Creamy, delicious, and totally dairy-free! This vegan ranch dressing is made from cashews. Dip your veggies, drizzle it on a salad, spread it on a sandwich...or just put it on everything!
Ranch dressing was my favorite when I was growing up. I LOVED the stuff. I ate many meals at Perkins that consisted solely of a bread bowl (sans salad) and ranch dressing.
I get quite a few requests for a vegan ranch dressing recipe, so I guess I'm not the only one who's a fan of the stuff. And while I do have an older, lighter version of silken tofu ranch on the site (which I love) tofu just doesn't cut it when it comes to recreating the richness of dairy-based ranch dressing.
Know what does though? Cashews!
Jump to:
What You'll Need
- Raw cashews. They absolutely need to be raw. Roasted cashews will make your dressing taste like cashew butter. You'll also need to soak them in water for 4 to 8 hours to soften them up. Tip: If you forget to soak your cashews, try boiling them in water for 20 minutes.
- Water.
- Lemon juice. Use fresh squeezed to give your dressing the best flavor!
- Fresh parsley.
- Fresh chives.
- Spices. We're using onion and garlic powder.
- Salt & pepper.
How to Make Vegan Ranch Dressing
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dressing. Scroll all the way down if you'd prefer to skip right to the recipe!
- Drain your soaked cashews and place them in a food processor or blender with a bit of water. Tip: Consider doubling the recipe if your blending device is very large. If it's not full enough you'll constantly be scraping the sides!
- Blend the cashews and water to a smooth paste. This may take a few minutes, depending on how powerful your blending device is.
- Add some more water and blend everything again until creamy.
- Now add your flavorings: lemon juice, parsley, chives, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Pulse your blending device until everything is finely chopped and well mixed.
Tip: Taste-test your dressing and make adjustments before taking it out of your blending container. This might mean thinning it with additional water, adding more herbs or spices, or seasoning the dressing with extra lemon juice, salt and/or pepper.
Shelf-Life & Storage
Vegan ranch dressing will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for about 5 days, or in the freezer for about 3 months. It might separate a bit during storage. This is totally normal and nothing to worry about! Just stir it back together before using it.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is!
You can drizzle it on a salad, use it as a dip, or as a topper for dishes like vegan chili, black bean burgers, or pizza.
You could try using raw macadamia nuts or sunflower seeds. Both often work in recipes that call for cashews as a dairy substitute, but I haven't tested either with this one, so no promises!
More Vegan Dips & Dressings
Like this recipe? If so, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter. And please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you make it!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water 4-8 hours, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup water, divided
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus more to taste
- ½ cup fresh parsley
- ¼ cup chopped fresh chives
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Place the cashews and ¼ cup of water into the bowl of a food processor fitted with an S-blade.
- Blend until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.
- Add the remaining ¾ cup of water and blend again until smooth and creamy.
- Add the lemon juice, parsley, chives, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- Pulse the food processor until the herbs are finely chopped and everything is well-mixed.
- Taste test and adjust any seasonings as needed.
- Serve immediately, store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Would you like to save this?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Just a quick question, under the "what you'll need" section, it says fresh dill. But the ingredients show chives. Can you use either? Or does this really need the chives in order to really taste right?
Opps! I'm so sorry about that! Chives is the correct ingredient. If you have dill on hand and want to make it with that, it will still be delicious, but the flavor will be different - more along the lines of tzatziki. Thank you for pointing that out! I've updated the post to indicate chives in the "what you'll need" section.
I absolutely love your recipes, including this vegan ranch dressing. Your website is one of my "go to's" whenever I am looking for a vegan recipe. Today, my experience on your website was not a great one. With four running and continually refreshing ads, I was actually no longer able to see anything of the recipe, just the ads. Maybe that is a bit of feedback for your tech person. Thank you for all that you contribute to the vegan food world!
Thank you for your feedback! I'm truly sorry about this. I did notice that the ads got very intrusive over the last few days, so I asked my ad network to cut them back. It might take a day or two for the changes to take effect, but I hope it will make future experiences visiting my site a bit more pleasant.
Hi! Big fan of your nacho sweet potato cheese! I needed to tell you I just made this recipe and put it on some penne pasta with a little bit of plant-based butter and it was SO GOOD! Like a creamy herb pasta sauce. Excited to put this on everything over the next week. Thank you so much :)
Wow Alissa this is delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe.
Used it with crispy tofu & quinoa salad and it is definitely in the favourites folder.
Love all your recipes.
This isn’t related to this post in particular but I wanted to say that I love your recipes. I’ve been doing veganuary (a much needed dietary overhall!) and struggled to find food that would work for me and could be prepared in advance so I can eat healthily while working shifts- and leaving healthy food for the family at home. You tick all those boxes and I’d like to say thank you 😊
Yay! I'm so glad you're enjoying the recipes! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know. :)
Could you sub a seed for a nut free version?
Hemp seeds or sunflower seeds might work. I also have a tofu-based ranch: https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/silken-tofu-ranch-dressing/
Love it! I haven’t been able to replicate ranch since I cut out dairy, and this is perfect. I shared this recipe and your website with my group of like-minded friends. Plus, it’s low carb. Perfect.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! And thank you so much for sharing!
I have found my unicorn!!! I have tried soooo many vegan ranch dressings! Never happy until I made yours tonight!
The flavor and texture are perfect!!
Thank you!
Yay!! I'm so happy to hear that! Thanks Kristine!
I love how you put the nutrition info with the recipes. I’ve been wanting to do more plant based. And dairy is something I can (read:should) cut back on. Plus Zoe looooooves ranch. I want to try this one with her!
Thank you! I just started adding the nutrition info pretty recently, and going back to add it to all my old posts is taking forever! So I'm glad to hear it's appreciated. :) I hope you and Zoe enjoy this!!
Would it be a similar taste and texture if I used blanched almonds instead of cashews?
I think it would be a bit different - I find almonds to have a more distinct flavor than cashews and I usually can't get them to blend as smoothly. If cashews don't work with your diet you could try subbing avocados, or try the silken tofu ranch recipe that I linked to in the post. :)