Martha Stewart's Waste-Free Hack For Delicious DIY Salad Dressing

It can feel impossible to get that last drop out of a condiment bottle, no matter how hard you try. Reaching into a glass jar for those remnants of peanut butter or jam often leaves you with nothing more than a morsel stuck to a knife. Well, not every empty condiment bottle should be thrown directly into the trash, those last bits lost in a landfill forever. It just doesn't seem right.

Luckily, there are a few different ways to get those final little pieces of spread out of the jar, and Martha Stewart herself endorses one particular trick that can save your leftover mustard. To get the last scrapings out of a bottle of mustard, she suggests you try using it as a vessel to make a delicious DIY salad dressing.

It all begins with that near-empty bottle of mustard. Unscrew the cap and pour in whatever you like best to make salad dressing in a flash. From olive oil to lemon juice, the choice is up to you. Once you've assembled everything, pop the cap back on and shake. Suddenly, violà! You have a fast and easy-to-make salad dressing ready to use, and you're not wasting a drop of your favorite mustard either. 

Using the last of your condiments doesn't have to be a hopeless effort when you know a simple hack like this. Instead, your would-be stress becomes sheer joy as you forgo desperately digging into a near-empty jar and opt to whip up an easy salad dressing for lunch instead.

As for the specifics, Martha Stewart recommends using this trick to make an easy vinaigrette dressing. As the celebrity chef shared with Today, "You never can get all the mustard out of the jar, so just put your olive oil right in the jar, put a little bit of lemon juice in the jar, salt, pepper, a little shallot, shake it up, and you have the most delicious salad dressing." Honey mustard is another easy dressing to make with this hack. Still, don't be afraid to make this dressing your own and use whatever herbs and oils you have to hand.

Homemade salad dressing beats off-the-shelf varieties any day, so get creative and let that bottle of mustard give you everything it's got left.

While Martha Stewart's salad dressing hack applies specifically to bottles of mustard, there are many ways to save those other near-empty spreads in your pantry or fridge. For starters, one way to use up the last of your peanut butter is to use the jar as a bowl for your ice cream of choice. This trick is an easy way to bring that sweet peanut butter flavor to a sundae. So crunchy or smooth, bring it on.

For jam lovers, using one of these near-empty jars as an impromptu cocktail shaker is a great way to infuse gin or vodka drinks with sweet, fruity flavors. You don't need alcohol to make this hack work, either. Jam jars can also double as vessels for sweet tea or sparkling water. (As TikTok likes to call it, try making some refreshing jam water.) 

For more salad dressing hacks, a bottle of mayonnaise works just as well as mustard. The options are endless. So the next time you're down to the last of your favorite condiment, don't accept defeat and throw it in the trash. There are many options to help you use it one final time, so don't waste the opportunity.