You’re going to want to put this garlicky creamy cashew salad dressing on everything. It stands up to massaged kale. It’s great on romaine with croutons.
Keep a batch in the refrigerator, and watch as your salad intake increases. Vegan & gluten-free.
This creamy cashew salad dressing has been a beloved favorite on my blog for over 15 years, going all the way back to my early posts.
It has a rich, garlicky flavor that levels up any salad. Plus, it’s ready in minutes with a handful of simple ingredients.
It has a wonderful mix of umami from tamari, tanginess from lemon juice, and a hit of garlic.
This vegan salad dressing is naturally gluten-free and oil-free.
- Pour it over light, leafy greens
- Add it to a hearty kale salad
- Drizzle it over grain bowls
- Use it as a dipping sauce for crunchy veggies
While I have made a ton of different dressings over the years, this is the one I keep coming back to.
In this post:
Why readers love this recipe
“I've tried lots of oil-free cashew dressing recipes and this one is the best! I crave it! I eat it every day on my dinner salad.” – Kate
Creamy cashew dressing ingredients
Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe.
Raw cashews: Unroasted, unsalted cashews make this dressing velvety and full-bodied. Look for them with other nuts at the grocery store.
Save money and buy raw cashew pieces instead of whole cashews. I buy mine at Trader Joe's.
Tamari: This Japanese soy sauce adds salt and umami. I recommend using a low sodium variety. Make sure it’s labeled gluten-free if that’s important for you.
Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice adds acid and tang.
Garlic: Garlic adds wonderful bite and richness. Choose firm garlic that doesn't have dark spots.
Cilantro: Fresh cilantro gives herbaceous flavor and a pop of color.
Step by step instructions
This section shows how to make this recipe at a glance with process photos of the steps. For complete ingredient amounts & instructions, keep scrolling to the recipe card below.
1. Pour all of the following into a high-speed blender:
- Raw cashews
- Water
- Lemon juice
- Low-sodium tamari
- Garlic
- Cilantro
2. Blend until creamy.
After blending, adjust to taste. If it needs more sour, add lemon. More salt or richness, add tamari. More creaminess, add cashews. More liquid, add water.
If you don’t have a high-speed blender, your blender may have a hard time completely blending the raw cashews. See the notes section of the recipe card for workarounds.
Make it your own
You can make this cashew salad dressing your own by varying the ingredients.
- Replace tamari with your preferred soy sauce, nama shoyu, coconut aminos, or soy sauce alternatives.
- Replace fresh garlic with ½ teaspoon granulated garlic for less bite or omit it completely.
- Replace lemon juice with lime juice.
- Replace cilantro with your preferred herbs like parsley or basil, or simply omit the herbs. It’s still delicious without them.
If you’re a dill fan, try my creamy garlic and dill dressing, which is also oil-free and made with raw cashews.
Completing your salad
To make a crave-worthy salad that you’ll want to make for lunch or dinner on repeat, make sure your salad has all of these elements.
Then use this creamy vegan salad dressing as the finishing touch to bring everything together.
Variety
For a range of tastes and textures, each bite should include something different.
Start with a leafy green base (any of the following):
- Massaged kale
- Green leaf lettuce
- Romaine
- Spinach
Then add a mix of vegetables like:
- Red bell peppers
- Cucumbers
- Celery
- Tomatoes
- Broccoli
- Radishes
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Sugar snap peas
Bold flavors
When a dish has a balance of sweet, salty, and fatty, it ticks all of the pleasure sensors in the brain. Having elements with bold flavors makes for a salad that keeps me digging in for more.
For bold flavor, incorporate things like:
- Sauerkraut
- Olives
- Pickled red onions
- Pickled shallots
- Dolmas
- Jarred artichoke hearts
Texture
The best salads have a mixture of soft, crunchy, and creamy.
While vegetables themselves have some crunch, for even more crispy texture add any of the following:
- Peanuts
- Pistachios
- Cashews
- Almonds
- Sunflower seeds
- Hemp seeds
- Candied pecans
- Tortilla strips
- Crispy wonton strips
- Vegan croutons
Something hearty
When a salad is going to be a meal, I like to add at least one protein-heavy component.
