Hello, my chickpeas! I truly believe that a great salad dressing is what makes or breaks a good salad. And today, I'm sharing one of my absolute favorite salad dressings: Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Salad Dressing!
This dressing is oil-free, easy to make, and PACKED with flavor. It is sure to brighten up any salad combination you choose! Let's get into it.
Inspiration for Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Salad Dressing
As mentioned above, I believe in the power of a good salad dressing! It adds flavor and creaminess to a salad, and it can really bring everything together. And that's exactly what this Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Salad Dressing does!
Sun dried tomatoes provide the perfect flavor for a salad dressing. They are slightly sweet, slightly acidic, and pair well with most fresh veggies. I basically tried to highlight their delicious flavor in this recipe, while also making sure it complimented other common salad combinations! I of course also kept it fully vegan and oil-free.
Ingredients
- Sun dried tomatoes: Some brands come packaged without any oil, others are sold in jars with oil. Either will work, just depends on if you prefer to be oil-free or not! If using the oil-soaked ones, you can skip the step of soaking the tomatoes as they should already be soft.
- Red wine vinegar and water - these make up the bulk of our dressing. The red wine vinegar has such a lovely flavor when combined with the sun dried tomatoes. We also include water just so that the vinegar isn't too overwhelming!
- Garlic powder, onion powder, & oregano - these are all for some extra flavor! The garlic powder and onion powder are blended into the dressing, while the oregano is mixed in at the end. Oregano can have a bitter flavor when blended, so this is why we mix it in at the end instead.
- Tahini and coconut yogurt - both of these provide a bit of creaminess, and also some flavor. The coconut yogurt has a very nice tang to it that works well with our vinegar and tomatoes.
- Maple syrup - for just a bit of sweetness! Most store-bought salad dressings have lots of highly processed sugar in them, so I tried to keep this one more wholesome! Maple syrup is less processed than many sweeteners, and you can also control how much of it you would like to add.
How to Make Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Salad Dressing
Keep scrolling for the full recipe, but this one is pretty straight forward!
- Soak your sun dried tomatoes to soften.
- Blend up most of the ingredients.
- Stir in some seasonings.
- Add your dressing to your favorite salad and enjoy!
Tips & Tricks
- As with most of my sauce/dressing recipes, please think of this as a template and adjust as you'd like! You can do less water if you want it thicker, more maple syrup if you want it sweeter, etc.
- I love using this on simple side salads, but you can add it to whatever salad you'd like! Honestly every salad that I've put it on so far has worked beautifully!
- I've used this as the dressing on pasta salad and even on my cowboy caviar and really enjoyed it!
- Interested in other oil-free vegan salad dressings? Check out my Oil-Free Zesty Italian Dressing or my Vegan Caesar Dressing next!
Enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes* - (either completely dry-packed, OR packed in oil)
- ½ cup red wine vinegar
- ½ cup water
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- 2 tablespoon plain coconut yogurt
- pinch of salt
- pinch of pepper
- 1 teaspoon oregano
Instructions
- If your sun dried tomatoes are dry and NOT stored in oil: add sun dried tomatoes to very hot water and allow to soak for 5-10 minutes. This will allow them to soften. If your sun dried tomatoes are packed in oil: these should already be soft, so no need to soak. Move on to step 2!
- Remove sun dried tomatoes from soaking water (or from oil, if packed in oil). Add sun dried tomatoes, red wine vinegar, water, garlic powder, onion powder, maple syrup, tahini, plain coconut yogurt, and salt to a blender. Blend until very smooth.
- Pour into container of choice and stir in pepper and oregano.
- Use on top of any salad you'd like! Enjoy!
Notes
Happy cooking, friends! If you made this recipe don’t forget to tag me (@joyfulbalanceofficial) on facebook or instagram so I can cheer you on for your dressing-making ways.
Stay joyfully balanced!
Lori says
Just ordered sun dried tomatoes and Would love to try this ..can you suggest a substitute for yogurt ? Thanks!
Delaney Marie says
Hi Lori! So excited for you to try this recipe! Honestly I think you could just leave the yogurt out all together and it would probably still be delicious! However, if you would like to substitute the coconut yogurt for something else, my next suggestion would be any other plain yogurt, cashew cream, or vegan sour cream! I haven't tested these options myself, but they would be my first recommendations to try 🙂