Zingy Avocado Dressing (or Dip) – keto, dairy-free, and vegan

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If you’re an avocado lover, you are going to love this recipe today — a Zingy Vegan Avocado Dressing Recipe.

Avocado dressing in carafe

My family just LOVES avocados, and I do mean love.

Whenever avocados go on sale, we stock up, and I do mean STOCK UP.

As in we buy way too many tons of them.

We let them ripen at room temp, then transfer them to the fridge, and then get busy processing them (freezing the avocados or even freeze drying them) and eating lots of lovely avocado recipes along the way.

One of our fave recipes to use when we have an abundance of avocados is this Vegan Avocado Dressing.

Anyhow, avocados are just wonderful, not only for their great taste, but also for their nutritional benefits.

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Health Benefits of Avocados

Here are some of the fabulous nutritional qualities you get in avocados.

  • healthy fats
  • potassium (more than bananas)
  • fiber
  • vitamin K
  • folate
  • vitamin C
  • and more (source)

Not So Great Ingredients in Store-bought Avocado Dressing

I’ve been making Homemade Salad Dressing for about as long as I can remember. I do it to save money, but also to avoid the unsavory ingredients in so many of the packaged varieties.

I already have a number of Homemade Dressings on my site that we love.

For example, we love all of these — 5-Ingredient Dressing, 5-Way Simple Dressing, Dairy-Free Ranch Dressing, and Moroccan Vinaigrette.

Here are the ingredients in a popular brand of Avocado Dressing:

Water, Vegetable Oil (Soybean and/or Canola), Sugar, Less than 2% of: Dried Avocado, Buttermilk, Dried Garlic, Dried Onion, Black Pepper, Egg Yolk, Vinegar, Natural Flavors (Soy), Modified Food Starch, Xanthan Gum, Salt, Maltodextrin, Mixed Tocopherols, Phosphoric Acid, Monosodium Glutamate, Honey, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Blue 1, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Sorbic Acid, and Calcium Disodium EDTA as Preservatives

Let’s touch on some of the ingredients you might wish to avoid.

First of all, the Vegetable Oils are almost for sure GMO. This might be a personal choice, but I prefer to avoid GMOs for our family.

Sugar is something that we all could stand to eat less of.

Less than 2% of the rest and avocado is in that “less than 2%” category?

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) has been in the news for a variety of issues.

Maltodextrin is likely from GMO corn.

The Natural Flavors from Soy are likely GMO as well.

The Blue and Yellows are Artificial Colors, which they wouldn’t need if there were more avocado in the avocado dressing.  Now that’s a novel idea, isn’t it?

And I don’t know about you, but I would prefer to avoid Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate as well (flavor enhancers).

So how about a wonderful Homemade Vegan Avocado Dressing Recipe instead?

Pouring avocado dressing into a garden salad

This dressing is just wonderful.

I based it off of a recipe from Candida Free Candee, a blog that is no longer active.  Her recipe was based off of this one.

We’ve made it several times and every time there are no leftovers, even when making several batches.

It’s that good.

Just get some cut up veggies or some chips, then set some of this out as a dip. It is guaranteed to be gone in a flash.

My husband thought it was possibly a little too “flavorful” but I like my dressings with a lot of flavors.

If you would like a little less zing in your dairy-free avocado dressing, then reduce the garlic or lemon juice. Or you could add in another half or whole avocado.

How To Use

  • dressing on traditional salads or even non traditional salads like this Quinoa Garden Salad
  • drizzled on cooked veggies
  • a dip for veggies, chips, flatbreads (like this Focaccia Flax Bread)
  • a sub for mayo with in premade salads (chicken or tuna) or on sandwiches, wraps, or burgers
  • as a sauce for tacos, burritos, or fajitas

So many options. You may need to make a double batch!

How to Store

This dressing should keep in the fridge in a covered container for about 3-5 days, depending on how ripe your avocados were to being with.

You could also freeze it and it should keep quite well. This post on how to freeze avocados can give you tips on how to do just that.

