One of the keys to enjoying salads frequently is to have some delicious dressing options available.
And this creamy dressing is one of my new favorites.
It reminds me a peanut dressing that would be served over a crunchy Thai salad, but instead of using peanut butter, this dressing gets its creamy texture from sunflower seed butter, making it appropriate for those with nut allergies. Paired with tamari, a gluten-free soy sauce, ginger, and honey, the resulting dressing is so flavorful, I’m tempted to drink it on its own.
But, I’d suggest pouring it over a crunchy salad instead.
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Creamy Thai “Peanut” Dressing (Dairy-free, Nut-free)
Serves 4
Adapted from Once Upon a Chef
Ingredients:
1/4 cup sunflower seed butter
1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon tamari, soy sauce, or coconut aminos
3 tablespoons honey (use maple syrup for vegan version)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup water, or more for a thinner consistency
Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender, and blend until completely smooth. Add more water, if a thinner consistency is desired, then serve over your favorite salad ingredients, including sliced red pepper, shredded cabbage or romaine, fresh cilantro, and some sunflower seeds for crunch.
Store any leftover dressing in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
A creamy and flavorful dressing reminiscent of a Thai-style peanut dressing.
- 1/4 cup sunflower seed butter
- 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon tamari , soy sauce, or coconut aminos
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1- inch knob of fresh ginger , peeled and chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup water , or more for a thinner consistency
- Combine all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender, and blend until completely smooth. Serve over your favorite salad ingredients, including sliced red pepper, shredded cabbage or romaine, fresh cilantro, and some sunflower seeds for crunch.
- Store any leftover dressing in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
*Note: Feel free to use maple syrup or coconut nectar, instead of the honey, for a vegan dressing.
Enjoy!
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite salad dressing lately?
Tom @ Raise Your Garden
You just made me a happy man this morning. I use to love going to this Thai restaurant before I married my wife. Laura’s not a big Tai fan so it doesn’t happen anymore. The dish I always ordered had this wonderful peanut sauce poured over the chicken and the rice. I can use this sauce over almost anything. Thanks Megan!
Alia Vo
Yummo! I want to try this over a nice salad of Lacinato kale! xx
Danielle @ Chits and Chats and Chocolate
This looks amazing! Thai is my favourite cuisine!
zosia
will this taste good without any added sweetener, honey or otherwise?
Lesley Mizer
You can try it without, and see how you like it, or if you are just trying to avoid honey, maple syrup would be a good substitute. Instead of 3T, you might start with just a half of a tablespoon and add more to taste. I make a similar dressing, and that is what I use.
Jessica
I used a teaspoon of fish sauce in mine, which gave it some sweetness and some umami flavor.
Jennifer
I think I’ll try omitting the water and make it a dip for my little ladies! They’ll eat a salad but it’s more fun deconstructed!
Sabine
Oh yum! I make a Thai peanut salad dressing often and have been trying to incorporate more oleic sunflower oil to improve my complete lipid profile. I’m definitely going to make this dressing for my weekend salads. Thanks for the recipe!
Currently my favourite go-to-whip-it-up now dressing includes oleic sunflower oil, lemon juice, raspberry vinegar, nutritional yeast, Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, and garlic. I’ve made this dressing so often I could do it with my eyes closed, I don’t even measure anything anymore.
Sarah
Hi Sabine! Can you give me the recipe for your dressing you mentioned? That looks really good too.
I used to work with a friend named Sabine in NPB, CA! Fond of the name!
Thanks!
Brianna
This looks delicious! I can’t wait to try this. All I have is almond butter so I’ll use that instead. But that’s okay, no one in my family has a nut allergy!
Jennifer Rockwood
I just made this and used peanut butter in place of sunflower and it is amazing!! Really good on just about anything!!
Lena
Sounds yummy! Can I substitute something else like almond butter or tahini for the sunflower seed butter? I have no idea where to find that and won’t use it for anything else.
Megan
Almond butter should work great!
Shashi @ RunninSrilankan
Wow – this looks so incredibly creamy!
Kim
Just used raw sunflower seeds instead of the sunflower butter and it worked great in a vitamin. Delicious!!
vee
i can`t wait to try this, it looks delicuos.
Lena
I made this today and it’s one of the best peanut dressings I’ve ever had. Thank you! I used natural peanut butter.
kezia @ Super Naturally Healthy
Look tasty – perfect for my peanut allergic husband while hopefully giving me a peanut like fix!
Terry
This dressing is a winner!! Made it last night and it was delicious! Very versatile, too.
Therese
Great ingredients, resulting in a delicious dressing – that can be used as a dipping sauce as well!
Penny O
I’m so excited for this dressing!! LOVE luv Thai peanut anything!
Heidi
Wow! Is this ever perfect! Great balance if flavors. Will definitely make again and again!
