Homestyle Buttermilk Ranch Dressing ~ Vegan and Oil-free!

Here’s another wonderful nut-based dressing for you… I already have a Ranch dressing that I posted over a year ago, but this one has the mellow, slightly tangy flavor of buttermilk! In order to achieve this unique dressing, you will need to spend a little extra time in making cashew cream cheese. See the recipe for that here. It’s really pretty easy to make. I have some on hand all the time now as we enjoy it in many different ways. Please don’t break my heart and use the store-bought vegan cream cheese. It’s just awful, with so many added preservatives, stabilizers, etc. It’s junk and it doesn’t even taste like cream cheese to me! This cultured cashew cream cheese is so authentic in taste, you could serve it to any dairy cream cheese lover and they would never know the difference.

I have an abundance of dried herbs in my kitchen from the garden this year… those lovely greens were the inspiration for this recipe. Of course, you can use fresh herbs and they may even be tastier but the dried herbs worked just fine in here. I’ve used this as a salad dressing and a dipping sauce… it is really yummy with cheezy baked tofu cubes. I hope you’ll try it!

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews
1 cup pure water
¼ cup cashew cream cheese
1 TBS fresh chopped or dried parsley
1 TBS fresh or dried dill
1 tsp fresh or dried thyme
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
couple of twists freshly grated black pepper
¼ tsp sea salt or to taste (optional)

Directions:

Place the cashews and water in a high powered blender and blend until smooth. If you don’t have a high powered blender, soak the cashews in fresh water for about 4 hours prior.
Add the cream cheese (and salt if using) and blend on low to incorporate.
Pour the mixture into a bowl and stir in the black pepper and herbs.
Refrigerate for a few hours before serving to allow for the herbs to infuse their flavors into the dressing.