Super creamy Vegan Strawberry Tahini Dressing is a delicious 5 minute salad dressing that can be made with fresh or frozen strawberries, delicious anytime of the year but especially in summer! Blend up just a few ingredients for a sweet and salty sauce that’s beautiful and delicious on salads, steamed veggies, and more.
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for details.
Hey Internet, I don’t know about you but I just love summer fruit season. Whether it’s watermelon, stone fruit like peaches and nectarines, or --my favorite-- berries, summer fruit is just so much more fun than winter fruit (sorry grapefruit, apples, oranges, and bananas, I still love you).
This easy dressing requires just a blender (not even a fancy one, you can use a bullet blender here) and simple ingredients. Use fresh or frozen strawberries--whatever you have available.
I thought of this dressing one day when I had strawberries about to go bad in my fridge.
I tossed the better looking ones in a salad with some greens, pecans, and some homemade vegan goat cheese I was experimenting with. The not-so-hot looking strawberries got tossed into my blender with whatever I could find--tahini, lemon, a little salt.
And let me tell you, it was delicious!
So I am sharing my vegan goat cheese salad with strawberries and pecans with you today and I decided to make the dressing it’s own post so you can put it on any salad you like!
It’s also bright pink in color and so fun to make. Let’s discuss what you’ll need to make it.
What You’ll Need
So obviously, strawberries are key here. Other berries would work, but then it wouldn’t be strawberry salad dressing!
You can use fresh or frozen strawberries. If the latter, thaw them first unless you want your salad dressing to be a slushie.
The next thing is you’ll need some kind of fat to bind everything together. You COULD use beans or tofu if you’d like this dressing to be low fat, but I think the flavor is better with something a bit fatty.
I chose to use tahini, and I LOVE the flavor combination here. See the substitutions section below for other ideas.
To brighten things up and give a little much needed acidity, I used apple cider vinegar and fresh lemon juice. The flavors go really well together, but if you choose to omit one, add a little more of the other.
My strawberries were not super sweet (sometimes you just get a batch like that!) so if that happens to you too just add a quick dash of maple syrup.
I also LOVED the flavor with a tiny squeeze of Dijon mustard. Just a little kick!
Finally, a pinch of salt and some dried basil really kicked up the flavor profile here, so I highly recommend them.
Oh, and a bit of water to blend everything together!
What Substitutions Can I Make?
Strawberries
As mentioned above, you can use fresh or frozen strawberries, just thaw them first if using frozen.
Any berries will work here.
Tahini
I mentioned above, you can use tofu or white beans if you’d like this dressing to be lower fat, but I think that the flavors marry better when there's fat to combine them.
To keep things oil-free, you could use coconut cream or soaked cashews (or even sunflower seeds!) in your blender.
If you’re cool with oil, you could certainly use that instead.
Lemon Juice / Apple Cider Vinegar
Acid pairs really well with fat and sweet. Lemons do a great job of brightening flavors, and apple cider vinegar adds a little sweetness and an awesome tanginess.
That being said, you can sub one or the other if you’d like. You could even use another vinegar, or even some lime juice for a fun flavor combo!
Dijon Mustard
The mustard here is totally optional. You can use any mustard or none. I just really liked the flavor that it added--it went really well with the fruity strawberries and tangy lemon. :)
How to Make Vegan Strawberry Tahini Dressing
Start with clean berries. If using frozen, thaw them first.
You can either use or remove the green stems from the berries. They won’t hurt you to eat, and they have extra nutrients, but they may turn your dressing a murkier pink. Up to you.
Throw your berries in the blender along with everything else EXCEPT the basil. I mean, you can blend that all up too but I prefer to mix it in after (the taste is the same).
Blend it all up until smooth. Then just pulse in your basil.
That’s literally it!
Pour this dressing over salads, dip your fruit or veggies in it, or use it over roasted or steamed veggies. It’s a versatile slightly salty but sweet sauce and I’ve been low-key obsessed with it since I thought of it in early July.
Store this dressing in the fridge for up to 5 days. I prefer to store my dressings in glass jars I saved from store-bought items (one of my favorite dressing containers is an old glass bottle that held some kind of kombucha, I think?) or mason jars.
How to Serve Vegan Strawberry Tahini Dressing
I think this strawberry salad dressing would taste good on just about anything. I love throwing salads together with whatever I have in the fridge.
My favorite way to create a salad is just to combine ingredients I’m feeling like together. It helps to separate your ingredients into different groups. That way you can pull a few from each group and have a delicious salad.
