Vegan Italian Dressing

This simple vegan Italian Dressing fits pretty much every salad! It’s very basic but that’s the beauty of it!

And because it’s basic, you have sooo many options to make it special and unique! Change the ingredients, add some, et voilà, you’ve created a different dressing/vinaigrette (in case you wanna try something new).

Contents

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• How to make a Creamy Vegan Italian Dressing
• How to make a Cheesy Vegan Italian Dressing
• Storage
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Also, I know the term “Italian Dressing” can mean a lot of different things… some people expect it to be simply oil, vinegar and herbs, others like Parmesan cheese in it, and yet other people love a creamy Italian Dressing.

To accommodate all of that, I created a basic vegan Italian Dressing recipe with some options to substitute and a recipe to which you can add other ingredients to make it yours!

So, let’s see what we can do! Let's get cracking!

Ingredients

• olive oil
• white wine vinegar
• (Italian) herbs (oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil)
• garlic powder
• maple syrup
• water
• salt & pepper

This is how I like it—keeping it simple and making it with ingredients that give it a longer shelf life. In the chapter “substitutions” (see below), I give you a few more options to replace one or the other ingredient.

Herbs: I prefer using dried herbs because fresh herbs spoil much quicker. You can simply use an Italian herbs seasoning mix (with dried herbs only, no additives!) to make it easier.

Garlic: Same thing here. I prefer garlic powder but most certainly, you can use fresh, crushed garlic, too.

Maple Syrup: Don’t skip that one! Adding a bit of sweetness to your dressing will make it taste so much better. It balances the acid of the vinegar. (See “substitutions” for other sweeteners.)

Additional Ingredients

• mustard (Dijon or seeded)
• lemon juice
• vegan mayonnaise or aioli
• dairy-free yoghurt
• vegan Parmesan cheese
• nutritional yeast
• tahini

Adding any of these ingredients will change the taste of this basic Italian Dressing. You can use mustard and a little bit more maple syrup to make a vegan honey mustard dressing.

Lemon juice makes it zesty! I do recommend using less vinegar because otherwise, you end up with a very acidic dressing.

Mayo, yoghurt and tahini are great for making a creamy dressing (see instructions below, “how to make a creamy vegan Italian dressing”).

Some people like adding Parmesan cheese to their dressing. So, if you’re one of them or you’d like to give it a try, you can either add vegan Parmesan cheese or simply nutritional yeast (see instructions below, “how to make a cheesy vegan Italian dressing”).

Instructions

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!! Put all ingredients into a recycled jar or a container with a lid and give it a good shake!

I prefer reusing a jar (like peanut butter, tahini, etc.) because I can simply store it in the fridge plus it’s a great way to reduce waste!

Please note that the dressing will separate quite quickly as we’re using oil and water and obviously that’s what they like to do. Just give it a good shake before you use it.

Also, the olive oil will thicken in the fridge. If it gets too thick, just add some more water to it to make it runnier again.

Substitutions

Olive oil

Personally, I would never recommend substituting olive oil with a different oil because we’re making an Italian dressing and what’s more Italian than olive oil??

But, of course, if you don’t like olive oil at all, swap it with a nutty oil like macadamia, argan, walnut or hazelnut oil.

Avocado oil is also a great substitute. However, if you don’t like the strong tasting oils, you can absolutely choose a milder oil like sunflower or canola oil (though I think, olive oil would be definitely your healthier choice).

White Wine Vinegar

Many options here which will only slightly change the taste of this dressing. Instead of white wine vinegar, you could also try red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar.

To turn this dressing into a lemon vinaigrette, replace vinegar with lemon juice (or do half-half). Just keep in mind that the dressing will spoil quicker than with vinegar only.

Herbs

You can choose the herbs you wanna put in! Sage, dill, cilantro and maybe even mint are great herbs for a dressing too!

Garlic Powder

Instead of garlic powder, use onion powder. Or add a combination of them both. As already mentioned, you can absolutely add freshly crushed garlic as well. Just keep in mind that fresh garlic does spoil faster than dried garlic.

Maple Syrup

Maple syrup simply balances the acid of the vinegar. If you’re not a fan of maple syrup, you can substitute it with brown rice malt syrup or agave syrup.

Sugar-free: You could use stevia, monk fruit or xylitol to sweeten this Italian dressing without sugar. However, as I’m not a big fan of them, I can’t tell you how much you’ll need, unfortunately (but if you’ve tried, please share in the comments!!).

How to make a Creamy Vegan Italian Dressing

Ingredients

• basic Italian Dressing
• 1 tablespoon of vegan mayonnaise or try my homemade vegan aioli!
• OR 1-2 tablespoons of dairy-free yoghurt

You pretty much just add the mayo, aioli or yoghurt with the other ingredients. Very easy.

How to make a Cheesy Vegan Italian Dressing

Ingredients

• basic Italian Dressing
• 1-2 tablespoons of vegan Parmesan cheese
• OR 1-2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast

You might need to experiment with the quantities a bit because vegan Parmesan can taste very different from brand to brand.

The same thing applies to the nutritional yeast and your own taste. Some people are happy to use less and find that it’s cheesy enough, others need way more. Just play around with it.

Storage

This vegan Italian Dressing has quite a long shelf life but it’s probably best to keep it in the fridge. There, it’ll keep for at least a month.

If you use any fresh ingredients like fresh herbs, garlic, lemon juice etc., this dressing will only keep for about a week (or maybe a bit longer).

📖 Recipe