Creamy Vegan Dill Salad Dressing

vegandilldressing

With my bounty of amazing salad greens from my CSA, I’ve been making salads most nights for the next day’s lunch. The other night, I had run out of vinaigrette, and was trying to decide what kind of dressing to make next.

I had just received a a huge amount of dill in that week’s veggie share. I was still wondering what I should do with it. It then occurred to me to use a small amount of it in to a salad dressing. I remember having a great creamy dill dressing. I wanted to recreate it in some way, but I didn’t want it to be the same gloopy dressing. I just wanted some of that flavor.

I’ve noticed that many creamy salad dressings tend to include either a sour cream or buttermilk on the dairy side. On the non-dairy side, I am always seeing mayonaisse in dressings. I didn’t want either of those things.

I wanted something vegan.

I thought about the cashew sauce I made for pasta this winter. The cashew cream brought so much creaminess to the dish. I wondered if I could do something similar with a salad dressing.

I quickly grabbed some cashews out of the freezer and began soaking. I let them soak for about an hour and prepped the other ingredients.

After about an hour, I drained the cashews and placed in my Cuisinart Food Processor along with some shallots, garlic, dill, salt, pepper and water.  With the machine running, I then slowly added some olive oil to the mix.  This dressing would also work well in a high-powered blender.

I transferred the dressing to a jar. Of course I tried a bit before placing in the fridge to chill for the next day. Delicious! I am definitely going to use cashews more often to add creaminess to dressings!

 

Creamy Vegan Dill Salad Dressing
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Salad Dressing
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • ½ cup cashews
  • water for soaking
  • ½ cup chopped fresh dill
  • 1 shallot
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
  • ¾ cup water
  • 2 tbsp. lemon juice
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • additional salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Soak the cashews in water to cover for at least an hour.
  2. Drain and rinse the cashews.
  3. Place all of the ingredients except for the olive oil in a blender or food processor.
  4. Process the dressing. Slowly add in the olive oil with the processor or blender going.
  5. Transfer the dressing to a bottle.
  6. Store in refrigerator.
  7. Enjoy!

vegandilldressing

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About Hindy Garfinkel

Comments

  1. ChefBetty46 says

    Doesn’t this dressing need some vinegar or a citrus juice? Otherwise it seems as though it would lack some zip.

    • I’ve actually tried it with and without lemon juice. I didn’t think it necessarily needed it in this situation. The garlic and shallot help with the zip and give it some punch as well. At the most, I would do about a tablespoon or two of lemon juice.

  2. ooh this dressing looks yummy! i love a creamy and pareve dressing without any mayo

  3. Alison @ Alibabka says

    That looks great! love the no mayo part!

  4. I love dill!

  5. Shoshana Ohriner says

    I absolutely love the idea of using cashews to make a creamy salad dressing. How long do you think it will keep in the refrigerator?

  6. Sarah Klinkowitz says

    My husband and his family love dill – I will be passing this recipe on to my MIL!

  7. Kadri from Mumsfilibaba says

    wow. This looks really yum. Never used cashews like that. I guess it would be delicious with fish. Thanks for adding your recipe to Scandi Kitchen Blog Hop.

  8. Pretty healthy too, this looks really good.

  9. LilMissCakes says

    I love this idea, its a nice change from the classic mayo based dressing and dip.

  10. Happy Little Cloud Beesley says

    Made this today, super delicious and easy to make! Thank you for the recipe!

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