Creamy Garlic Cashew Dressing

Salads, guys. I don’t love ’em. Sure, I’ll have one as a side with a meal (just spring mix and balsamic… John tells me, “That’s not a salad. That’s lettuce.”), but as a main course? Please.

But every so often, I crave a big huge salad piled high with beans and veggies and some sort of protein and nuts and seeds and all the good stuff. And it has to have a creamy dressing. Hey, we all have our weird little requirements. But a vegan creamy dressing that isn’t packed full of preservatives and is actually good is hard to find. I’ve tried them all! So I decided to make my own and it’s so so easy! Goodbye, store-bought. 

The Recipe

Makes: 1 pint

You will need:

• 1 cup cashews
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
• juice from one lemon
• 3 cloves garlic
• ~1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk of your choice (I used almond)
• salt and pepper to taste

To make:

1. Soak the cashews, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in hot water for 30 minutes.
2. Add the nuts, seeds, lemon juice, garlic cloves and half of the milk to a food processor. Blend until smooth. Add more of the milk to make it as liquid-y as you like. I used the full cup. Make sure you blend until it’s really smooth – this took me about two minutes total.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste, adjust any ingredients, and serve!

This is especially good on spinach (which I don’t particularly love raw) and makes a perfect base for other ingredients. You could try sundried tomatoes, fresh herbs or balsamic vinegar!

Store in the fridge in an airtight container.