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Creamy Sweet Basil Dressing

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Today’s dressing is pale green, light, creamy, with a hint of sweet, basil. The key is, fresh sweet basil. To me, dried basil just doesn’t do basil justice. Fresh is always the best!  I used 1/3 of a cup of it today, but you can always kick it up a notch if you want the flavor to punch through a tad stronger.  It is all about adjusting things that make your taste buds go on holiday.

Creamy-Basil-Dressing raw vegan and gluten free

Although more than 60 varieties of basil have been identified, they all fall into one of three main types: sweet, purple, or bush. Each one offers up a subtle difference in taste; hints of lemon, anise, and cinnamon are just some of the flavors, the differences are important, that way you can know how one might modify and enhance a recipe.

Out of all of them, Sweet Basil seems to be is the most common one used in the U.S. It’s typically all I find in our local grocery stores. It has smooth, bright green leaves with a floral and delicate aroma. Remember that if you use a different variety of basil, it will affect the end flavor.  If you like to grow herbs in your home, basil plants are easy to maintain indoors and outside (weather conditions providing). To keep your little crop going, be sure to snip off budding heads whenever they appear and underneath the base of a leaf near the bottom on spindly stems to keep your plant full, with new branches appearing.

I had to giggle by the time I was finished creating this recipe… I had enough to feed a small village. I don’t know what it is about me, but I tend to make large batches of food. I do it unconsciously, but it always proves to be useful. It’s become a habit to prepare one recipe and then morph the leftovers into many other creations.

One Recipe, Many Options

Health Benefits

 It never ceases to amaze me as to how much our food can really be our medicine!

Creamy-Basil-Dressing in a glass bottle served with a saladIngredients:

yields 6 cups

Preparation:

  1. After soaking the cashews, drain and rinse them. Do not use the soak water in the recipe.
  2. In a high-powered blender combine the water, vinegar, basil leaves, onion, sweetener, lemon juice, salt, garlic, black pepper, and cashews.  Blend until creamy.
    • Depending on the blender this can take 1-5 minutes.
    • Stop the machine periodically and test for grittiness.
    • Once smooth and no grit is felt, pour into a mason jar, place the lid on and store in the fridge for 5-7 days.
    • If you don’t have cashews, you can also use sunflower seeds or macadamia nuts.
    • Use less water if you want a thicker dressing. You can always more to thin if desired.
  3. If any separation takes place in the jar while sitting in the fridge, just give it a good shake or stir it before using.

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