A delicious, homemade Vegan Oil-free Creamy Italian Dressing that is vegan, raw, dairy-free and soy-free! So good you will never need store-bought again! Made with cashews, red wine vinegar and Italian dried herbs and ready in 5 minutes!
VEGAN OIL-FREE CREAMY ITALIAN DRESSING
I don’t eat salads very often, I’m more of a rice, beans and potato eater. However, I DO love salads when I do eat them and I love to load them up and drizzle on some amazing, creamy and bold-flavored dressing all over it. Most salad dressings are so loaded with oil, it’s rather gross. This Vegan Oil-Free Creamy Italian Dressing will not have you missing the oil one bit.
HEALTHY AND OIL-FREE SALAD DRESSING
This dressing was a reader request for her son who loves Italian dressing, but of course, consuming the oil versions are unhealthy. This one is not only oil-free, but it’s made from healthy ingredients and all plant-based, as well as raw. Learn all of my oil-free tips at How to Cook and Bake Without Oil. Using raw cashews gives it the creamy factor and red wine vinegar and lemon juice give it that signature tart flavor. I added dry yellow mustard powder, Italian dried seasoning, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, salt and just a small touch of syrup to help balance out the acidity. The result is a creamy, deeply-flavored and amazing.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CREAMY ITALIAN DRESSING
It only takes 5 minutes to make this oil-free Italian dressing. You will just blend the raw cashews with the Italian herbs, spices, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, syrup, water and salt/pepper and boom, done. While it sure is delicious straight out of the blender, the true flavor is best after it has chilled and settled in the fridge for a bit. It reaches it’s optimum flavor that way and thickens even more.
It couldn’t be easier either, you only need 8 ingredients (+ s&p and water):
- raw cashews
- red wine vinegar
- lemon juice
- maple syrup or agave
- garlic powder
- dry yellow mustard
- paprika
- Italian seasoning
I hope you all love this Vegan Oil-Free Creamy Italian Dressing! Be sure to leave me feedback below after you make it and if you take a pic, I’d love to see it on Instagram or Facebook!
OTHER VEGAN OIL-FREE DRESSINGS RECIPES TO TRY:
- Best Vegan Ranch Dressing
- Vegan Thousand Island Dressing
- Almond Butter Dressing
- Vegan Caesar Dressing
Vegan Oil-Free Creamy Italian Dressing
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (112g) raw, unsalted cashews (While I prefer the flavor with all cashews, for a lower fat version, you can sub half white beans and half cashews, but I would not recommend all beans or it really does change the taste/texture)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (150g) water
- 3 tablespoons (45g) red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon (15g) fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup or agave (use 2 teaspoons for less acidic flavor)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon dry yellow mustard powder
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 tbsp + 1/4 teaspoon to add after blending dried Italian seasoning blend without salt or red pepper (I use McCormick brand)
- scant 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- If you do not have a high powered blender, then you will need to soak your cashews for 8-12 hours, the longer the better. Drain and rinse, then proceed with the recipe. They may not get 100% smooth in a regular blender and I find blending in a food processor (if you don't have a Vitamix/Blendtec) gets things smoother than a standard blender.
- Add all of the ingredients to a high powered blender (I use a Vitamix) and blend until completely smooth and creamy. I found the flavor to be perfect, but if you want more tart, then add a bit more lemon or red wine vinegar. Keep in mind, that the flavor reaches it's true taste after chilling, as well as thickens even more. Stir in the remaining 1/4 teaspoon Italian dried herbs.
- Chill in the fridge a minimum of an hour and then enjoy! When is sits overnight in the fridge, it will thicken up to the consistency of a dip, you can leave as is or add just a tiny bit of water to thin.
This is delicious. It is great drizzled over roasted potatoes. Today I used it instead of mayo on a tomato sandwich. This will definitely be added into rotation. Thank you!
Hi, I loved the dressing. I’ll make it all the time, but what is the nutritional information?
I made 1/3 recipe in my Vitamix cup. It was very easy and very delicious. It actually turned out better than I expected. We will definitely make this again. Thanks for posting it.
Wow! I can’t believe how spot on this is. Delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
So happy you loved it Lashay!
Yay, that is awesome, thank you!
Hi Brandi,
I love all your recipes. I made a YouTube on salad dressings. I linked to your account. Your cookbook has been a blessing to me, I wanted to share it with others, this is a new thing for me. My family loves this salad dressing! ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojhU4e2_x_Q
Thank you so much Bev! So honored to hear that!
Thanks for the recipe.
I love cashews in all kind of sauces and dressings.
I didn’t have the red wine vinegar or mustard powder or dried Italian herbs. Used some balsamic and rice vinegar, a touch of Dijon and fresh basil and oregano from my garden.
Delicious! Thanks!
This dressing is SO delicious! I messed up and used yellow mustard instead of dry yellow mustard powder but it was still so good. I cooked dinner for some friends and they loved this salad dressing too and asked me for the recipe! Thank you! 🙂
So wonderful to hear!
This sounds delicious. I love that there are no oil as I’m cutting it out completely. Not just for me but for the sake of my husband’s health. Do you have a measurement on how much this yields? I prep big salads for us for the week and would like to know if I should double it or at least add a half.
Hi Tiffany! This makes about 1 1/2 cups!
