We’re still in January, folks, and technically there are still some people who are attempting to fulfill a resolution to eat salad everyday for a year. Sadly, I’m not one of those people.
It’s not that I don’t love salad, I do. I just don’t eat it very much. So why don’t I eat it as often as I should? Well, I’ll explain:
- I hate washing lettuce. If you know me well at all, you know how I hate washing and tearing lettuce–and any other vegetable for that matter. I have no clue why. Why don’t I just buy the pre-washed ready-to-eat lettuce? It’s so much more expensive compared to a big head of lettuce, that I always tell myself, “I’ll get a streak of motivation and this time, I’ll wash the head of lettuce and tear it and eat it.” Nope. That almost never happens. Most heads of lettuce, if they aren’t eaten by my husband in sandwiches, rot in the fridge. Sad, but true story.
- I hardly ever have good salad dressing on hand. I try to avoid vinegar as much as I can–which means that most store-bought salad dressings are a no go. So, I make my own. Then, I forget when I made it. Then, it sits in the fridge and rots with said head of lettuce, because I’m too scared to eat it, thinking it might be a month old or something.
Enter creamy basil salad dressing.
Will this dressing motivate you to eat salad every day? Probably not. But it will help.
When my mother-in-law introduced me to a form of this salad dressing several months ago, I was in love. (I think the original recipe came from a woman by the name of Denise, who is a friend of a friend, if you know what I mean.)
Then, I learned how to make it, and I tweaked it to make it my own. And I started keeping it in the freezer to keep it from going bad between batches of salad.
This salad dressing has a strong flavor, and is fairly runny, so you won’t need much to cover your entire salad.
Do I really eat more salad now that I have this dressing recipe? Yes, yes I do! And so will you.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have, and keep up with all of your New Year’s resolutions.
Vegan Creamy Basil Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup raw cashews
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves Or about 6-10 large fresh basil leaves
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1-2 teaspoon salt Or to taste. See note.
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a high-speed blender, and blend until there are no gritty pieces of cashews, and everything is smooth and creamy. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
Notes
- I used about 2 teaspoons of salt for this recipe, and the dressing was quite salty. This was perfect for me, because I tend to use very little dressing on my salad. If you like to drench your salad in dressing, you might want to use only 1 teaspoon of salt for this recipe. Enjoy!
- If you don’t have a high-speed blender, no problem! If you soak your cashews in hot water for 3-4 hours before making this recipe, you can use almost any blender with good results for this recipe.
This is so great! I was a little hesitant using dried basil, but it’s delicious! Thank you!
I’ve been looking for recipes to use my giant pot of fresh basil. This sounds delicious! I have all the ingredients except xanthan gum…is there anything I can use in place of that? Thanks!
Thanks for the suggestions!!
This is one horrible recipe. I think they have the one cup of water wrong.. going to try to boil it off.
Boiling off the water worked well.
So glad the boiling worked out. Not sure why your dressing turned out too runny. :p