Choose from the following:
- Baked lemon tofu
- Grilled lemon rosemary tofu
- Roasted chickpeas
- Marinated lentils
- Vegan chicken strips
- Vegan turkey
- Air fryer falafel
When something protein-dense is involved, the salad really feels substantive, like a full dinner.
Something fatty
For a satiating salad, make sure there are enough calories for it to be filling. Plus, some fat in a salad helps with absorption of certain nutrients.
Here are some of my favorites:
- Avocado
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Olives
- Vegan feta cheese crumbles
Of course, a rich cashew salad dressing like this one adds fat, making every leaf more inviting.
Storage instructions
Store creamy cashew dressing in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Stir before using.
Because of the cashews, it will thicken over time. Stir in a splash of water, if necessary, to thin it out for easier pouring.
This dressing also freezes well in a freezer-safe container. When you're ready to use it, move it to the refrigerator to thaw.
If you try this recipe and love it, let me know! Leave a comment and ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the comment section below. It truly makes my day and is such a help!
📖 Recipe
Creamy cashew salad dressing
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw cashews* unroasted, unsalted
- ½ cup water
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon tamari
- 1 heaping Tablespoon fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 garlic clove small
Instructions
- Put all of the ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.
- Enjoy right away on a salad. Or move to a covered container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Watch how to make it
Notes
- Soak the cashews in water overnight and drain before following the recipe.
- Grind the dry, raw cashews first in a coffee grinder until they become a flour, and then put them in the blender. (My preferred option of these choices.)
- Cover the cashews in boiling water and let them soak 10-20 minutes before draining and using.)
Nutrition
Content and photos updated April 24, 2026. Originally posted February 2011.
Megan
Absolutely divine and simple recipe. I made it for meal prep tofu bowls and was so happy. It thickened in the fridge so I’ll add more water next time. I’ll be making this again.
Cadry Nelson
So glad you’re enjoying the dressing, Megan! Thanks for the great feedback.
Raw cashews have a way of thickening sauces once chilled. I recommend just adding a splash of water to get it to your preferred consistency again.
Dee
Love the taste, just right, not overpowering, and no oil
Cadry Nelson
That’s great to hear, Dee! So glad you’re enjoying it.
Christina
This has become my favourite dressing and dip!!! I make 3x the recipe every week, usually more. It is seriously the best dressing/dip period.
Cadry Nelson
That’s so wonderful to hear, Christina! I’m delighted you’re enjoying it.
Kate
I’ve tried lots of oil-free cashew dressing recipes and this one is the best! I crave it! I eat it every day on my dinner salad.
Cadry Nelson
That’s wonderful to hear, Kate! I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
Jennifer
Holy Cow! This is a great recipe! So simple and so delicious. The cilantro somehow offers a great flavor without being overwhelmingly ‘cilantro-y’ …if that makes sense. Great oil-free dressing for any salad your heart desires. Thanks for this and all your great recipes!
Cadry Nelson
Thank you, Jennifer! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the recipe. I really appreciate you taking the time to rate this recipe and leave such a thoughtful comment.
Laura Thurston
If you grind up the cashews in a coffee grinder won’t they be too small to drain, like thru a colander?
Cadry Nelson
If you want to grind the raw cashews, you won’t soak them first, so there would be no need to drain them. You just grind dry, raw cashews in the coffee grinder, and then transfer to your standard blender with the remaining ingredients. Hope that helps!
Loo Yin Mei
Thank you will try this recipe
Cadry Nelson
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it!
Grace
Wow! This recipe is my all new favourite. So good on top of coleslaw or chopped kale. And no oil. Bonus!
Cadry Nelson
Thank you for the wonderful feedback, Grace! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the salad dressing.
Ian
Hi there, I’m not too sure if im a fan of cilantro but I should give this a try, I am dying to find healthy salad dressings to make such as this. All I really know is vinaigrette style dressings and its just wasted calories really. Do you have other salad dressings that are cashew based? I would like to try alternatives to cilantro.. I fear that it will just taste like dish soap to me but perhaps this is the base to any cashew style dressing? garlic/lemon/tahini?
Cadry Nelson
If you’re not sure about cilantro, just leave it out! The dressing is still delicious without it. I also make a simple tahini dressing fairly often.