Josey
This dressing packs some serious heat! I bet it would be good over chicken and cauliflower rice too.
Prolific Recipes
I love this dish so much. I would love to learn more from you. You are amazing!:)
lani
Holy yum. This sauce tastes good on everything 🙂
Tara
This was delicious. I see more salads in my future with this on top. This absolutely blows away any store bought dressing I’ve had. Thanks for sharing!
Tina
This is one of those recipes that makes you so happy to be eating well. So super delicious!!! I love your recipes and this one might be at the top right now. You rock!!! You make eating well so much fun!!!
Dana
Sooooo….good. My first time making my own dressing and Wow.
janice
Replaced the oil with water for an oil free dressing and used peanut butter because I didn’t have sunflower butter on hand…and wow! This is so addicting! Its my new go to dressing. Thanks Megan!
Rande @ RandeMoss.com
We just had this over steamed broccoli tonight – YUM!
Meigen
This recipe nails the flavor that the title claims. Very good, also used raw sunflower seeds instead of butter.
Anne
I just made this salad dressing and now all I want to eat all week long is this salad dressing! It is so delicious! You never fail us! Thank you!
Jennifer
I made this as a dipping sauce for grilled chicken. I did not put the water in it because I wanted it to be thicker. It was so good. It tastes almost identical to my favorite sauce for the summer rolls at Big Bowl.
Jennifer
I forgot to mention I used peanut butter and it was perfect.
Francesca
Can I ask why you only suggest storing for three days? I don’t see any ingredients that would spoil in the fridge…actually they all are pretty long lasting.
Megan Gilmore
I always try to be conservative with storage times, as I don’t want anyone to get sick from keeping fresh food for too long. The only reason why this dressing might spoil quickly is because you add water to the mix– and added moisture encourages bacteria growth. So, I would definitely aim to use it up within a week!
Mary
CAN YOU TELL US HOW MANY CALORIES ARE IN THE DRESSING?
Megan
Hey Megan! Thank you, thank you! This definitely hit the spot and was oh so delicious! I’ve been in such a Thai food frenzy lately so when I saw this recipe I knew I had to give it a try. I swapped out the sun butter for almond, that’s all I had, and it was superb!! I think I’ll have to double the recipe next time.. 🙂
Kirsten
I made this without honey and salt. I used coconut aminos (adds sweetness) and followed the recipe exactly and this is a fantastic dressing. 5 out of 5 stars!!!!!!! Thanks bunches ♥ ♥ ♥
Deb
I just made this and it’s Amazing! thank you so much your recipes are always my go to’s 🙂
For those with soy allergies I omitted the soy sauce and it was just as good 🙂
Sandy
This is so good. The only change I made was I used almond butter. I did not have a seed butter in the house. I will try it with peanut butter next time and I am sure it will be good with whatever I use. I ate it with a salad and had it the next day as a dip with peppers. No one in the house got to try it because I ate it all by myself! So tasty! I will be making this again for sure!
Lexie
Delish! Took some serious willpower not to just drink this! Thank you!
Jennifer Budwig
Is it possible to freeze this?
Jenny
I just made this. This dressing is amazing!!! Great flavours altogether. Just awesome.
Dana
This dressing was a huge hit at my companies art show. The bowl was scraped clean!
Loved it and will make it again this weekend.
An important note: If you have nut allergies, be sure to check the labels of the Sunflower Seed Butter! Some may contain trace amounts of nuts as some processing plants make other nut butters as well. They clean the processing machinery well, but have to label their products “may contain nuts”.
Leah
Just made this with Tahini instead of sunflower and it was delicious!!!!!
Olga
This dressing is amazing!!! I have added it to my “Fav Vegan Recipes” page.
JESSE
Thanks ! I used walnuts instead of sunflower seed butter. It is fresh and beats thai peanut sauce in the bottle sol in health food stores
Amanda
I’m so happy to find this recipe! It seems most if the sauce recipes contain sriracha or chili paste and I just don’t tolerate those well, this has ingredients I can handle. Thank you so much! Making doodles tonight to go with dinner and this will top them! 😀
Pali Naran
do you have a recipe for the sunflower seed butter please?
Megan Gilmore
Yes, here you go: https://detoxinista.com/how-to-make-sunflower-seed-butter-oil-free/
Keely
I developed allergies to peanuts & tree nuts five years ago and desperately missed satay style sauces – This sauce has more then made up for my loss!! I love it 😍 I add some pumpkin seed butter as an extra.
Sandy
Do you think that maybe 1 tablespoon of sesame oil with 1 tablespoon of olive oil would work?
Megan Gilmore
Yes, probably!
Lizzy
Delish! I used rice vinegar and 1 tbsp of honey and it was perfect for me. I think I would add a little but more red pepper flake next time, for some additional spice. So many ways to enjoy this dressing!