More Great Avocado Recipes

Chocolate Avocado Truffles – sooo easy and delish!
No-Bake Grasshopper Bars – healthy choc mint bars
Avocado Lime Pudding – refreshing and easy!
Buckwheat Crepe Cake with Chocolate Avocado Filling
AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) Guacamole – possibly the best guac you’ve ever had

Ingredients to make avocado dressing

Recipe Notes

Special Diet Options / Info

  • AIP: To make this recipe AIP (autoimmune paleo) compliant, use honey or maple syrup (1 – 1.5 tablespoons) instead of the stevia
  • This recipe qualifies as an “S” on the Trim Healthy Mama plan.
avocado dressing in jar and being poured onto salad with title saying avocado dressing, healthy, keto, vegan.
avocado dressing in glass carafe

Zingy Vegan Avocado Dressing (or Dip) – dairy free, low carb and AIP

This Creamy Vegan Avocado Dressing Recipe is super tasty and nutritious. It’s a great vegan dressing recipe that tastes great as a dip too.
5 from 6 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dressings, Seasonings, etc.
Cuisine: AIP, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Keto, Low-Carb, Paleo, THM:S, Vegan, whole30
Keyword: avocado dressing recipe
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 3 cups
Calories: 61kcal

Ingredients

  • 3 medium (approximately 5 ounces each) avocados (this recipe is quite flavorful. If you prefer a more mild dressing, then simply add in another avocado)
  • 1/8 cup lemon juice (or juice of 1 lemon. Lime works great too.)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 3/8 cup water (add more for a thinner dressing)
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley (or 1 tablespoon dried. Cilantro is a great alternative.)
  • 1/32 teaspoon stevia (basically a dash. See Recipe Notes and post for more info and alternatives.)

Instructions

  • Place all ingredients in a high-powered blender or food processor.
  • Combine until smooth.
  • Pour dressing over salad and mix to combine, or serve as a dip.

Notes

About stevia–it is often measured using tiny scoops due to it being super sweet. You can buy 1/32 teaspoons and use one of those for convenience. This post about stevia has more tips.
This recipe was written using lemon and parsley, and it tastes amazing that way, but a lime / cilantro combo, or any combination of those four is great too.

Nutrition

Serving: 2tablespoons | Calories: 61kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 196mg | Potassium: 128mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 89IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.

  
Do you make your own dressing?

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45 Comments

  1. This is NOT AIP compliant with the use of stevia. U would need to use honey or maple syrup to sweeten it. Otherwise it sounds yummy.

    1. Hi Missy! Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. I have alternatives mentioned in the “Special Diet” section of the post – I just made that more clear.

      It’s hard to let people know about the trouble I go to to share how to make my recipes work for other diets so it’s obvious. I’ll try to see if there’s something I can put in the recipe card to make that work better. Hope that helps and that you can try it. It is yummy :).

  2. I made this dressing with lime juice instead of lemon and also with cider vinegar and loved both variations. I may nevr buy salad dressing again!!!

    1. Hi Nancia! I’m so thankful that you enjoyed it so much!
      I NEVER buy it!

      Well, I did 3 years ago on vacation. LOL

      This one is really good too – we have it all the time. Check out the other sauces we serve with it, as mentioned in the post – Trader Joe’s ones or just a hot sauce. Hope you like it as well!

    1. So sorry about that. We are updating our nutritional information as some things got goofed up. It should be fixed now. And no, it’s not 489 cal per 2 Tbsp! Thankfully no! :).

    1. Hi there.

      I’m so sorry to hear this! I try to strike a real balance b/t the ads and user experience. Can you tell me, please, what bothered you about them? I will add that ads are the main way that most bloggers make an income so without them, we couldn’t really keep providing free content on the internet. It’s just the way that it goes. It isn’t cheap to keep a blog running and current and it takes a load of time.

      Thank you and please do let me know your thoughts. Sorry you had a bad experience!

  3. I’m sorry, but do you put sweetener in EVERYTHING?? I NEVER put a sweetener of any kind in my salad dressings, as it doesn’t need any.
    This does have the makings of a good dressing, though. I love the combinations. I would add more healthy oils, (keto diet requires more fats) eliminate the water and use lime instead of lemon juice. (or maybe some of both! …I do prefer limes to lemons)
    Thank you for the recipe.

    1. Hello Carol. Sorry you feel this way, but actually putting sweetener in salad dressings is a bit like putting salt in desserts–it brings out the flavor of the other ingredients. https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/why-you-should-add-sugar-honey-agave-to-salad-dressing-vinaigrette-recipes-article

      Is it necessary? No. But I like it that way. You are free to leave it out if you like, just as you can adjust any of my other recipes as you wish. I don’t think I have sweeteners in other dressing recipes on my site (yet…now maybe I might have to go back and change that :)) and there are quite a few main dish recipes without any. I have noticed that I want to go back and add salt to all / most of my dessert recipes, however. I did that with my Almond Joy Bars and it made them so much better.