Gary
Thanks for posting this recipe. I was looking for something other than the many tahini based dressings that are so prevalent and this is perfect.
Cadry Nelson
That’s nice to hear, Gary! I hope you enjoy the dressing.
Veganfortheloveofitall
This salad dressing is delicious genius! It is so easy to make! I’ve been making it and eating it on salads every day for the past several months. I make a giant salad with raw EVERYTHING for my husband and me that lasts about four or five days. (I wash and add the cauliflower daily because it starts turning brown as soon as I wash it.) I top it off with raw sunflower seeds, raw pumpkin seeds, hulled hemp seeds, and sometimes walnuts, etc. (I also add tomato daily.) We love the cilantro, but sometimes use fresh thyme or basil for a variety in flavors. As a 44-year strict vegan I’ve made and eaten a lot of salads, but this dressing makes me love salads more than ever. I love your website! Thanks so much.
Cadry
I’m thrilled to hear how much you & your husband have been enjoying the dressing! Thank you for the feedback and kind words.
Monica
The BESTTTTTT!!!!
Cadry
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Monica! Thanks for the feedback!
Laura Wenck
This is delicious and now a regular staple in our plant based kitchen.
Cadry
I’m so glad to hear that! Thanks for the great feedback!
Sarah
Love this dressing! It is so easy and customizable to what you have on hand.
Cadry
That’s so nice to hear. Thanks for the great feedback, Sarah!
Laura
This recipe is so simple and it taste an awful lot like traditional ranch dressing. This is something my omnivores would love! Super delicious!
Cadry
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed it, Laura! Thanks for the feedback. 😀
Bianca Phillips
Ha! I see I commented on this back in 2015! But I just wanted to chime in again and thank you for reposting this. Since then, I’ve gone mostly oil-free (well, let’s say low-oil) at home, and I tend to make my own nut-based dressings weekly. I make a cashew ranch that’s awesome, but I get bored with it sometimes. I MUST try this!!
Cadry
Excellent! I hope you enjoy it, Bianca! And thanks for reading all of these years. 🙂
Barb
Do you think I could use jarred cashew butter in place of the cashews with a similar result? Just wondering if you’ve ever done that and if so was it a one-to-one ratio or did you reduce the amount of cashew butter? Thanks.
Cadry
That’s a great question, Barb! I’ve never done that, but it certainly seems like it would work. It definitely wouldn’t be a one-to-one swap since cashew butter is more condensed than whole cashews. It takes about 1 1/2 cups of cashews to make a cup of cashew butter. So I’d probably start with 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons of cashew butter and adjust from there. Also, if your cashew butter is salted, you may want to reduce the tamari since it’s also salty. Let me know how it goes!
Becky Striepe
This looks so good, Cadry! And I love the salad tips.
Cadry
Thanks, Becky!
Dave
Just following up that we all really loved the kale salad and cashew dressing, and expect to make it often.
Cadry
I’m so glad to hear that, Dave. Thanks for letting me know!
Laura Black
I love your five essentials for a great salad…..I’m always looking for new and fresh ideas for utilizing extra produce. And the salad dressing looks amazing. I love making my own dressings; there’s nothing quite like homemade! 🙂 Thanks Cadry!
Cadry
Thanks, Laura! I totally agree on the superior quality of homemade dressings. I haven’t bought dressing in years. Plus, it’s so easy to whip one up.
Nicole {VeganShowOff.com}
Let me just tell you how awesome I think this dressing is!! It’s my new favorite by far! I’m one of those soapy cilantro people so the first time I made it I used dill instead, which was pretty good. The second time I made it I just omitted any herbs and it’s definitely my favorite this way! I’ve made a lot of cashew dressings but I’ve never thought to put tamari in it before! The lemon/tamari/cashew combo almost has a tahini-ish taste to me. Oh and today for lunch I had a vegan frozen flatbread pizza (American Flatbread Vegan Harvest, it was good), and I used this dressing as a dipping sauce for the pizza and it was amazing this way! I could eat it with a spoon (well I kinda did a few times when I was cleaning out the blender!). Thanks so much for sharing this easy recipe!
