Ladolemono (λαδολέμονο, lah-thoh-LEH-moh-noh) is the foundational Greek sauce of extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and dried oregano, usually at three parts oil to one part lemon. The name means oil-lemon, from lado and lemono. It works as a sauce, a dressing, and a marinade across Greek cooking: grilled fish, roasted meats, steamed greens, salads. It takes under two minutes and nothing you don't already have. Everything in it is raw, which means the oil arrives with its polyphenols intact, and it's one of the clearest examples of a Mediterranean dish where quality of ingredient does all the work that technique would do elsewhere.
Key facts
- Pronunciation: lah-thoh-LEH-moh-noh, with the stress on the third syllable and a soft "th" as in "the"
- Classic ratio: 3 parts EVOO to 1 part fresh lemon juice, with some cooks going 2:1 for a brighter version
- Core ingredients: extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, dried Greek oregano, salt
- Prep: under two minutes, whisked or shaken in a jar
- Uses: finishing sauce for grilled fish and meat, dressing for salads and horta, short marinade for chicken and shrimp
- Storage: up to a week refrigerated, shaken before use. Four days if you add fresh garlic, for reasons covered below
- Raw preparation: nothing is heated, so no polyphenols are lost to cooking
What Is Ladolemono?
Ladolemono is the sauce that turns up on nearly every Greek table, at nearly every meal, in one form or another. Calling it a recipe oversells the formality. It's a ratio and a habit: good olive oil, fresh lemon, dried oregano, salt. Whisk or shake, pour over whatever just came off the heat.
When Greeks grill fish, lamb, or chicken, the platter gets doused the moment it lands, and the warm juices from the meat run into the oil and lemon. When they steam wild greens, horta, the greens are dressed in it while still hot. When a salad needs dressing and nothing is coming out of a bottle, this is the answer.
It's a temporary emulsion, which means the oil and lemon will separate as it sits. That's how a sauce behaves when it has no mustard, egg, or stabilizer holding it together. A quick shake brings it back.
How Do You Make Ladolemono?
Recipe
Classic Ladolemono
Yield: about 1/2 cup, enough for 4 to 6 servings
Prep: 2 minutes
Storage: sealed jar, refrigerated, up to a week
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons (90 mL) extra virgin olive oil. Greek Koroneiki is traditional, though any fresh, quality EVOO works
- 2 tablespoons (30 mL) fresh lemon juice, about one large lemon
- 1 teaspoon dried Greek oregano (rigani)
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper
Method
- Combine the lemon juice and seasonings. Whisk the lemon juice, oregano, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and leave it 30 seconds. The oregano needs that moment in the acid to open up.
- Stream in the oil. Drizzle it in slowly while whisking hard. The sauce turns cloudy as it comes together. A jar with a tight lid and 15 to 20 seconds of shaking does the same job.
- Taste and adjust. Too sharp, add oil. Too rich, add lemon. Flat, add salt, which sharpens the acidity more reliably than more lemon does.
- Serve straight away, or refrigerate in a sealed jar and shake before each use.
What Is the Best Ratio for Ladolemono?
Greek cooks land between 2:1 and 3:1. What you're putting it on decides which.
| Ratio (oil to lemon) | Flavor | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 3:1, classic | Balanced, with the oil's richness and a bright finish | All-purpose: grilled fish, chicken, roasted potatoes, salads |
| 2:1, bright | Tart and lemon-forward | Grilled octopus, oily fish, rich lamb, bitter greens |
| 4:1, mellow | Oil-dominant with gentle acidity | Delicate white fish, steamed vegetables, children |
What Do You Put Ladolemono On?
| Dish | How to use it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Grilled fish (branzino, sea bass, sardines) | Pour generously over the whole fish straight off the grill | The warm fish drinks it in. The most traditional use there is |
| Grilled chicken or souvlaki | Over the platter, or alongside as a dip with tzatziki | Works as a finishing sauce and as a marinade, 1 to 2 hours before grilling |
| Grilled octopus | Drizzle just before serving with extra oregano | Go 2:1. Octopus takes more acid than most things |
| Roasted Greek potatoes | Toss before roasting, then drizzle fresh sauce after | The double application is what separates Greek potatoes from roast potatoes |
| Horta (steamed wild greens) | Dress generously while still warm | A side at most Greek meals. The fat helps you absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in the greens |
| Greek salad | In place of the usual oil and red wine vinegar | Brighter and more citrus-forward than the vinegar version |
| Grilled lamb chops | Pour over the chops on the platter and rest two minutes | The lemon cuts the fat. Be heavy with the oregano |
| Shrimp or prawns | Short marinade, 15 to 30 minutes, or as a finishing sauce | Don't go past 30 minutes. The acid starts to cook the shellfish |
What Kind of Olive Oil Is Best for Ladolemono?
Everything here is raw, so the oil is the sauce. You taste every note in it, the fruit, the bitterness, the pepper. A flat oil makes a flat sauce and no amount of lemon fixes that.
The traditional choice is Greek Koroneiki, the variety grown across Greece for millennia. It tends to carry high polyphenol content, often in the 400 to 800 mg/kg range depending on harvest timing and freshness, with a herbaceous profile and a peppery finish from oleocanthal.
Also good: Spanish Picual or Hojiblanca, Italian Coratina, or any fresh single-origin EVOO with a peppery finish and a harvest date inside twelve months. Pepper and fruit both play well against lemon.
Avoid refined or "light" olive oil, which is neutral by design and carries almost no polyphenols, and avoid any bottle with no harvest date on it. For more on the regional picture, see our Greek olive oil guide.
