular mayo. Also be sure that your brand of ketchup is vegan (some brands use sugar that isn’t processed in a vegan-friendly fashion). Keep everything else exactly the same — you won’t even notice the difference between versions.

Expert tips and FAQs

More favorite salad dressings

• Caesar
• Creamy lemon vinaigrette
• Balsamic vinaigrette