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I am beginning trials of MWL creamy salad dressings for me and bunsofaluminum, because most of the creamy dressings I like are full of soy or nuts. Here's the first one I took a shot at, and it's good. Maybe not great, but good, and I'll continue to work on it.

Creamy Pesto White Bean Salad Dressing
1 can (1.7 cups) cannellini beans, drained but not rinsed
1 clove garlic, peeled
3/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup nutritional yeast, optional
1 tsp dijon mustard
up to 1/2 cup water (I used 1/2 cup, but I will use less next time, because it's slightly thinner than I prefer)

Blend at least 2 minutes, until smooth.

Note: in the past, I might have also added salt. The beans were not salt-free, so it didn't need it at all, but use your own judgment.

Spicy Creamy "Ranch"

[Edit: I think next time I'll leave out the nooch. I don't need the "cheezy" flavor in salad dressings. Also, adding a photo so you can see that the color of the dressing is NOT white, probably from nooch and paprika. I kind of want to try making a white one.]



I started with this recipe, and adjusted it to my own taste, swapping tofu for white beans. https://hellonutritarian.com/no-oil-tofu-ranch-dressing/. I will make this again. I think if I had a high-speed blender, it would be smoother/better.

1 15-oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 to 1/2 cup water. I like it a little thick, so I did 6 TBSP, but I think roundcoconut might go with 1/4 cup or less
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp dried fenugreek (kasuri methi -- parsley would be traditional, but I didn't have any)
3/4 tbsp dried dill
1/2 tsp Fox Point (or use something with chives or shallots in it, or even fresh chives; again, I didn't have any)
1 tsp each granulated onion and garlic
1/2 tsp ground black pepper (I used Penzey's pepper, which is strong in flavor, hence the "spicy" in the title)
1/4 tsp smoked paprika

I blended everything except the dill before remembering I should have saved the herbs for last, but it turned out fine. I think it's much better once it's chilled and the flavors have had a chance to meld. And again, a high-speed blender would probably do a better job than my old stick blender.

Here are two very simple and easy creamy salad dressing recipes of mine

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8765#p64499

In Health
Jeff

Thanks, Jeff! I look forward to trying them.

I have been searching for creamy type dressing recipes (no oil or nuts) and these look delicious! Thanks for starting this thread!

I believe I've had a major breakthrough in my creamy dressing trials!

Now, I'm not sure that every MWL person is going to want to eat these, but I use dressings fairly sparingly, and there's only a little refined food in it, so I'm going for it. Here's what I did for the best creamy ginger dressing I've ever tasted, with or without fat, and I plan to really tweak this a bunch of ways.

Creamy Ginger Dressing

1 cup water
2 tbsp besan (chickpea flour)
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tbsp ginger (or to taste)
1 clove garlic

Whisk the besan into the water. Cook on high, whisking constantly, until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and cool. Blend with the rest of the ingredients.

Hmmm, I tried to make this because it sounds good, but didn't have any chickpea flour, so I tried to run some dried chick peas through a coffee type blade grinder to powderize it...

Big mistake, it just burned out the blade grinders motor...seems dry chick peas are just way to hard to run through one of these coffee grinders...oh well, time to buy a new one

Oh, no, I'm so sorry to hear about your grinder!!