Creamy Fresh Basil Salad Dressing
The Ben and Jerry’s of salad dressings.
Creamy, bright, and wonderfully delicious with little bursts of amazing flavor. You may find yourself eating it right out of the jar.
This healthy salad dressing is so delicious that we eat it with more than just salad. It’s delicious drizzled over garden tomatoes, poured over a baked potato, as a dip for bread, spooned over steamed summer squash, as a topping for grilled zucchini, and even used in place of butter for corn-on-the-cob. And it is the absolutely perfect dressing for this French Lentil Salad.
A crowd-pleasing dressing that’s super fast and easy to make? Yes!! Simply place all ingredients except basil in a blender and blend until smooth, then add basil and pulse a few times. The end result is a lusciously creamy dressing that’s full of fresh summer flavor.
Where to get fresh basil
During the summer months, you can find fresh basil in abundance at farmer’s markets, vegetable stands, or from your CSA. You can also get it at most grocery stores, but I think the basil from the farmer’s markets or CSA taste better.
OR you can grow your own basil!
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Basil is so easy to grow – even if you don’t have a garden, you can grow a pot of basil in a sunny spot on your porch or windowsill. Just pop a few basil seeds into a pot or plant in your garden, water them well, and you’re off and growing.
And once it gets growing it just keeps getting bigger and bushier and more abundant in those lovely, aromatic basil leaves. The more you cut, the more vigorously it grows. Which means more Fresh Basil Dressing!
Healthy and slimming salad dressing
The serving sizes on salad dressing bottle labels crack me up! There is no way I’m going to put only 2 tablespoons of salad dressing on my salad. But I suppose – given the fattening ingredients of salad dressing – if you put more on, then your salad would no longer be a healthy option.
Yay for this Creamy Fresh Basil Dressing! Not only is it delicious, but it is also slimming and fits perfectly in a weight loss plan. And you can use as much as you’d like – it isn’t fattening!
If you’d like more slimming recipes, check out my delicious weight loss program!
Creamy Fresh Basil Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup raw cashews
- 2/3 cup water - (or less if you want a thicker dressing)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves and small stems - (or up to 1/2 cup if you want a stronger basil flavor)
Instructions
- Place all ingredients except for basil in blender and blend until very smooth.
- Add fresh basil and blend until basil is finely chopped.
- Chill.
Notes
>> One quick request: if you like this recipe, please leave a rating and a comment. Ratings help more people find these healthy recipes!
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I love seeing your posts Jennifer! Thanks for sharing your God given talents with the rest of us. You are such a blessing!
Hugs to you, Julie Griswold
Sounds wonderful. A good way to use some of my fresh basil. Thanks for the recipe.
Coming back to make this dressing a second time. The family loved it and we have plenty of basil in the garden!!!
Oh, and here’s the 5 stars this recipe deserves!
Aw, thank you, Esther. You are sweet. I’m really happy you are enjoying the salad dressing. : )
We love this recipe!! It’s a go-to salad dressing recipe for me (so sad when I don’t have basil on hand!)!
That makes me so happy to hear, Cami!
I can hardly wait for summer and more fresh, garden basil. 🙂
You weren’t kidding about this being the Ben & Jerry’s of dressings – I could eat this plain (and I often do when I’m cleaning up my utensils after making it). I use the 8 oz Vitamix attachment and only 1/3 cup water to make smaller batches. Way more delicious than store-bought, and way less fat. I go heavy on the basil – yum!!
I also love to add sliced kalamata olives to this recipe for a fun dip (I use the prepacked pitted olives that come in 0.66oz containers to the above recipe, again with 1/3 cup water only). Spread on crackers or use as a condiment elsewhere (or as a stand-in for tapenade).
So thrilled you loved it Cori! And thanks for the 5 stars.
That dip sounds amaaaaaazing! I’m going to have to try that.
excellent and super quick. Lovely.
Glad you liked it, Dusty! Thank you for your comment. 🙂
Oh you made me laugh. It isn’t fattening. Lol. Cashews may be considered a healthy fat but they are fattening lol.
Cashews have the perfect balance of fiber, fat, and other nutrients that work with your body’s metabolism instead of against it like oils and other refined foods do. A moderate amount of cashews in the diet has been shown to help with weight loss.
Is there any other nut that would be a good alternative to cashews? I can’t have them on my blood type food plan. Thank you, this sounds delicious!!
I haven’t tried this with any other kind of nut, so I can’t say for sure. But it may work with macadamia nuts. (?)
Let us know if you try it.
What did I do wrong with this recipe? It does have amazing flavor but it didn’t turn out creamy at all, just watery.
Hi Vicki,
I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out perfect for you. Did you wash your basil right before using? Maybe it still had water on it when you added it? As noted in the post and recipe, this dressing is a thin dressing (especially compared to my other salad dressing recipes) because I created it for my French Lentil Salad (which needed a thin topping), and so any little bit of extra water (like from the basil) could easily make it too thin.
You could try it again and reduce the water amount to 1/3 cup and then add water until it reaches the consistency that is good for you..
Jennifer
I’ll try that, thanks.