      Hope that helps!

  4. Dressing sounds yummy. Questions: How much does this yield? Do you have nutritional data for this recipe? (Maybe it was listed somewhere on your site and I missed it). 2 tsp. of salt seems like a lot, but maybe not based on the yield (I’m following a reduced sodium diet). Thanks!

    1. Hello Darcy – first of all, sorry for the delay in responding. Your comment got buried under a bunch of others. I just updated the post w/ a volume estimate. We are working on getting the nutrition data up and running on the site. Feel free to reduce the sodium per your needs and thanks for your patience. In the meantime, you can use another online calculator if you like. Hope you like it!

  5. For a variation, I substituted 1/4 cup cilantro for the parsley and the juice of 2 limes for the juice of 1 lemon. I added 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and 5 T. of chia seeds for some protein. I also added cumin, black pepper and crushed red pepper to taste. I love it on a salad with a Mexican food meal.

    1. 5 stars
      Sounds good and my husband would like that, however, to be AIP, no seeds or pepper(s) are allowed, nor is anything with gluten. I do like the idea of ACV though. 🙂

  6. So happy to see this AIP recipe. Finally, something I can use on my salad! Plan on making this today. Just wondering how long it will keep well in the fridge? Can I freeze unused portions?

    1. Hi there. I would be careful about keeping any kind of homemade dressing too long – especially one like this w/ the avocado. A simple oil / vinegar recipe will have more of a shelf life. Yes you can freeze it and good question – I have a related post coming up soon :).

  7. 5 stars
    Made this 2 ways last night one with the lemon and parsley and one with lime and cilantro. Did not add any sweetener. OMG is so good could just eat it by its self. Also we bought 50 avocados yesterday and plan on buying more if they are still cheap. Thank you so much for this recipe. I give a 10 out of 10. PS thanks for the freezing tip.

    1. Hi Annette- I just was coming back to ask–which way did you like it better or were both good? Thanks!!

  8. Adrienne so how did the frozen avocados work, could you make guac or just the dressing with them. PS my walmart today has them for 50 cents cheapest I have seen in a very long time.

  9. 5 stars
    Oh my goody goodness! This dressing is so delicious I had to put it on EVERYTHING. Thank you for sharing!
    Also, I just saw that my local market has avocados on sale 3/$1 as well and I plan on making a large purchase! Did you mention the best way to freeze?

    1. Hi there- I just peeled and froze but adding some lime or lemon juice is a good idea. What store is near you? Ours haven’t been on sale in a long time!

      1. It’s called Lucky’s Market; I’m in east Orlando. I think it’s affiliated with Trader Joe’s. I love it!

  10. Yum this looks so good! Most avocado dressings I’ve seen are creamy, which I’m not a huge fan of… so this one is perfect for me! Can’t wait to try it! xo, Kristina

  11. 5 stars
    You did it again Adrienne! This sounds delicious! And I totally agree with you about Fresh Thyme Market, We love it too! Right now we have to drive about 20 minutes to get to it, but we were told they might be building one closer to our home…yippie! Oh, and thanks for the freezer tip. I always wondered if I could freeze them but was too chicken to try, lol.

    1. Hello Cherie. Thanks for the kind words. I so hope you like it!! Yes, Fresh Thyme has been a good thing for us. We are working on growing more of our own food but we will never be growing avocados!! I haven’t thawed my avocados yet but will soon. We finally at the last of our (ahem) huge purchase. Glad to hear they are building one closer to you!

      1. 5 stars
        Hi Adrienne! I will be looking forward to learning more about freezing avocados, and the dressing as well, I hope. Thanks! Dawn

    1. I think it’s totally a keeper. I guess the same time as guacamole. I guarantee it won’t be around long! You could freeze it for later, I think, if needed.

  12. Avacados tend to turn brown quickly. Before I use that many Avacados,etc. How long will this stay fresh if kept in the refrigerator? Does the lemon or lime keep it fresh, or simply the additional ingredients?

    1. Hi Vivian – the lemon or lime will prevent the avocados from oxidizing so they will stay green. I hope you like it as much as we do!