What Are Common Variations of Ladolemono?
The classic is strictly oil, lemon, oregano, and salt. Greek home cooks and modern kitchens add plenty.
Additions
- Garlic, one clove finely minced or grated, the most common addition. Put it in the lemon juice first so the acid takes the raw edge off. See the storage note below before you make a big jar of it
- Dijon mustard, a teaspoon, which holds the emulsion together and adds depth. Not traditional, widely used anyway
- Lemon zest, a teaspoon, for more lemon flavor without more acid
- Capers, a tablespoon roughly chopped, particularly good with grilled fish
- Fresh herbs, dill for fish, mint for lamb, parsley for anything. Stir them in at the end rather than whisking them
- Honey, half a teaspoon, to soften the acidity
How Long Does Ladolemono Keep?
The plain version keeps about a week in a sealed jar in the fridge. It separates, which is normal, and a shake fixes it. If the oil clouds or thickens from the cold, five minutes on the counter sorts it out.
The garlic version is different, and this is the part most recipes leave out. Fresh garlic sitting in oil creates the low-oxygen conditions Clostridium botulinum needs, and the lemon juice in a sauce like this isn't a validated acidification, whatever the pH of lemon juice in isolation. University extension guidance for fresh garlic and herbs in oil is to refrigerate and use within four days. So make the garlic version in small batches and eat it that week, or add the garlic to the portion you're using rather than to the jar. Our garlic-infused olive oil guide covers the citric acid method if you want something that keeps longer.
Hoji Blanca
Single-origin, USDA Organic Hojiblanca from Andalusia. 306 ± 21 mg/kg total phenolic compounds, zero sensory defects, November 2025 harvest, with the lab, method, and sample reference published alongside the number. One 10 mL packet with a teaspoon of lemon juice, oregano, and salt makes a bright single-serving ladolemono with nothing left over to go stale. An opened bottle re-oxygenates every time you use it, and the headspace grows as it empties. Single-serve packets are opened once and finished, so the last one performs like the first.
Shop the 30-pack
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ladolemono?
Ladolemono (λαδολέμονο) is a traditional Greek sauce of extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and dried oregano. The name translates to oil-lemon. It's used as a finishing sauce for grilled fish and meat, a dressing for salads and steamed greens, and a short marinade for chicken and seafood. The classic ratio is three parts oil to one part lemon.
How do you pronounce ladolemono?
Lah-thoh-LEH-moh-noh. The "th" is soft, as in "the" rather than "thick," and the stress falls on the third syllable.
What is the ratio for ladolemono?
Three parts extra virgin olive oil to one part fresh lemon juice. Some cooks use 2:1 for something tarter, which suits oily fish and rich lamb, and 4:1 makes a mellower sauce for delicate white fish. Use fresh lemon juice rather than bottled; with four ingredients there's nowhere for a dull one to hide.
What do you serve ladolemono with?
Grilled whole fish above all, then grilled octopus, souvlaki, lamb chops, roasted Greek potatoes, and horta. It also works as a salad dressing, a marinade for chicken or shrimp, and a finishing drizzle on roasted vegetables.
Is ladolemono the same as vinaigrette?
Similar idea, different ingredients and different role. A French vinaigrette uses vinegar as its acid, where ladolemono uses fresh lemon, which reads brighter. Greek salad is traditionally dressed with oil and red wine vinegar, while ladolemono is used mainly as a finishing sauce for cooked food, even though it dresses a salad perfectly well.
How long does ladolemono last?
About a week refrigerated in a sealed jar for the plain version. Four days if you've added fresh garlic, since fresh garlic held in oil carries a botulism risk and the lemon juice here isn't a validated acidification. Separation is normal, so shake before each use.
Can you make ladolemono ahead for a dinner party?
Yes, and it's better for a short rest, which gives the oregano time to bloom in the acid. Make the plain version a day ahead, keep it refrigerated, and shake it hard before pouring. If you want garlic in it, grate the clove into the jar the morning of rather than days ahead.
Sources
- Estruch R, Ros E, Salas-Salvadó J, et al. "Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts." NEJM. 2018;378:e34. n=7,447. The intervention tested was a Mediterranean dietary pattern supplemented with extra virgin olive oil.
- Guasch-Ferré M, Li Y, Willett WC, et al. "Consumption of Olive Oil and Risk of Total and Cause-Specific Mortality Among U.S. Adults." JACC. 2022;79(2):101-112. n=92,383. More than 7 g/day associated with 19% lower all-cause mortality.
- Beauchamp GK, Keast RSJ, Morel D, et al. "Phytochemistry: ibuprofen-like activity in extra-virgin olive oil." Nature. 2005;437:45-46.
- Raab C, Woodburn M. "Herbs and Vegetables in Oil." Oregon State University Extension Service, SP 50-701. Refrigeration and four-day guidance for fresh garlic and herbs in oil.
- USDA FoodData Central. Lemon juice, raw: 38.7 mg vitamin C per 100 g.
- Indlab (Laboratorio Agroalimentario Industrial S.L.), ENAC Nº 1089/LE2141. Test report A.3 / 202515396: phenolic compounds 306 ± 21 mg/kg, liquid chromatography per COI/T.20/Doc. nº 29 Rev. 2, dated 19 November 2025.
Hoji Real publishes this article and sells the olive oil referenced above. The storage guidance here is general food-safety information rather than a validated protocol for a specific batch; when in doubt, refrigerate and make it fresh.
