Hooray for salad season! The farmers markets are open and full of beautiful tender salad greens just waiting to come home with us. Here’s a creamy delicious recipe for Vegan Ranch Dressing that can be made without oil! Low calorie & made with silken tofu. Dairy-free, Nut-free, Gluten-Free and ZERO Cholesterol! Perfect for salads, wraps, bowls or as a veggie dip!
Some of you have been telling me that you are trying to cook with less oil, or less fat. Here’s a little creamy goodness, that is perfect for you out there, watching your calories, cholesterol, oil or fat intake, but still crave something creamy. It won’t work for everyone, because it contains silken tofu (soy) but it will be a godsend for some of you, like it is for me. Vegan Ranch Dressing.
A case for Silken Tofu:
Yes, vegan cashew dressing is delicious, but just take a look at the fat content. It’s 3 times as much as using silken tofu. For some of you, healthy fat from cashews is good, and I totally get it. My husband eats 4 cups of nuts a day and stays thin as a rail and thrives. For others (like me) lower-fat is better. There are a lot of vegan cashew dressings out there as well as vegan mayo-based dressings, but I thought I’d focus on a low-fat, oil-optional, vegan dressing that harnesses the amazing qualities of silken tofu. Smooth, creamy and low-fat and the perfect blank canvas for so many flavor combinations!
Just take a look at these!
Vegan Chipotle Mayo -aka Mexican Secret Sauce
How to make vegan dressing with tofu?
It starts with Silken Tofu and a blender. Silken Tofu is found in most grocery stores and is usually not refrigerated. It is not the same as regular tofu. It has a very silky, grain free texture, perfect for sauces, soups, dressings and desserts. I like this brand because it is non-gmo and organic. I also like it because it is not refrigerated and doesn’t go bad. I always keep a few in my pantry.
The key is blending the silken tofu until smooth and creamy- with adequate salt, acid, seasonings and just a little liquid ( oil or water) to get the blender motor going.
So very simple!
Place everything in the blender and blend it up until smooth.
You can leave the olive oil out and make it totally oil-free.
My personal preference is to add 2 tablespoons olive oil, which is really not a whole lot but adds a nice silkiness, better for salads, coating the lettuce nicely.
You can use most any fresh herbs that you have on hand. I’ve been loving fresh oregano in this. But dill is nice, parsley or even thyme.
Whip it up until smooth and store the Creamy Vegan Ranch Dressing in a jar in the fridge for up to 10 days.
Creamy Vegan Ranch is a simple, basic recipe for you to fiddle with and perfect to your own tastes. I hope you embellish it and make it your own!
Enjoy… and I hope it helps on your own healthy journey.
Try this on Blackened Tempeh with kale and Avocado!
Or on Farmers market veggies !
xoxo
If you like this please rate and leave a comment below, sharing how you use it and/ or adapt it!
Creamy Vegan Ranch Dressing
A delicious recipe for Creamy Vegan Ranch Dressing that can be made without oil! Low calorie & made with silken tofu. Dairy-free, Nut-free, Gluten-Free and ZERO Cholesterol! Perfect for salads, wraps, bowls or as a veggie dip!
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 10
- Yield: 1 heaping cup
- Category: salad, vegan, Dressings, Condiments
- Method: Blend
- Cuisine: American,
Ingredients
- 1 package silken tofu ( 12.3 ounces) firm
- 2 tablespoon water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil ( or sub with 2 T water — or use 1 T water and 1 T oil– for lower calories)
- 2 fat garlic cloves
- 1 rounded teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon crushed peppercorns ( or stir these in at the end)
- 1 ½ tablespoons apple cider or sherry vinegar
- 1-2 tablespoon fresh oregano, dill or parsley or use 1 teaspoon dry
Instructions
Place everything in a blender and blend until very smooth, scraping down sides as necessary.
Store in the fridge in a jar, keeps for 10 days.
Notes
To make this even lower calorie, or totally oil-free, you could leave out the oil completely or use 1 tablespoon less.
Keywords: vegan ranch dressing, vegan ranch, vegan dressing, how to use silken tofu?
I’m just saving the blackened tempeh recipe along with this dressing, but wanted to say I love the way you write. It’s like sharing a recipe with a friend–so honest and down to earth.
Awwww, thanks Julie!
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★★★★★
This was surprisingly great! It makes more than enough to use in the cajun tempeh recipe while leaving plenty of extra to use as a dip. I do just kinda want to just drink it out of my jar but I’m trying to have more class than that.
★★★★★
Haha! I’m with you! 🙂 Thanks for sharing and rating! Appreciated so much!
I haven’t made this yet–planning to tonight, though–but I just realized I got SOFT silken tofu from the refrigerated section. Do you know if this will still work? I get so confused between silken tofu and soft and firm. I thought for sauces you needed the soft stuff, whether or not it was silken. And now I’m looking at the recipe and see you used firm tofu. Why is tofu so confusing! I hope it’ll work because the recipe looks YUM!
It should be fine!