Greens
Any greens will be delicious with this dressing. You can either go neutral to let your strawberry flavor shine, or you can go with a more distinctive green. Distinctive greens generally have different nutrients, so it’s great to vary up what greens you buy from week to week.
Neutral greens include spinach, romaine, iceberg, butter lettuce (SO GOOD), green and red leaf lettuce, and baby spring mix.
Distinctive greens each have different flavors, and you might find a new one you like! Options include: kale, turnip greens, mustard greens, frisee, watercress, arugula, endive, escarole, radicchio, and more.
Raw Veggies
I love an assortment of textures, colors, and flavors in my salad. The more variety you have, the more nutrients you are getting!
Some of my favorite raw veggies to include in salads: bell peppers (any color), tomatoes (technically a fruit but…), cucumber (wait that’s also a fruit), carrots (there we go), sugar snap peas, radish, jicama, etc.
Cooked Veggies
Speaking of which, it can be fun to mix and match cooked and raw vegetables. Some vegetables are actually better for you when cooked, for example mushrooms! Yes, the nutrients in mushrooms are actually more bioavailable (easily used by the body) when they are cooked!
Plus I love the warm and cold mesh, as well as different textures from cooked veggies like roasted broccoli, onions of any color, green beans, roasted cauliflower, sauteed mushrooms, corn, peas, even roasted brussels sprouts, say what?! Trust me, it’s yum.
Fruit
Since you’re using a strawberry dressing, and even if you’re not, I love a little burst of sweetness in my salads.
Some of my favorite fruit to include in salads: apples, grapes (omg this vegan waldorf salad though), oranges, berries of any kind, even dried fruit like cranberries!
Protein
For more healthy nutrients and some more staying power, I love to add some kind of protein in my salads, though to be honest ALL vegetables have protein. Yes, you can actually get plenty of protein in your diet as long as you’re eating enough calories.
But it can also be delicious to add something special like some air-fried or baked marinated tofu, some tempeh, or some beans (I love chickpeas in salad).
Fat
Speaking of staying power, if you’re worried you won’t feel satisfied eating a salad for a meal, add some healthy fats to it!
Try some avocado, chopped nuts, and or a creamy fat-based dressing (like tahini, coconut cream, nut butter, avocado).
Other Great Dressings and Sauces
I’m kinda all about the sauces on this blog! You can take any combination of plants, pour on an awesome sauce (see what I did there? Awesome sauce.), and enjoy healthy deliciousness!
Here are some other great vegan sauce recipes:
Anything Else?
As always, I hope you love this recipe--I know I do, and Mr. Zardyplants does too.
This vegan strawberry tahini dressing is:
- Sweet
- Creamy
- Light
- Tangy
- Salty
- Fresh
- And delicious on any salad or wrap! It was literally MADE for this delicious vegan goat cheese salad with strawberries and pecans.
Let me know in the comments below if you make this recipe or tag me @Zardyplants on Instagram so I can see your beautiful recreations! If you tag me on IG, I will share your post in my stories :)
Also, one quick request: if you love how this recipe looks or tastes, please leave me a 5-star rating and a nice comment–ratings help more people find my recipes which helps me keep providing them! Thank you!
<3 Liz
Save this for later on Pinterest!
Follow me on Social Media!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Vegan Strawberry Tahini Dressing
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Super creamy Vegan Strawberry Tahini Dressing is a delicious 5 minute salad dressing that can be made with fresh or frozen strawberries, delicious anytime!
Ingredients
- 1-½ cups strawberries, halved (thawed if using frozen)
- Juice of 1 medium lemon
- ¼ cup tahini (see note 1)
- ¼ cup water
- ½ tsp salt
- 1-2 tablespoon dried basil
- 1-½ teaspoon Dijon mustard, optional but recommended
- 1 tbsp maple syrup, optional
Instructions
- Add clean berries to the blender along with everything else EXCEPT the basil
- Blend it all up until smooth. Add basil and pulse a few times to incorporate..
- Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Note 1: I mentioned above, you can use tofu or white beans if you’d like this dressing to be lower fat, but I think that the flavors marry better when there’s a fat to combine them. To keep things oil-free, you could use coconut cream or soaked cashews (or even sunflower seeds!) in your blender. If you’re cool with oil, you could certainly use that instead.
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Ingredient
- Method: Blender
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Vegan, Gluten-Free, Oil-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free, Refined Sugar-Free, Salad, Vegan Salad
Stephanie
This dressing is so amazing that I can literally drink it from the blender 😋
★★★★★