For a few years Christie and I’ve been trying to create a vegan version of a salad dressing from Trader Joe’s she’d loved before she was vegan.

We’d made some good dressings, but nothing quite right until I came up with this rich, tangy dressing. We’re so happy with this recipe that I’m delighted to share it for the So Delicious Spring Fling Dairy-Free Recipe Contest.

I use this dressing for my fantastic, very easy Summer Cilantro Slaw. Making both the dressing and the slaw takes very little time. The slaw recipe only uses half the amount of dressing made, so you’ll have extra to enjoy on salads for a week.

The Stuff

• 3 limes
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1/2 c vegan mayo
• 1/2 cup So Delicious Unsweetened Almond Plus 5X almond milk
• 1 large clove garlic
• 1/2 t cumin seeds
• 1/4 c pepitas
• 1/4 t smoked paprika
• 1/4 t sea salt (Hawaiian Alaea Salt pictured)

The Making

*If you have a powerful blender (e.g., Vitamix), you can make this without having to chop anything smaller.

Cut the bottom 4 inches off the bunch of cilantro, discard stems, and wash tops. Chop roughly and put into blending vessel.

Juice all 3 limes into the blending vessel. Add remaining ingredients. If using a less-powerful blender, chop the garlic clove into a few pieces first.

Blend on low until ciltanro is mostly chopped up, then increase speed to high. Blend a couple of minutes, or more, until smooth. Scrape down sides as necessary until you have a smooth, creamy dressing.

Makes 16 servings.

Nutritional Info

Serving Size: 2 Tablespoons
Calories: 62
Total Fat: 6 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 g
Sodium: 83 mg (3%)
Carbohydrates: 2 g
Dietary Fiber: 3 g
Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 1 g

I came up with this tasty salad dressing for a new Roasted Corn & Qunioa Salad recipe I came up with. This is so easy to throw together and would be great in a jicama salad or just as part of a tossed greens salad.

The Stuff

• 1 bunch cilantro (fresh coriander)
• juice from 1 large lemon or 3 limes
• 2 T raw tahini
• 1/4 c rice vinegar (no, not the seasoned kind)
• 1/4 t garlic powder *optional
  
• 1/4 t xanthan gum *optional

The Making

Cut the stems off the bunch of cilantro about 3-4 inches up. Wash in a colander and shake off just some of the excess water.

Put wet, washed cilantro into blender, add remaining ingredients and blend on high until completely blended.

If the dressing seems a little thick or too vinegary, add some water a tablespoon at a time until it is the right consistency/taste.

If the dressing is very thin or if you would like a very thick dressing you can add the xanthan gum to thicken it. Bob’s Red Mill is a good source for this ingredient.

Tonight Christie tasted the dressing and we both agreed that this one needs to be saved. For sometime now she’s wanted something kind of like the ginger dressing they serve over monk bowls at Blossoming Lotus. I’ve wanted something kind of like the Hollyhock dressing (from Hollyhock Cooks)they serve at Great Vow. This dressing is a delicious hybrid of the two!

A couple note on this — since this is a raw dressing and won’t be used for cooking I went all out with the ingredients. Bragg’s Aminos, raw hemp seed oil, nutritional yeast, and miso — these are all good things for you!

The Stuff

• 5 inches fresh ginger, peeled & cut into chunks
• 2 Tbs. agave
• 2 Tbs. white miso
• 1/4 c. good oil (I used hemp seed) OR 2-4 T of tahini
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 Tbs. toasted sesame oil
• 1/3 c. nutritional yeast
• 1 Tbs. Bragg’s Aminos (or tamari)

The Making

This is easy — put all of the above into a blender and process until smooth. I usually pop the top off mine mid-process and slowly add in the nutritional yeast so it doesn’t clump at all.

Pour into jar, keeps in the fridge a couple of weeks. Take out when needed and pour all over your food! Yum! Repeat.

My friend, Jikan, currently the Tenzo at Great Vow Zen Monastery gave me the following recipe. This comes from Hollyhock Cooks, a wonderful cookbook from the Hollyhock Retreat Center in British Columbia, Canada.

This is a very nice dressing to top what Christie & I refer to as a ‘Monk Bowl’, as taken from a dish at Blossoming Lotus. Top your choice of grain (brown rice, qunioa, steamed barley…) with steamed or sautéed greens (yay, kale), some kind of legume (beans, tempeh, tofu would probably be good too), add other veggies if you want, and then a tasty dressing.

We’ve been playing with a few dressings. Our attempt to recreate the “Hollyhock”, a nutritional yeast and tamari based dressing served at Great Vow hasn’t been quite as successful, once I figure that out will post. Christie has made a great ginger one too, will see about getting that posted. Here’s the lemon tahini batch that turned out very tasty.

Lemon Tahini Dressing

• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/2 water
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin (optional)

Whirl all of the above up in a blender until smooth and enjoy.

We found at first that the garlic was VERY strong in this. Might be a vote for using roasted garlic instead. Once the garlic mellowed in the fridge a few days it was much nicer.