Vegan French Dressing

This vegan French dressing blends up smooth and creamy in minutes. It's way better than store-bought dressing, and made entirely from pantry staples! It's gluten-free too!

French salad dressing is like nostalgia in a jar for me! Growing up, it was that weird orangey, sweet salad dressing that wasn't like the others. It definitely stood out among other dressings like balsamic vinaigrette and creamy classics like ranch. And let me tell you, it was delightful!

These days I still crave a good salad doused in French dressing, but while the ingredients to many store-bought varieties may appear to be vegan, that's not something I can really count on. Worcestershire sauce is a big one to look out for — it's often made with anchovies. Sugar is another one. French dressing is sweet, with one of the main ingredients being sugar.

Not all sugar is vegan.

In particular, white granulated sugar is often bleached using animal bone char. Some recipes are also made with honey, which also isn't vegan (the bees!). So we're making a couple of adjustments to what is otherwise a pretty classic French dressing recipe to ensure that it's vegan.

Read on to find out what they are!

Jump to:

• Ingredients You'll Need
• How It's Made
• Shelf-Life & Storage
• More Vegan Salad Dressings
• Vegan French Dressing

Ingredients You'll Need

• Ketchup. This is one of the places we need to watch out for sugar. White sugar is one of the main ingredients in ketchup, and that sugar may not be vegan. The work around: use organic ketchup! Organic sugar is processed differently from conventional sugar, without animal bone char. So if the sugar in your ketchup is organic, the ketchup is vegan!
• Olive oil. You can substitute with another cooking oil, like corn or canola oil if you'd like. Normally I'm a stickler about using extra virgin olive oil in dressings, but in this one the flavor will be covered up by all the other ingredients, so it's not such a big deal.
• Sugar. You guessed it...this needs to be organic! Feel free to use regular organic granulated sugar, turbinado sugar, or coconut sugar. All are vegan.
• Red wine vinegar. I like the flavor of red wine vinegar best in my French dressing, but other vinegars like apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, and white wine vinegar will work just fine as well.
• Vegan Worcestershire sauce. Many brands of Worcestershire sauce are made with anchovies, so make sure to use a vegan one like Annie's or The Wizard's. You can also easily whip up a batch of homemade vegan Worcestershire sauce.
• Spices. We're using paprika, chili powder, onion powder, and garlic powder.
• Salt.

How It's Made

The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!

This is so easy. The only equipment you'll use is a blender, but don't worry if you don't have one — there's an alternative option below!

Step 1: Place all of your ingredients into a blender.

Step 2: Turn the blender on high-speed and blend the ingredients to a creamy emulsion. This will happen very quickly in a high-speed blender, and maybe just take a few seconds longer in a regular old blender.

Give the mixture a taste-test at this point and make any adjustments you'd like, such as adding more salt, then blitz the mixture again for a second.

Your vegan French dressing is ready! Pour it all over green salads, slather it on sandwiches, or use it for dipping veggies or some tofu chicken nuggets!

Tip: No blender? No problem! Place the ingredients into a large mason jar, close it up and shake vigorously.

Shelf-Life & Storage

Homemade vegan French dressing will keep for at least 2 weeks in an airtight container in the fridge.

More Vegan Salad Dressings

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