Oil free Golden Turmeric Salad Dressing
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Summer and salads basically go hand in hand.
So, as much as I hate saying 'see ya later' to my favorite heart warming soups, it's time to put them aside for the season and enjoy light, refreshing, and colorful foods like bowls of salads.
But... what's a good salad without a tasty (and healthy) dressing on the side? I don't know about you, but even though I'm a veg-head, I still enjoy my salads drenched in yummy dressing. No shame in my salad bowl games. You just can't eat fries without ketchup, and I won't eat a salad without dressing, most of the time anyway.
Oil free Golden Turmeric Salad Dressing:
A few words that describes this salad dressing -
- creamy - it's definitely on the creamier side, but feel free to add more water and make it as thin as you'd like.
- sweet and savory - this dressing is both sweet and savory, with a hint of lime. It reminds me of something similar to a sweet-and-sour sauce.
- golden good for you - the main ingredient in this dressing that gives it the beautiful and bright yellow color is turmeric, which is a super-food.
- made in a blender - just throw all ingredients in your blender and mix until smooth.
- healthy - everyone has a different definition for what 'healthy' is, but basically around here we like things to be free of refined oil, free of refined sugar, and free of any chemicals. This dressing checks off each of these boxes. Most store bought salad dressings have oil, sugar, or some type of strange and hard to pronounce ingredient.
Sweet and savory creamy golden salad dressing inspired by:
The recipe for this oil free golden salad dressing was inspired by Dr. Michael Greger and his new cookbook: The How Not To Die Cook Book. If you are not familiar with Dr. Michael Greger, I highlyyy suggest that you check out his work and his website - Nutritionfacts.org.
Dr. Michael Greger is a plant based doctor and advocate for the whole foods plant based diet. He is also the author for an amazing and educational book called How Not To Die. The cookbook is based on his first book and includes delicious recipes that are ALL oil free! Amazingggg.
I promise I'm not sponsored, and I definitely did not get paid for this promo. But I am a huge fan of his work and his books - and it definitely deserves the shout out!
Pro Tip:
A really cool tip that I learned from the cookbook is to instead of only using the juice of lemon and limes in blended recipes that call for it, we should peel the lemon/limes and use up the whole fiber as well. The theory is that by using the actual lemon/lime we are also keeping the fiber and all of the good stuff that comes along with it. This was my first time experimenting with this new style of using up the entire lemon, and I liked it. It's a great way to use up the whole food, and keep my waste to a minimum.
If you're not too sure about this whole using-the-entire-lemon thing, then just use lemon juice as you traditionally would. No worries!
Turmeric benefits:
If you haven't yet heard of turmeric - well now is the time to start learning about this amazing spice. Not only is it great to use in cooking for it's beautiful bright color and lovely flavor, but also because of it's many many benefits to the human body. If you want to learn more about turmeric and curcumin and its benefits like anti-inflammation make sure to click on this link and visit our latest blog post. In that blog post you will learn the best form of curcumin and how to increase its benefits.
Fun Fact from the How Not To Die Book: In recent years, there have been more than five thousand articles published in medical literature regarding Curcumin - which happens to be the main pigment in turmeric (which gives it the bright yellow color!). Curcumin, which is found in turmeric, may very well help prevent an array of diseases including lung disease, brain disease, and it may even help fight cancer!
Turmeric is so potent that all you need is a quarter teaspoon (1/4) a day to reap it's many benefits! So basically by using this dressing on your salads, not only are you enjoy good tasting food, but also good-for-your-health food, too!
So what are you waiting for?! Summer is HERE! Serve yourself a huge bowl of fresh salad and pour some delicious sweet liquid gold all over it. <3
PS. Tasty quinoa salad that goes perfectly with this dressing is coming soon, I promise. Keep an eye out, or subscribe to receive the recipe via email.
What are some of your favorite salad dressing?! Tell me below!
Want more summer recipes?
Check out this round up that features 18 Oil Free Recipes That Are Perfect For Summer Cook-outs!
with love + gratitude,
Jen ♥
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Oil free Golden Turmeric Salad Dressing
An oil free golden turmeric salad dressing with a hint of lemon. Perfect for summer salads!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 minutes
- Total Time: 7 minutes
- Yield: 1/2 cup of dressing 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (69g) of hemp seeds
- 1/2 of one lemon including the fiber, peeled (51g), or 1 tablespoon (9g) of lemon juice*
- 2 teaspoons (10g) of agave
- 1 garlic clove (around 6g)
- 1/4 teaspoon (1g) of turmeric powder
- 1/8 teaspoon (2g) of onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon (4g) himalayan salt
- 1/3 cup (73g) of water
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a high speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
- Use as a dressing on top of your favorite salads.
Notes
- For this recipe, I cut a lemon in half and then I peeled it, removed the seeds, and placed the lemon including the fiber into the blender. This is a tip I learned from Dr. Michael Greger’s new cook book, How Not To Die The Cook Book. He explains that using the whole lemon is more beneficial because you keep the fiber of the lemon itself. However, feel free to skip this and just use 2 tablespoons of lemon juice instead.
- Dressing will keep for 2 to 3 days in the fridge.
- If your blender is having trouble blending such small quantity, then feel free to add a bit more hemp seeds and a tid bit more water until it’s smooth.
- This makes enough dressing for around 2 servings (2 people), if you need more – double the ingredients. 🙂
Keywords: salad dressing, salads, summer, hemp seeds, turmeric, turmeric dressing, oil free, healthy, plantbased, vegan
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I don’t have Hemp seeds at the moment..could I substitute with Chia seeds? If not I will definitely get the Hemp :o)
★★★★★
Hi Donna! I would not use chia seeds because I think it will affect the consistency of the sauce (chia seeds become sort of a jelly when wet) .. maybe you can try using cashews or sunflower seeds (although sunflower seeds might alter the taste just a tiny bit) so keep that in mind. 😉 Let me know what you end up doing! Have a beautiful weekend.
Thanks for responding! I put hemp seeds on my Supermarket list for tomorrow morning. Can’t wait to try it! You have a wonderful weekend as well!