5-Minute Vegan Salad Dressing (so good it’s drinkable)
By Amanda Paa – Last updated: January 18, 2023
This easy vegan salad dressing is so good it's drinkable. You can make it at home in just 5 minutes with a few pantry ingredients that you most likely have on hand already. With deep flavor from nutritional yeast and garlic, it's the kind of dressing that will make you want to eat more greens!
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This is a salad dressing that will change your life. It changed mine, for real.
So good it’s drinkable. So easy to make it’s laughable.
And it has Brian and I eating more fresh greens than we ever have.
If I had to describe the flavor in a few words it would be zingy, bursting with umami from nutritional yeast, and deliciously addictive. Kind of like caesar dressing can be, but without dairy or anchovies.
This vegan salad dressing recipe is adapted from the quite famous Yeast Dressing in the Hollyhock Cooks cookbook, published by the Hollyhock Lifelong Learning Centre on Cortes Island in British Columbia. This centre is described as “an educational retreat center nestled in the tall forest of an island paradise where the sea laps at the beach below. Now add the most delicious food imaginable, created by a host of talented artist-cooks using vegetables and flowers gathered from the center’s lush gardens, and presented with delicate care.”
A week there sounds *SO* perfect, doesn’t it?
My adaptions from the original recipe were slight, but I felt it made for a more balanced dressing.
- I add just a few tablespoons water to the dressing rather than the higher amount in the original recipe. I like the creaminess and weight it has without it.
- I changed the ratios of apple cider vinegar and tamari to suit our tastes.
- I added a touch of maple syrup to balance the savoriness, and black pepper to give it a bit of depth.
What Ingredients are in this Vegan Salad Dressing?
- Nutritional Yeast
- Sunflower Oil (or grapeseed oil)
- Tamari (or soy sauce if you don’t need the dressing to be gluten-free)
- Garlic
- Maple Syrup
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Black Pepper
How to Make Vegan Salad Dressing At Home
Are you ready to make the easiest dressing ever? Grab your blender and let’s go.
- Add all ingredients except the oil to small blender jar (or use an immersion blender). Blend until smooth.
- Slowly stream in the oil while the blender is running on low. It will thicken and emulsify by doing this. (My bright and gingery, vegan White Balsamic Vinaigrette is made the same way, making for another easy salad dressing to have on hand.)
- Pour into a jar for storing in the fridge. That’s it!
What is nutritional yeast?
This flaky yellow powder, also known as “nooch”, made from living saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, which is fed a sugary carbohydrate in fermentation vats so it grows. Next, it undergoes heating, pasteurization and drying, to be processed into the flakes you can buy at the store. The yeast is deactivated during those processes, which imparts the cheesy, nutty flavor that makes nutritional yeast so delicious.
How long does this dressing last in the fridge?
Another reason I love this salad dressing is because it lasts a long time if you need it to! It stays good for 3 weeks when stored in a sealed jar in the refrigerator. And I think it gets even better with time, as the flavors mingle and deepen.
More Vegan Salad Dressing Recipes:
Yield: 1 cup
SCALE:
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 2 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 clove of garlic, sliced
- 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon tamari (or soy sauce)
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- 3 cracks black pepper
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons sunflower oil or grapeseed oil
Instructions
- Add all ingredients EXCEPT oil to a small blender jar (or a wide, tall sided mason jar if you want to use an immersion blender).
- Blend about 20 seconds until smooth.
- With blender running on low, SLOWLY stream in oil through the top hole (or into glass jar), so that it emulsifies and is very smooth. If you pour the oil in too fast, it will not emulsify.
- Pour dressing into a jar and refrigerate for an hour before eating, so that the flavors have time to mingle and the dressing will also thicken a bit. Will keep in the refrigerator for up 2-3 weeks.
Notes
Recipe adapted from the Hollyhock Cooks cookbook.
Did you make this?
tag @heartbeetkitchen on instagram and hashtag it #heartbeetkitchen
March 21, 2022
Yum! I was looking for a quick dressing to liven up some grain/veggie/tofu bowls we were having for dinner. This was a win! My 6 year old kept asking for more things to dip in it (he might be a nutritional yeast addict, though). Will definitely be making it again – thank you!
love that your son was a fan too!
This dressing was incredible and so easy to make. After reading the reviews, I tripled the recipe and so glad I did!! This will be a staple for homemade dressing for sure!
Love that, great meal prep!
Just made this for my lunch salad. It was delicious! I had to use toasted sesame oil because I didn’t have any sunflower oil. It still turned out great. Any suggestions to cut down on how much oil is used without sacrificing flavor? Thank you!
So glad to hear you enjoyed it on your salad! As for the oil, I like to remember that oil serves two purposes, the emulsion of the dressing and providing satiating fat.
Best dressing (with oil) ever!
yay, glad you’re enjoying it!
This is the absolute best homemade dressing recipe I have ever made!! Yummy!
Yay, so glad you liked it Linda!
Drinkable is totally right! I just made this dressing and will be using it on EVERYTHING!
:)! Just made a batch myself!
Such a great recipe! I will use this over and over and over again. Thank you for such an amazing recipe.
It’s on repeat at our house too! Glad you enjoy it.
Can’t wait to try this. Just curious what is the bright pink vegetable or fruit in the salad photo?
Hello! It’s a watermelon radish.
I am obsessed with this dressing! It is so delicious! I often double or triple it. SO GOOD!!!
yay, glad you’re enjoying the recipe!
Great taste. I would class this as a “pourable” dressing. I will definitely add it to my recipe collection.
Loved this dressing. I added some sliced almonds but I don’t think it changed the flavor profile much. Lots of umami flavor! Made me practically inhale my salad.
So glad you liked it Kerri!
I made this dressing to start my journey for healthier eating due to food allergies. I was sceptical at first. I doubled the recipe and it turned out great! Thank you for sharing this!
Really glad you enjoyed it! And good luck on your new journey.
I used the dressing on organic butter lettuce that I bought from Costco and it was so delicious!! This was not only easy to make but economical too. With rising food costs this is an additional benefit. I scaled the recipe by 2 and poured it into a glass container that I saved from a previous store bought salad dressing and we will be enjoying this over the next week. Thank you.
Yes, I often double it as well because it lasts nicely in the fridge! And perfect for butter lettuce.
Can I ask what the macros on this are please thank you
Tried this dressing tonight. Loved it!! Instead of oil I used 1/3 cup of Tahini. This will be my new dressing.
Oh, love the tahini idea! Will try that the next time I make it. So glad you liked the recipe.
The tahini as oil substitute is so helpful. Thank you!
May I share something? For so long I’ve crafted recipes that you share, and this is my very first comment. Bad me. Let me take a stab at correcting my past, by thanking you for this delicious dressing. I’ve made it twice, and my salads are dead simple so I can derive mostly the deliciousness of what your dressing is all about. I use baby greens, tossed with the dressing, and all I do is sprinkle some Sesame sticks over, that I get from T.J.’s. The proprietors of Camp Jeff and Owen thank you muchly. Sorry for going all sappy here, but from time to time you’ve shared aspects of life that are not so easy, and you’ve sincerely moved me from your honesty and bravery. This helps soften rough edges that some of us endure as well, so thank you for that!
This is such a kind message, Jeff. I really appreciate your words, and am grateful that some of my recipes have made their way into your home. Really glad you liked the salad dressing, too!
Is there a different oil we could substitute for the sunflower oil or grape seed oil?
Hello! You could use canola oil, or vegetable oil. Do not use olive oil or avocado oil, as the flavors do not go well in this recipe. I have tested.