Oil Free Vegan Dressings
Let’s be honest about something.
Vegan eating is ALL about the sauce.
And when I say “sauce” that includes marinades, salsas, dressings, dips…basically anything you can slather on something else.
I would say the majority of my meals include some sort of sauce.
Whether it is dressing for my salad, dip for my veggies or salsa for my burrito.
Now, the problem with some of these store bought sauces is that they are packed full of crazy things.
If I can’t pronounce it, I probably don’t want to be eating it.
And that’s what is so great about these 3 dressings.
They are made from whole, real ingredients.
And they have ZERO added oil.
That sounds pretty awesome, right?
Now, that doesn’t mean there isn’t some natural fats thrown in the mix.
Nuts and avocados are my two favorite natural fats for any meal, but especially a dressing. They make the dressings creamy and also add a nice flavor.
Win win.
The 3 dressings we are making today are an asian dressing, an avocado herb dressing and a creamy cashew dressing.
All of these would be great over a salad, in a buddha bowl or in a wrap.
Make one on a Sunday and you will have dressings for the entire week ready to go in the fridge.
Need more sauce inspo? Check out all of my dips and dressings here.
- Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together.*
- Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
CREAMY AVOCADO FRESH HERB DRESSING
- Add all ingredients to a food processor.
- Blend on high until smooth.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
What Is The Difference Between A Dressing And A Vinaigrette
Thats a very good question and something weve been wondering ourselves. Now that we know, we can pass that info on to you! The answer actually comes from the word vinaigrette.
A vinaigrette is a mixture of an oil and a vinegar, while a salad dressing is usually a mixture of some type of fat and an acid that is cold and can cover any type of food, not just salad.
If youre interested in making this oil free ranch dressing for a special occasion and youre not sure which salad would be the perfect fit, please check out our Making the Best Vegan Salad guide. We have tons of sweet and savory salad recipes for you to try!
Vegan Bang Bang Sauce
Would you believe that this creamy and versatile sauce is ready in one minute, undetectably vegan and budget-friendly?
It goes really well with a whole host of vegan bowls, veggies, cooked potatoes and so much more. Use our homemade cashew mayo to make it or simply swap this ingredient for plant-based yogurt!
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Best Vegan Salad Dressings For Plant
Looking for a delicious and healthy way to dress up your salads? Check out these vegan salad dressings!
Salads deserve better than just the same old bottled dressing. You can turn a boring bowl of leaves into a hearty delight with these recipes.
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In this roundup, youll find classic dressings and something new to try.
From creamy, light options to rich, tangy goodness, these dressings will make any salad taste decadent.
So read on and get ready to jazz up your salads!
Vegan Dressing Ingredients & Health Perks
This homemade vegan salad dressing is made with natural ingredients making it low sugar, low carb, and highly delicious. Plus, all of the ingredients can easily be found at your local grocery store. Keep reading to create your grocery list and find out the benefits of each ingredient.
Avocado Along with being great sources of fiber and healthy fats, avocados are also a great source of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin K, Folate, vitamin C, Magnesium, and Iron. Adding avocado to your diet can help regulate your digestive system, lower cholesterol, help you absorb more nutrients, and more.
Tahini Option Made out of ground sesame seeds, tahini is full of healthy fats and antioxidants that reduce inflammation, fight cancer, and protects your liver and kidneys from damage.
Scallions One serving of scallions has twice the recommended amount of vitamin K needed for healthy adults! They also contain phytonutrients that help fight cancer and prevent inflammation.
Coconut Milk Primarily composed of medium-chain triglycerides, coconut milk can help improve cholesterol levels and maintain a healthy weight. It is used in recipes as an allergy-friendly way to achieve a creamy texture and rich flavor.
Parsley Rich in vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin K. Its an easy low-calorie way to make nearly any dish taste great.
Lemon Juice Loaded with vitamin C, lemon juice can help boost your immunity!
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Bottled Vegan Salad Dressings You Have To Try Plus 7 Easy
Slather anything in vegan ranch dressing and even the vegetable-averse will happily gobble it up. Were conditioned as children to take our veggies with a quarter-cup of Hidden Valley, and while weve learned to ask for dressing on the side and expanded our options to include vinaigrettes and tahini-based sauces, a good vegan salad dressing remains a crucial component of any leafy green dish.
These condiments quite literally dress up a saladtransforming bland greens into an indulgent dish with a simple drizzle. Whether you toss it all together or methodically stick a fork into the dressing before each bite, a salad without dressing is downright sad. Here are seven vegan salad dressings to buy and to make to gussy up any bowl of greens.
Helpful Tips For Making This No Oil Salad Dressing
While theres not much to blending up this batch of salad-friendly sauce, there are few ways to switch it up a bit. Use your imagination to inspire you. Once you get going, you might come up with your own no oil salad dressing!
- Dare To Be More Than Dressing There are more than a few alternative and appealing options for this delicious dressing. Perfect on salads, baked potatoes or sweet potato fries, as a veggie dip, a sassy sauce for falafel or gyros, and even delicious mixed with your chickpea tuna salad instead of vegan mayo.
