Looking for an oil-free vegan salad dressing? Try this magical applesauce vinaigrette recipe. Easy, vegan, gluten-free, and healthy!
Cooking and baking are sometimes described as science… but I like to think of it more like magic. Because sometimes an idea unfolds and is realized in food form with a way that is almost mysterious, yet very exciting!
This week this magic happened with an idea for an oil-free salad dressing. I actually had this concept for a fat-free vinaigrette years ago, when I was writing Vive le Vegan.
I toyed with it, but left it behind at the time. As recipe developers, we sometimes do this. Either the notion becomes further developed down the road as our cooking evolves, or it never materialized.
Why Applesauce?
The idea that was with me for years and manifested this week is… wait for it… using applesauce in an oil-free salad dressing.
Sounds a little strange at first, right? But, think about the qualities of applesauce.
It has viscosity and moisture (the very things that help replace fat in baking) so why not aid a vinaigrette as well?
Initially the combination didn’t quite come together for me in terms of flavor balance.
After a few rounds of testing this week – ta-dah! The magic happened.
The applesauce blends and helps emulsify the other ingredients so that you have a thicker, more rich and full-bodied textured dressing.
Magical Oil-Free Vegan Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp mild miso ex: chickpea miso or brown rice miso
- 3/4 – 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup or more to sweeten to taste if desired
- 1/4 tsp rounded sea salt (or more to taste)
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Using an immersion blender and deep cup (if using a blender, you may need to double the batch for enough blending volume), combine all ingredients, whizzing through until very smooth.
- Taste, and if you’d like a little sweeter add another teaspoon or so of maple syrup.
- Season to taste with additional salt and pepper as well.
- If you’d like a thinner dressing, simply add a couple of teaspoons of water and blend through again.
What are your favorite vinaigrette and salad dressing ingredients?
Note: This oil-free salad dressing recipe is now in Plant-Powered Families.
Update: My OIL-FREE salad dressings now here!
Laura Zimmerman says
Delicious dressing! I’m using it on salad, potatoes, and veggies too. I normally only like creamy nut based dressing but they are so high in calories I try not to use them very often. This is perfect, thanks Dreena!
Dreena says
Glad to hear it, thanks Laura!
Hazel says
This stuff is SO GOOD! I loooooove it. I eat a ton of salads so I am always looking for a new dressing to try. This one makes me never wanna try a new one again! Awesome flavor. My favorite part is that cumin, yum! Thank you so much for posting this 🙂
Felicia says
Just found your site, and am so excited about trying this vinaigrette. Do you have a printer friendly link that I’m missing?
Dreena says
Ah! Thanks for picking up on that Felicia. I posted that recipe before I implemented RECIpage – so I have just added the link now – you can go print/share as you like! 🙂
Kera says
I just made this for lunch and it was delicious! The applesauce really stands in for oil well. I left out the mustard because I don’t like it (even if I can’t taste it!) and am out of cinnamon so that was missing too. Very good anyway. I want to experiment with other dressings now! I think an Asian dressing would lend itself well to the applesauce method.
Christina says
This dressing is so good! Amazing flavors. It would make an amazing marinade too!