As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Bring your salads to life with our delicious parsley and dill salad dressing. Made with cashews, lemon juice, dijon mustard, and spices!
Bottled salad dressing is overrated
My quality of life actually increased the day I started making my own salad dressings. I know, I know – it’s a ridiculous claim, but it’s absolutely true. Here are some reasons why:
- Salad dressing is expensive. Have you ever noticed that bottles of salad dressing can cost upwards of $6? Absolutely crazy. Not to mention the ones that are this price come in 8-ounce bottles. I’m lookin’ at you, Daiya. You can make twice the amount of dressing with just one cup of cashews, and a handful of spices for about $2-3.
- Salad dressing comes in small bottles. I don’t know about you, but I’m a dressing fiend. I pour that stuff on like it’s nobody’s business and by the time I know it, the bottle is empty. Most of my salad dressing recipes make 2 cups worth of dressing – double the amount that’s in most bottled dressings, so you won’t run out!
- Who even knows what ingredients are in bottled salad dressings anyways? Salad dressings often have a ton of oil and preservatives. When you make your own dressing, you’re in control of everything from the oil distribution to the freshness of the ingredients.
Making your own dressing is super easy
Most salad dressings involve using a blender and a whisk. That’s pretty much it! Parsley and dill salad dressing is no exception. With really simple ingredients like raw cashews, lemon juice, dijon mustard, fresh dill and parsley, and a couple of spices, you’ll be well on your way to crafting your very own dressing.
And this is just the beginning! I’m a huge fan of creating salad dressings from scratch. If you’re looking for inspo, here are a few additional dressings I recommend trying out:
- Vegan Caesar dressing
- Almond dijon dressing
- Sesame ginger sauce
- Creamy cilantro lime dressing
- Vegan hemp seed ranch
What ingredients are in parsley and dill salad dressing?
Parsley and dill salad dressing is made with super simple ingredients. Let’s start with the base! For this dressing, I use soaked raw cashews and simply blend them with water. If you’re feeling really fancy, you can use unsweetened non-dairy milk instead of water for extra creaminess.
Next are the other liquid ingredients: lemon juice and dijon mustard. It’s really important to do research on which dijon mustard you use because many are processed with non-vegan wine, but Grey Poupon is thankfully widely available and vegan! For the lemon juice, definitely use fresh lemon if you have it, It really does make a difference in how the parsley and dill salad dressing tastes.
For the dried spices you’ll need garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper! Easy peasy, right? We don’t ask for too much around here. And for the fresh herbs, you’ll need Italian parsley and fresh dill.
How do you make parsley and dill salad dressing?
To make this really simple parsley and dill salad dressing recipe, all you need is a medium-sized bowl, a high-speed blender, a cutting board, a knife, and a whisk. Start off by soaking a cup of raw cashews in water for about an hour. If you’re in a hurry, you can always boil your cashews for 10 minutes, but then you’ll be stuck with a warm salad dressing which is kind of weird. So yeah, soak for an hour if you’ve got it!
Next, drain and rinse the cashews and the bowl. Add the cashews to a blender with some water, lemon juice, dijon, and dried spices. Blend until creamy and smooth. Return to your bowl and add the dressing back. Finely chop fresh dill and parsley and whisk the herbs into the dressing. Feel free to chill or serve immediately.
A lot of cashew dressings thicken over time so feel free to add some water if you find that it becomes too thick when storing.
How can I serve parsley and dill salad dressing?
I mean our default idea is just a simple salad, but here are some other ways we think you should use this delicious condiment:
- One word: fries. Parsley and dill salad dressing makes an awesome substitute for ranch dressing. Make some oven fries, and dip away!
- Looking for a sour cream substitute? Try parsley and dill salad dressing on top of a baked potato.
- Use parsley and dill salad dressing in place of vegan mayo in my chickpea salad sandwich recipe.
- Pizza is really just a vessel for this stuff. Ditch the ranch and try my dressing instead. 10/10 would sub again.
Change it up
I won’t be sad if you adapt this recipe to your liking! Here are a few ideas we have to change it up a bit
Add some spice: Consider adding some crushed red pepper flakes or Aleppo pepper to give the dressing an extra kick.
Add more herbs: Who says parsley and dill have to be the only contenders? Try tarragon, rosemary, marjoram, oregano, chives or green onion for extra flavor.
Use plant milk for extra creaminess: If you’ve got some extra plant milk lying around, feel free to use it! For parsley and dill dressing, I think unsweetened soy, oat, almond, or cashew milk would work best!
Sub vegan mayo: If you have a nut allergy and this recipe legit bums you out, you can definitely sub the cashew and water for vegan mayo and a few tablespoons of water or plant milk to thin it out
Recipe jam
In this segment, I suggest a song for you to listen to while you make parsley and dill salad dressing! You can even stream it right here in your browser. Today’s recipe jam is Try by Delta 5.
If you try this recipe, I want to hear about it! Feel free to post your creations to Instagram or Facebook and tag Hell Yes It’s Vegan or #hellyesitsvegan. I look forward to seeing what you make!
Parsley & Dill Salad Dressing
Equipment
- medium-sized bowl
- blender
- whisk
- measuring cup
- measuring spoons
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1 ¼ cup water, plus more for soaking
- 1 ½ Tbsp dijon mustard, *
- juice from ½ lemon
- 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp fresh cracked pepper
- ½ cup fresh dill
- ¼ cup fresh Italian parsley
- sea salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Soak cashews in a medium-sized bowl for at least 1 hour.
- Drain cashews, rinse the bowl and set the bowl aside. Add the cashews to a blender with 1 ¼ cup water, dijon, lemon, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth and creamy.
- Return to the medium-sized bowl and add the blended dressing. Finely chop the dill and parsley and add to the bowl. Whisk to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste
- Serve immediately or store in the fridge for up to one week. If the dressing becomes too thick, add some more water or lemon juice to thin it out.
Wow! A new favorite 🙂