Easy vegan ranch dressing (nut free)


This is the most often made cold sauce in our house. I've been in love with sunflower seeds for a couple of years now and I really believe they can be the new cashews. Super cheap, allergy free, versatile, nutritious, healthy and delicious! Yes, I am so not done with the hype. I have discovered one thing though - the best way to make these tiny seeds into a creamy sauce, is to use a blender. You can get the job done with an immersion blender too, but it will be a bit more grainy that way. And it doesn't have to be an expensive blender, even my 30 dollar one is great.

Who's not into creamy, soury, savory cold sauce you can slather onto anything? I love it with potatoes, rice, salads, burgers and wraps. I even put it onto my morning buckwheat porridge. And you can make a delicious buckwheat salad or pasta salad with this kind of sauce. If you are a fan of garlic, add a couple of crushed garlic cloves too. One of my most favorite ways is to serve this dressing with crispy homemade pierogi. Too good!

So you only need a cup of peeled sunflower seeds, some herbs and chopped onions. You don't even need to soak the seeds, you can boil them for 15 minutes instead. I hope you will love this sauce as much as we do. Let me know when you try it :)


Preparation time: 5 minutes active, 15 minutes passive. Total: 20 minutes.

Serves: 1 ¾ cup / 400 ml 

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup / 150 g peeled sunflower seeds
  • 1 cup / 240 ml cold water
  • 1 ½ Tbsp white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar or some lemon juice to taste
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp soy sauce or tamari
  • 2 heaping Tbsp thinly chopped onions
  • 2 tsp dried dill
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1 heaping tsp chopped fresh parsley

Preparation:

Boil the sunflower seeds for 15 minutes or soak them overnight. Drain and rinse with cold water. Add one cup of cold water, vinegar or lemon juice, salt and soy sauce or tamari. Blend for a couple of minutes until smooth and creamy. Add chopped onions, dill, basil and fresh parsley. Mix and let it sit for a while to bring out the taste of herbs and onions. Serve with everything :)

PS! If you happen to have some nutritional yeast at hand, you can add a tablespoon of it into this sauce.