How to Make Oil-Free Vegan Salad Dressings

Creating oil free recipes like salad dressings is pretty easy in most cases. Here are some tips:

1. Use things like water, lemon, or vinegar, blended fruits or cucumber for the base of the dressing to give it liquid. Then add seasonings like sugar/dates/agave, salt, pepper, fresh herbs, mustard etc to create an oil-free dressing. (Make sure you add only 1-2 tsps of vinegar or lemon juice to start so it’s not too tangy, and then adjust.)
2. The best oil-free salad dressings will have at least 3 flavors. Sweet, tangy, and salty. If you just use one flavor like orange juice or vinegar over a salad it’s going to be one dimensional and not as flavorful. If you’re trying to cover a large salad and eat a lot of greens, it’s better to make a dressing that is a little more flavorful and interesting to eat.
3. I find ripe ataulfo mangoes (bright yellow skinned) or strawberries and orange juice make a great base for fat free raw vegan salad dressings.
4. For creamy vegan salad dressings, you can use silken tofu as the base instead of cream or milk. (Nut butters work too, but only add 1-2 tbsp as they are much higher in fat than tofu or almond milk.)
5. For tangy vegan salad dressings, make sure you add some lemon, sweetener, and a few seasonings to your dressing to pump up the flavor.
6. To thicken it up, you can add psyllium husk or chia gel/chia seeds (and blend it in) or add some cornstarch and water and thicken your dressing over heat on the stove. Refrigerate the rest of your salad dressings. If they are raw, use within 3 days, if they are made from non raw ingredients or cooked over the stove, they will last longer.

Also, read how to make oil-free vegetable stock.

Image Source: llsimon53/Flickr

Vegan Comfort Foods From Around The World by Veronica Grace can be found here.