It’s no secret that I’m a huge advocate for salad. I eat a large salad for two meals of the day on average. But no matter the combination of vegetables, greens, and patés, salad can get a little redundant. That’s where dressing comes in.
Nearly all dressings you buy in a bottle are full of chemicals, additives, thickeners, and sugar. A quick check of the ingredient list tells all. But an easy, healthy, and considerably more delicious option is to make your own dressing. Fresh squeezed lemon juice and a good quality olive oil make a nice dressing, but sometimes you want something with a little more pizazz.
Personally, I’m partial to creamy dressings. I use nuts and seeds to achieve a rich, creamy dressing while adding healthy fat. I have never measured the ingredients while making a salad dressing, but I’ll give you a basic template to experiment with, as well as some of my dressing recipes.
Template for Salad Dressing
– 1/2 cup nuts or seeds. Try cashews, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, or a combination.
– Tangy component. I prefer fresh squeezed lemon juice (one lemon’s worth) which is detoxifying and alkalizing to the body. You can also use 1 tablespoon raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, which has many known health properties as a detoxifier. Avoid other types of vinegar as they encourage “bad bacteria” growth in the intestines and don’t offer anything nutritionally.
– Fresh herbs or spices. I will use almost a full bunch of cilantro or basil to make a dressing flavorful. Herbs and spices have great medicinal properties and can be used in abundance. Don’t be stingy; this is creating your dressing’s flavor identity! Basil, cilantro, dill, parsley, and thyme are all good options. If you don’t have fresh herbs on hand, try spices like cumin, curry powder, or powdered ginger.
– A little kick. I will often add 1-3 cloves of fresh garlic. You can also use a bit of red onion. Remember that because these ingredients are raw, they will be quite pungent. A little goes a long way. If you like a spicy dressing, add cayenne pepper.
– Sea salt. How salty you like your dressing is up to you, but certainly add some to enhance the flavor. You can also use raw soy sauce (Nama Shoyu) or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos.
– Water. I’ve never measured how much water I use, but I estimate around a half a cup. Add more as needed. How thick you want your dressing is up to you. Remember that once you refrigerate your dressing, it will thicken.
Combine all ingredients in a blender. I use my high powered Vita-Mix. If your blender is not very strong, consider grinding your nuts/seeds in a food processor first. Store in a glass jar or tightly-closed tupperware container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Here are a few of my dressings to get you started.
Creamy Cilantro Dill Dressing
(pictured above; quantities of ingredients can vary)
– 1/2 cup combination of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds
– 1/4 to 1/2 cup water
– 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
– 1/2 bunch to 1 bunch fresh cilantro
– 2 tablespoons dried dill
– 1/8 cup chopped red onion
– sea salt
Tahini Dressing
(quantities can vary)
– 1/2 cup sesame seeds
– 1/4 to 1/2 cup water
– 2-3 cloves of garlic
– 1 tablespoon cumin
– juice of one lemon
– sea salt
Basil Pesto Dressing
(quantities can vary)
– 1/2 cup combination of cashews and almonds
– 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup water
– 1/2 bunch to 1 bunch fresh basil
– 2 cloves of garlic
– juice of half a lemon (optional)
– drizzle olive oil
– sea salt
I hope this inspires you! Do you have any good ideas for salad dressings? Share them with me. I’m thinking of attempting an Asian-inspired dressing next, using fresh ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. If you need a little salad inspiration, be sure to check out my post, Salad Making 101 for a step-by-step guide. Keep your salads interesting!
Eat well,
Emily
That cilantro dill dressing sounds amazing!
yum! My fave dressing ever is called simply lemon-basil dressing. I get it at a local raw restaurant. I always wonder how they thicken it-I bet they use some sort of nut or seed. Great post and ideas!!!!
Kathy
healthy-happy-life.com
Oh these all sound great!
All your dressings sound delicious!
“Avoid other types of vinegar as they encourage “bad bacteria” growth in the intestines and don’t offer anything nutritionally.”
Can you point me in the direction for more information on this? I use Bragg’s on a regular basis but I have never heard that grape based vinegars were bad for you.
Can’t wait to try the Basil Pesto Dressing.
Thanks!
Vinegars are one of the prohibited foods on the anti-candida diet, candida being the term for “bad” bacteria in the body. (See a list here: http://www.candidaguide.co.uk/candidadiet.html) Apple cider vinegar is allowed on some anti-candida plans for its other known health benefits. Personally, I only use ACV if I use vinegar, but some may choose to include other vinegars in their diet without any serious health compromises. I tend to advise by the dietary choices that I would make for myself.
As I was looking for salad dressings ,vinegar free, I came upon your sight. I was just diagnosed with candida (leaky gut syndrome ) I am looking for good recipes. Yours does sound good. I was not able to open the sight above. Do you have other good food recipes for snack foods? Thank you Laura
Hi Emily! I ran your Tahini Dressing by my mom and she said she’ll try it. She loves dressings. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the ideas…I’m trying to find a healthy, creamy ranch dressing that my teenage daughter will like
Mmmm! Cannot wait to make my own dressings now because those look supa good!
Do you roast the nuts or use raw?
I use raw nuts because roasting depletes some of the nutrients. If you prefer the flavor of roasted or simply can’t get your hands on raw nuts, roasted will work; just be sure there’s no added oil or salt.
Great recipes! I love the idea of nuts thickening up dressings.
Emily,
I love salads. I read your post (July 20, 2009) on
how to make your own salad dressings.
You did stress:
Avoid other types of vinegar as they encourage “bad bacteria” growth in the intestines and don’t offer anything nutritionally.”
You said that you use ACV. Please tell me what is ACV.
I do it salads everyday, I want to make my own salad dressings. I will try your recipes.
Thanks for sharing.
Michelle
ACV is apple cider vinegar.
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Great post! I love homemade dressing. It’s nice to have some recipes.
I made the cilantro dressing. it was really good. Mine didn’t turn out to be creamy tho more chunky, watery. But really good. Did I do something wrong? I’m going to try the tahini next. Thanks for recipes.
Kelli
The same thing happened to me and I added more water and cilantro… It still did not look like the picture but it started to become more creamy. I guess you just have to play around with it. It was amazing…. I really enjoyed the dressing.
Leah
I used the template. I had fresh raw almonds from our tree, fresh basil, braggs, garlic, a little olive oil, apple cider, vinegar, cucumber, cumin and summer savory and black pepper, Wow! Yum! Delicious! the salad looked interesting and tasted wonderful.
I played with the proportions and added the water last and slowly, to get a feel for how much I needed.
I can’t wait to try it on other things that I use with salad dressing. I’m also going to play with other flavors.
Thank you so much for the template!
CANT WAIT TO TRY YOUR GREEN DRESSING HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR DESSINGS MADE FROM SCRATCH THANKS MAGGIE