Home » Buddha Dressing (oil-free, vegan)
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This buddha dressing will make any salad and any buddha bowl insanely delicious!
This oil-free vegan dressing will become a new favorite recipe. You will want to drizzle it on everything from salads to vegan bowls, to sweet potatoes, sauteed greens, and cooked quinoa.
Well, those are some of my favorite ways to use this Buddha Dressing – I expect you will have many others… because this dressing is stellar!
When I hosted polls to find out which dressing from the Salad Bowl chapter of Dreena’s Kind Kitchen you all wanted, it was a close race. The Cilantro Lovers Dressing and Guac Your World Dressing pulled in some votes, but most votes went to this recipe and my oil-free Italian Dressing. Buddha took the win!
I know many of you already love it. The combination of tahini with nooch, apple cider vinegar, a touch of sweetness, and a few other flavor accents give this oil-free dressing wow factor.
This recipe hails from Dreena’s Kind Kitchen, and in the book, I pair it with the Cornucopia Salad (below). It works so beautifully with the kale and sweet potatoes in that dish.
For effortless blending, I use my Blendtec with the twister jar or mini wildside jar. Pick one of these handy jars up, you will love it for dressings, dips, puddings, and more. Use Blendtec discount code: YAY-BLENDTEC for 20% off.
You can watch me demo this salad on WGN-TV from when DKK was launched.
Ultimately, though, this dressing will be enjoyed in many more ways. It will become a go-to, staple dressing in your home – far beyond buddha bowls.
I’d love to hear how YOU most love using this dressing. Share in the comments below.
Want to see the two other recipes that pulled in the most votes? Here are the Awakened Pad Thai and the Potato-Cauliflower Scramble.
5 from 6 votes
Buddha Dressing
This will become a go-to dressing for you, especially if you are partial to the nooch! It has a gorgeous golden color and that special umami quality. Get blending!
Course salad dressings, salads
Keyword buddha bowl, dressing, nutritional yeast
Ingredients
- 2-3 tbsp water
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- 1 1/2 tablespoons tahini see note
- 1 small clove garlic halved
- 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt or to taste (see note)
Instructions
Starting with 2 tablespoons of water, combine all the ingredients in a blender (or in a deep cup if using an immersion blender) and puree until smooth. Taste and add additional seasonings if needed; thin with additional water if desired. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Notes
Tahini Note: If you’d like a thicker, richer dressing, use another 1/2–1 tablespoon tahini.
Salt Note: Depending on the brand and type of tamari used, you may want to omit the salt or add more to taste.
Disclosure
This post may include affiliate links. DreenaBurton.com is an affiliate with trusted brands, and if you purchase a product through any of these affiliate links, my site earns a commission from the sale (at no extra cost to you). Thank you for supporting my website.
Reader Interactions
Comments
Taya Wyss says
Absolutely delicious! THANK YOU!
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Kathie says
This dressing is my new go-to!! I made it the other day and thought I lost it. So glad I found it again. I love everything about it. Ratios are perfect. I am 100% oil free and try to stay lower fat. Most oil free dressings have too much tahini. This one is perfect while still being delicious and creamy. Thank you Dreena!Reply
Dreena Burton says
Hi Kathie, thank you for such a beautiful review! I’m so happy you are enjoying this recipe, thank you kindly.
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Karen says
I just made this, and honestly, I didn’t have high hopes. I haven’t found an oil free dressing I liked yet, and I needed something that would please everyone for the bowls I made for dinner. OMG. I was soooo happy with this. I didn’t have apple cider vinegar, so I subbed rice wine vinegar instead. Everything else I followed to the letter, but omitted the salt. Everyone ate without complaint. That NEVER happens. I’m about to cruise through the rest of your recipes seeing what I’ve been missing. Thanks so much for sharing your talents with us!Reply
Dreena Burton says
Ahhhh, how wonderful! Thank you, Karen, for the glowing review and feedback. Please dig on in to my recipes, I’ve been created plant-based recipes for over 20 years, so hopefully you will find a few more to call favorites. Enjoy!
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Jeff T says
With recipes like this one, I’m considering buying one of your cookbooks. Is there one in particular that has a lot of recipes that can be adapted for a lower fat way of eating? I’d like to minimize the oil, full-fat coconut milk, etc.
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Dreena Burton says
Hi Jeff, thanks for asking. All of my recipes in my recent books (and in all of my ebooks) are oil-free. All the recipes in Plant-Powered Families and Dreena’s Kind Kitchen are oil-free. In both books I use some coconut milk or coconut butter – but it’s for recipes that are intended to be richer, more indulgent. AND, I use coconut to adapt recipes to be nut-free for people with allergies. So, in some recipes I offer modifications to use nuts or otherwise switch up to remove the coconut. But again, this is used in recipes where whole foods fat is needed for texture and for a ‘luxurious’ texture in a recipe, ex: cheesecake. (one cannot sub white beans to make cheesecake) 😉
Hope that answers your question – you can find both PPF and DKK on my books page, as well as my ebooks that are all oil-free (and I have a dressings ebook): https://dreenaburton.com/books/Reply
Kathleen Jones says
OMG, this is so amazing and delicious!! Thank you so much, I never thought an oil free dressing could be so good!Reply
Dreena says
Hi Kathleen, I’m delighted you love the dressing so much! Thanks for the lovely note and glowing rating.
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JoAnn M Lakes says
I just made your dressing this morning for my lunch salad. OMG, where has this salad been hiding? It’s delicious. Thank you for this fantastic topping!!!Reply
Laura says
This is great, Dreena! I’ve been looking for lower-fat dressing recipes, and this is very high flavor with less fat than most recipes I’ve seen. It’s going in my recipe box. 🙂
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Dreena says
Wonderful! Thanks Laura
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Kathy Perez says
Love this salad dressing and all her recipe’s..I have been vegan for several years I make this dressing every week..Thanks Dreena!Reply
Dreena says
Thanks so much, Kathy!
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debbie says
This salad dressing is DELICIOUS! It was great on my salad, but I will be putting it on everything!Reply
Dreena says
excellent, so glad you love it – thanks Debbie!
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Mrs E says
Will this be good without nutritional yeast, or do you have a good substitute?
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Dreena says
Hi Mrs. E, this is one recipe where you cannot replace the nutritional yeast. It’s a key component in the dressing – sorry!
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Brooke Steinfort says
Is their a substitute for tahini? My son is allergic to sesame. We love your book Plant Powered Families – it’s our go to cook book!
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Dreena says
Hi Brooke, I’d substitute either raw cashew butter or a combination of raw cashew butter with pumpkin seed butter. Can you use either of those?
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Brooke Steinfort says
Thank you so much for your reply! We cannot use cashew butter (he’s allergic) but pumpkin seed butter we can. Would you add a mix of pumpkin and sunflower seeds for a mild taste?
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Dreena says
I prefer pumpkin seeds to sunflower in general, but if you like the flavor of sunflower then yes, use a touch of both for more balance. Hope you enjoy it!
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