Hi Brandi, just wondering ,I have unsalted raw cashew butter by Artisan. Wouldnt I just be able to use that instead of blending my own cashews?
Yes, that should work fine, just use the same gram weight amount, which would equal to 7 tablespoons.
Brandi, I do have a question about the recipe as far as nutritional info and number of portions go. On the 6 week aggressive weight loss diet I am on by Dr. Fuhrman, I can have 1 ounce of nuts a day. So I wanted to know how many nuts per portion.
I did sub 1/2 white beans for half of the nuts but wanted to know if you had the nutritional info on this? Otherwise, I will just wait until I make it again and calculate how many portions and the calories in the cashews. Thanks.
Try sunflower seeds. They work just s well.
I made this first with only cashews and then with half white beans to make it lower in fat since I am doing the nutritarian diet for 6 weeks. I also forgot to add salt and pepper and loved it anyway so now I don’t add it. Before I discovered this recipe, I was suffering through the big required bowls of salad with no pleasure at all. Your recipe makes my diet more enjoyable!! Actually, so many of your recipes do! I am so used to only 8 ingredients that anything more than that produces instant rejection! I also appreciate that you don’t use huge quantities of nuts like so many do Which can really take a toll on one’s budget, especially since I share a lot of your recipes with people who don’t have a lot of money (in south america!) Thanks again for what you do!!!
So delicious! I used it for a pasta salad and it was perfect 👌
Oh yummy, great idea Amanda!
Perfection… I CANNOT wait for my daughter to try this!!! She LOVES the oily full-fat, chemical-filled vegan version from the store with SOYBEAN oil!!! Bleh!!! Tonight we are having you Alfredo sauce over whole wheat spaghetti and a fresh green salad with garden tomatoes with a choice of this Italian dressing and your Thousand Island dressing! My daughter already tried the Alfredo, and she said, “Mom! Is this REALLY healthy? It doesn’t taste like it AT ALL!!!” I’m giddy, as she is our pickiest diner!!! Again, THANK YOU!!!
As usual this recipe does not disappoint! 🙂
I used this as a dressing for pasta salad, and it we delicious!!! We had seconds!
Hi, Please let me know where I can buy vegan oil free salad dressings in the stores and the names of such dressings. Thank you.
Hi there! I provide recipes on my blog, which you can see the recipe for this Italian dressing above, since I don’t buy store-bought since they are full of unhealthy ingredients and oils> This is why I create the recipes to share here that are homemade, healthier versions. So, I can’t give advice on store-bought dressings. I’m pretty sure they all use oil or lots of preservatives.
Would it be all right to use apple cider vinegar instead of the red wine vinegar? I don’t like to go to the expense of buying a vinegar that I won’t be apt to use in many other recipes. I kind of like to use what I have on hand. I know it probably would change the flavor a little, but do you think it would still taste good?
Hi, No I would not use apple cider vinegar. It has a completely different flavor. Red wine vinegar is a key ingredient in classic Italian Dressing so it’s not going to taste the same without it. If you have white wine vinegar, you can try that, but for the best result, you really want the red wine. I have other recipes that also use red wine vinegar and it lasts quite a long time in the fridge. It’s not an expensive vinegar. You can find it less than $2 at Walmart or between $2-3 at other grocery stores.
To help: other recipes that use it: •https://thevegan8.com/oil-free-romesco-sauce
•https://thevegan8.com/sun-dried-tomato-pasta-vegan-oil-free/
My family and I LOVED this recipe! My daughter hates cashews and wasn’t able to detect them in this recipe. This will be our new family favorite! Thank you for an awesome recipe!
That is so awesome to hear Heather, thank you!
So good!! I used this in a pasta salad and I added fresh Italian herbs at the end and mixed them in, it was delicious!!
So sorry I missed this Kim, that sounds so delicious!
Hi Brandi. I just made this and used 1/2 white beans and cashews. Trying to lose weight so limiting nuts. Tastes amazing and hasn’t chilled yet. Thanks once again.
So very happy you loved this Chris, thank you for the feedback!
Hi. Can you tell me the serving size of the dressing and the calories?
The serving size is just the amount you would add to your bowl, usually 1-2 tablespoons depending on the size of your salad. I do not know the calories, but there are nutrition calculators online. Whenever I have time, I use the Caloriecount.com website
Made this tonight and it was very tasty!! This dressing will definitely go into our rotation for salad topping!!!
Wonderful Beth, so glad to hear it!
Thank you for this recipe. I broke down and bought some oil free cashew butter (as you recommended). In the case of this recipe, how much of the butter should I use?
Thank you!
Hi Jan! You would need the same weight amount (112g) which is 7 tablespoons of cashew butter.
“Yields 1” – is that 1 Cup?
Hi Mary, just fixed it, yes it’s about 1 cup!
OK. This dressing is absolutely positively THE BEST EVER!!!! It’s my everyday, for real. I use rice vinegar instead of red, 1 clove garlic instead of powder, a splash of dijon mustard instead of powder, and 1/2 tbsp of the Italian seasoning. I also add fresh herbs when I have them on hand. LOVE !!!
So glad you love it Alexia! Thank you so much! I use cloves often too! I don’t notice any difference flavor wise, but the fresh definitely has more benefits!