Cadry
I’m so happy to hear that, Nicole!! Thank you for letting me know. <3
River
This dressing sounds so perfect, Cadry! You’re right, a salad without a yummy dressing is just sad. It’s a sadad!
Cadry
Thanks, River! Sadad for sure. 🙂
Abby @ The Frosted Vegan
I second every single thing here! I know a lot of people think that vegans eat JUST salads, which is so not right. I kind of hate ordering them because it’s rarely something I can’t make at home, which just makes me mad. Like $9 for something I could make for $3, no thank you!
Cadry
Absolutely! They remove all of the costly ingredients, but then still expect you to pay full price. I’d rather have a salad at home and feel satiated afterwards. However, I do miss being able to go out for a really great salad! That’s something that’s lacking where I live.
cookeasyvegan
You are so right about salads (and other dishes) in mainstream restaurants missing the ‘main event.’ I often wonder why restaurants can’t at least keep a few cans of chickpeas handy and learn to make a decent vegan dressing. You could teach them a thing or two! Your salad looks fabulous — no one would find it lacking the ‘satisfaction factor.’
Cadry
Yes, even just a scoop of plain chickpeas would be an improvement. It’s always funny/sad too that most of the time when David orders a meager salad, it’s because he’s on a business trip and the restaurant was chosen for him. People see his meal and think that’s what vegans eat all the time, when actually that’s nothing like what he eats at home or in his regular life. The sad salad is a reflection of the restaurant’s creativity, not David’s lifestyle.
Susan
I love making big, interesting salads. The creamy cashew dressing looks really good. I often end up mixing together some sort of vinegar and nooch over my salads because I am lazy like that (and I love nooch).
Avocado really does belong everywhere!
Cadry
Yes, avocados improve everything they touch!
Amey
I love this post, Cadry. So many great salad ideas. Salad Samurai really advanced my salad sensibilities. I am actually a calorie counter, so that means a bit less avocado and fewer croutons, but I still love the combo of some crunchies and some proteins and all that fun stuff. <3
Cadry
Thanks, Amey! I’m glad you liked it. I need to do some more exploration with Salad Samurai. I found a few recipes that I love, and I keep making them again and again. Now that warmer temperatures are here, it’s a good time to do it!
Cindy Lee
This salad dressing was so good! Btw, how long does this dressing last in the fridge?
Cadry Nelson
I’m so glad you enjoyed the dressing, Cindy! I usually try to use it within about four days.
Dan
In my house, not long! 🤩 Great, simple recipe that I stumbled across today. Will make this again lots in the future. Also really good mixed with cold soba noodles and seaweed flakes.
Cadry Nelson
I’m so glad you’re enjoying it, Dan! Thanks for the great feedback!
An Unrefined Vegan
We are on the same wavelength when it comes to salads! Kel and I eat one nearly every night, so variety is key – and lots and lots of flavors. I love that you added cilantro to this dressing – definitely will be trying this!
Cadry
That’s great, Ann! I hope you enjoy it!
Andrea
Thank you for an oil-free dressing! I see this as a staple in my fridge from now on.
Cadry
That’s great, Andrea! I’m glad to hear it, and I hope you enjoy the dressing.
Susmitha - Veganosaurus
Oooooh you sure know how to make salads more magical! 🙂
I love adding cilantro in my sauces and dressings too. Yum!
Cadry
Thanks, Susmitha! Cilantro is my favorite herb. I’m glad it’s not soapy to me!
Jenny
Yes, absolutely – missing the main event. I always say that a well done salad is probably my favorite food. I don’t know why it’s difficult for restaurants to come up with awesome vegan salads? Yours all look amazing.
Cadry
You wouldn’t think it would be so impossible to find. So often I say to David, “I wish there was somewhere to go for a good salad.” It’s not a hard thing to make, obviously, but sometimes it’s nice to let someone else put it together. Thanks for the kind words, Jenny!
Bianca
YUM! I love giant homemade salads with lots of protein and texture. But you’re right: Restaurant salads are usually just sad. That cashew dressing sounds OMG-amazing.
Cadry
It’s funny that what many would consider the obvious thing for vegans to order (“Just get the salad!”) is what I avoid. I’d so much rather go out for Indian, Thai, Mediterranean, etcetera, and have lots of varied and interesting options instead. But at home, salads are the best!