- Savory Seasoning Substitutions Instead the dill, consider incorporating oregano, chives, basil, cilantro, or parsley. If using the fresh herb rather than the dried, make sure to increase your measurements. For example, 3 tablespoons of fresh equals 1 teaspoon of the dried herb.
- Pleasing Plant Milk Options Creaminess is key to this dressing. Make sure to use an unsweetened, plain plant-based milk with a thicker texture, such as soy or cashew. If you only have a thinner plant milk on hand, add more soaked cashews to the recipe to thicken the consistency.
- SlightlySalt Sensitive? If you are salt-free or trying to reduce your salt, feel free to omit the salt all together. You could even use a salt-free mustard. Substituting with a salt-alternative would work, too.
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Vegan Salad Dressings That Are Slap Your Momma Good
A lot of people order/opt for salads when trying to lose weight and improve their health and waistline.
Youd think a big bowl of veggies would be a healthy option however, a lot of people are unknowingly sabotaging their weight loss and wellness goals because of the salad dressings they use.
Store-bought salad dressings contain fats, salts, sugars, commercialized dairy, fake flavors, and artificial colors that rack up calories quickly and can cause a wide range of health problems.
Even healthy organic and vegan dressings tend to be heavily processed. Just because something is promoted as healthy or plant-based doesnt mean its good for you.
Vegan Salad Dressing: Store
If youre in a rush and need to buy a quick vegan-friendly dressing from the grocery store, these are some of the best accidentally vegan salad dressing options:
- Trader Joes Green Goddess Dressing
- Newmans Own Classic Oil & Vinegar
- Skinnygirl Raspberry Vinaigrette
- Primal Kitchen Balsamic Vinaigrette & Marinade
- Annies Red Wine & Olive Oil Dressing
- Hidden Valley Plant-Powered Vegan Ranch
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Pickled Asian Cucumber Salad
Source: Pickled Asian Cucumber Salad
This Pickled Asian Cucumber Salad by Gabrielle St. Claire has tons of flavors and yet, everything blends seamlessly together. Its made up of a few accessible, affordable, colorful ingredients, that encompass a variety of textures. The salad has a hint of spice and its perfect by itself or on top of burgers, salads, and just about anything else you could imagine.
Kitchen Tools Youll Need For Our Oil Free Salad Dressing
The best thing about this dressing is that its not only quick to make, but also requires only a few standard kitchen tools. You can always use a standard high-speed blender, but the smaller one does seem to blend the dressing a little easier. Its really up to you and what you have on hand.
- Dash of black pepper
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Spicy Lemon Olive Oil Salad Dressing
Like I said, Matt and I are always making salads for dinner. Trouble is, we don’t agree on the texture of dressings. I like creamy salad dressing, he likes more of a classic oil-based vinaigrette.
However, this spicy lemon vinaigrette is one recipe we both agree on. It’s Matt’s specialty and I love it! It’s spicy, tangy, bright and adds the perfect coating to a crunchy salad!
Spicy Lemon Olive Oil goes well with:
I Cant Believe Its Cashew Ranch Dressing
Just when you thought youd never get to enjoy ranch dressing without a bunch of a processed substitutes!
Another Sid and Lisa creation, this one will even impress your omnivore friends and leave them shaking their heads, saying, I cant believe its cashew. Hence the clever name.
How to Use It:
I think everyone knows how to use a Ranch dressing, but I love to throw this on big salads with roasted veggies, chickpeas, and tomatoes, and toss in some pumpkin seeds for crunch.
We also use it as a dipping sauce for veggies.
The Recipe:
- 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper or, to taste
- Optional: 1 tsp hot sauce
Blend all ingredients till creamy and smooth. Make sure not to blend so long that it gets hot. If too thick, add more water.
This dressing thickens in fridge, so add a little water as needed to thin before using.
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The Creamy Dressing That Goes With Everything
I mean, its the perfect addition to nearly any meal. Trust me. Ive tried them all. From being drizzled over Nourish Bowls, used as a sauce on stir frys, or used as a dip for sweet potato fries, you really cant go wrong. I cant take all the credit for this incredible dressing, though. The truth is, it was inspired by an old college favorite!
Back in the good old days, my friends and I would frequent a restaurant known as Mothers Cafe. Maybe youve heard of it? They were known for serving peasant bowls, as they called them. Or, in other words, meals that were both nourishing and affordable. Basically, they were the perfect vegetarian meals! Sort of like my Snappy Plant Power Balance Bowls.
While the whole place was great, what I loved best was this incredible Green Goddess salad they served. In fact, I loved it so much, I eventually began buying it by the bottle! Obsessed might be an understatement. However, while I loved this dressing, I needed a version that was egg and mayonnaise free.
Being unwilling to give up my most favorite dressing, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make it vegan in the process! What resulted was this Green Goddess dressing recipe youll see below. By removing all potential allergens, I managed to create a dressing that tastes just as fresh, tangy, and creamy as the original but is also paleo friendly, low carb, and can help reduce inflammation. Take a look below to watch how easily it comes together.
