Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Homemade Vegan No-oil Caesar Salad Dressing

Really big salads are a VERY big part of how I eat. And since for me, they would not be nearly as enjoyable without a wonderful salad dressing, I am continually on the hunt for healthy, low calorie bottled salad dressings (yes, these are pretty rare, but growing in numbers as we speak) and for salad dressing recipes that I can quickly whip up myself.

A few months ago I saw a demonstration of no-oil vegan cooking at Whole Foods. The demonstrator was Amy Cramer, a local chef. I can't tell you how many great tips I got that night, and I have been cooking this way for quite some time! It just goes to show that there is always something that you can learn if you get yourself out there.

One of the recipes that she demo'd was her no-oil Caesar Salad dressing. The key concept I got from Amy is that we can use garbanzo beans as the base of a salad dressing, not unlike a thinned out hummus. Coincidentally, there is a company developing bottled hummus dressings right now, Flamous. It's not exactly ready yet for mass distribution, but they are working on it!

Also going on in my head was an incredible Dr. Fuhrman dressing I had made many months ago called Dijon Pistachio Dressing. So I decided to experiment with combining the two ideas into one dressing and the results might just be perfect.

Coincidentally, yesterday on The Real Meal Today blog, the author posted a no-oil Caesar Salad dressing. Check it out for another take on this fabulous concept.

This no-oil salad dressing is crazy good!

Healthy Girl's Kitchen No-oil Caesar Salad Dressing
adapted from recipes by Amy Cramer (http://www.dinnersdonenow/) and Dr. Joel Fuhrman (http://www.drfuhrman.com/)
makes 4 cups

Printable Version

1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, unrinsed, undrained
1/2 cup raw almonds, cashews or pistachios
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp capers with their juice
2 Medijool dates (large dates)
1 tsp garlic powder
5 Tbsp lemon juice (roughly the juice of 2 lemons)
1/2 cup or more water, to thin to desired consistency

Place all ingredients in a high powered blender or food processor and blend until a creamy consistency is achieved.  Add more water as needed to achieve desired consistency.

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