Choosing The Right Salad Dressing
The downfall of many seeking these healthy benefits is whats on top of their salad. Unfortunately, most salad dressings are loaded with lots of sugar and artery-clogging saturated fat.
Luckily, oil-free and dairy-free salad dressing options can provide a powerful punch of flavor for these culinary masterpieces without all the processed high-calorie junk.
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Learn How To Cook Plant
Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental well-being, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, gut health, and more! Dairy consumption also has been linked to many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, and prostate cancer, and has many side effects.
For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the ecological and health benefits of a plant-based diet.
Here are some great resources to get you started:
Star Ingredients In This Plant
In our opinion, every ingredient in this delightful dressing is pretty awesome. But, these three truly stand out due to their extraordinary flavor or versatile texture. When they all work together in harmony, the results are extremely appetizing. Yum!
- Dill Not only is this annual, self-seeding herb super easy to grow in your garden, but its incredibly light and flavorful.
- Cashews Rich in fiber, protein, and healthy fats. These adorable nuts have almost the same amount of protein per serving as the equivalent of animal protein. They also have a significant amount of copper and are a good source of magnesium and manganese.
- Dijon Mustard A tangy, slightly spicy, and sharp mustard that brings another dimension to this creamy nut-based recipe.
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Cleveland Kitchen Veggie Caesar Dressing
- Flavor: Creamy, tart caesar-style dressing.
Traditionally, caesar dressing is not vegan-friendly. Its made with eggs, cream, buttermilk, and Worcestershire sauce . Cleveland Kitchens Veggie Caesar Dressingis 100% dairy, egg, and fish sauce-free, so you can use as much as you need!
This vegan caesar dressing is made with water, fermented veggies, sunflower oil, vinegar, date syrup, black pepper, sea salt, real dijon mustard, bell pepper, basil, oregano, and garlic. Several of the ingredients are also organic, which is another great reason to enjoy the sauce.
One of the things I like the most about this high-end vegan dressing is that it contains loads of healthy vegan probiotics, thanks to the blend of fermented vegetables.
These are great for your gut health and can aid in digestion and boost your immune system!
What I Like About It:
- Made with real vegetables, herbs, and peppers.
- Made with vegan-friendly Worcestershire.
- Contains fermented vegetables, which give the dressing a tart flavor and provide healthy probiotics.
- Only 50 calories per serving.
Whats Not-So-Great:
How Long Do I Soak The Cashews
Soaking cashews is simple and easy. Place one cup of raw cashews into a large bowl and cover with one and a half cups of tepid or warm water. Allow the cashews to soak overnight . If they are soaked too long, they tend to get an unpleasant taste and also become slimy in texture. Drain and allow them to sit for around 10 minutes to get rid of the excess liquid.
Forgot to soak your cashews, or just in a rush? Boil them instead. Heres how:
If completely forget to soak your cashews the night before, no problem! Again, place the cup of raw cashews into a large bowl. Boil one and half cups of water. Pour the water over the cashews. Let the cashews soak for 30 minutes. No need to cover. Drain and allow them to sit for around 10 minutes to get rid of the excess liquid.
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How To Make Vegan Cobb Salad
Making a vegan cobb salad is as easy as chopping and layering the salad parts!
- Wash, dry, and chop the romaine.
- Cut the corn off the cob.
- Slice the onion, radishes, tomatoes, and avocado.
- Build the cobb salad by adding the ingredients to individual serving bowls, starting with the romaine first, arranging the remaining ingredients, and drizzling with dressing.
And now youre ready to dig in and enjoy!
Spicy Cucumber Salad With Pan
Source: Spicy Cucumber Salad With Pan-Fried Tofu
This Spicy Cucumber Salad With Pan-Fried Tofu by Gin Butters makes a fresh cucumber salad a little bit more filling by tossing it into a saucepan and sautéeing it along with cubes of tofu, bell pepper, and roasted nuts. Tossed in a gingery and garlicky dressing, these vegetables transform into a warm and tangy salad. Savory, wholesome, and delicious!
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Other Vegan Salad Dressings
Maybe Caesar dressing isnt for you thats okay! There are plenty of vegan salad dressings to choose from. Not every salad dressing has to be store-bought with fancy ingredients. Dressings can be as simple as adding some olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, or a spritz of citrus.
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Is Italian Vinaigrette Vegan
Yes! Italian vinaigrette is a basic dressing thats made from vegetable oil, vinegar, lemon juice, water, sugar, peppers, and herbs.
While cheaper brands of Italian vinaigrette may use palm oil and refined white sugar, most high-quality brands use sunflower oil and unrefined cane sugar, both of which are vegan-friendly.
Beware, though, some brands of Italian vinaigrette may contain added parmesan cheese!
If youre feeling a bit creative, you can also make your own homemade vegan Italian vinaigrette, using simple ingredients:
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