Creamy Dill Dressing Recipe (with Easy Spring Salad)
This Dill Dressing is a dreamy, creamy sauce perfect for your favorite salads, veggies, wraps, and more! It doubles as a dressing and a dip and has the most incredible flavor from plenty of fresh dill, lemon juice, garlic, and a creamy cashew butter base.Â
Why You’ll Love This Dill Dressing
Truth be told, I don’t really come up with new salads as much as new salad dressings. I always mix and match salad dressings with different combinations of components and try to keep seasonal ingredients together, keep salads simple, and use only the freshest produce in my homemade dressings. I tend to make more vinaigrettes than creamy dressings because they’re easier to shake in a jar than blend in a blender, but I love a tasty creamy dressing!Â
In today’s post, we’re making a Creamy Dill Salad Dressing! This flavorful dressing is a total winner and doubles as a dipping sauce for crudites too. Dill is one of my favorite fresh, light herbs. It pairs so nicely with spring and summer vegetables, both cooked and raw. In this recipe, I use dill in the dressing, but you can also use it chopped as a salad component. Dill is delicious with fresh parsley, chives, mint, and tarragon if you have those in your garden. Making your own dressing has never been easier (or tastier!).
While this recipe can stand alone as a creamy sauce for salads, dips, and spreads, I’ve also included my Spring Salad recipe in the printable recipe card below. The combination of fresh dill with summer-forward fruits and greens is the best. A light and fresh summer meal with so much flavor!
Ingredient Notes
This creamy dill salad dressing requires a handful of simple ingredients and comes together in a blender! It’s a great dressing for a salad of simple greens, a spring salad (in the recipe card below), a dilling sauce, a sandwich spread, and more!
- Extra-virgin olive oil: This is the base for almost all my salad dressings
- Raw cashew butter: It’s smooth, flavorless, creamy, and good for you! I like Artisana or JOI. Swap mayo or plain Greek Yogurt for the nut butter if you are nut-free.
- Shallots or green onions: either one is great here and gives the dressing a mild edge.
- Fresh Garlic: omit if you can’t have it, but it adds great flavor. I recommend fresh garlic, but garlic powder will work in a pinch (¼ teaspoon).Â
- Fresh Lemon juice and zest: The lemon zest adds more punchy lemon flavor than the juice, but we need an acid in salad dressing, so we’ll use both. Just remember to zest your lemon before juicing it because it’s nearly impossible to zest an already-juiced lemon. Definitely use fresh, not bottled, lemon juice for the best flavor.
- Fresh dill: Also known as dill weed, it’s the star of the show here, but you can play with other fresh herbs like basil or tarragon if you want to try something different.
- Sea salt and black pepper to tasteÂ
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Blend all dressing ingredients except dill in a blender until smooth and creamy. Taste for seasoning. Stir in chopped dill.Â
- Transfer to a small bowl with a lid or an airtight container. Drizzle over a green salad or another delicious salad of choice (My spring salad recipe is in the recipe card below).Â
Recipe Tips
- For a nut-free version of this recipe, substitute mayonnaise, plain Greek Yogurt, or even sour cream for the cashew butter.Â
- I recommend using a high-speed blender instead of a food processor to get an extra smooth and creamy consistency.Â
What Components are Great with Creamy Dill Sauce?
- Salad greens: For a creamy dressing, you want sturdy greens like romaine, green leaf lettuce, iceberg, or even fresh butter lettuce. Nice to mix something bitter like radicchio with a mild salad too.
- Fruit: Dill is delicious with kumquats, pictured here, or other citrus or even strawberries.
- Raw veggies like snap peas, carrots, radishes, and red cabbage are my go-to’s in the spring.
- Cooked veggies like asparagus, green beans, or pickled onions would be great, too.
- Other herbs like chives, basil, tarragon, and mint can be part of this salad.
- Creamy cheese like feta, goat cheese or avocadoÂ
- Crunchy nuts or seeds like toasted pistachios, almonds, or walnuts; or sunflower seeds.
Make-Ahead & Storage Tips
- I always wash and dry my salad greens as soon as I bring them home from the market. I store them in Vejibags or damp kitchen towels.
- Hearty veggies (such as cabbage and radish) can be washed and chopped a day in advance if needed.
- This dressing can be made a few days in advance but it cannot be frozen. The dressing keeps for at least a week if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.Â
More Homemade Salad Dressings
- Sumac Dressing
- Lemon Parmesan Dressing
- Avocado Dressing
- Lemon-Mustard Dressing
- Spicy Cashew Dressing
- Lemon Yogurt Dressing
If you give this recipe a try, snap a pic and tag @pamelasalzman on Instagram so I can see your beautiful creations. I also really appreciate readers taking the time to leave a star rating and review! Lastly, subscribe for free to my site for the latest recipes and updates.
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Spring Salad with Dill Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 large or 2 small heads butter lettuce washed, spun dry and leaves torn into bite size pieces
- 1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
- 4 small radishes sliced as thin as possible or 1 medium watermelon radish sliced thinly
- 2 small carrots scrubbed clean and julienned or sliced super thin (purple or yellow would be pretty)
- 1 bunch fresh chives chopped
- A few kumquats sliced crosswise
- A few edible flowers
- Flaky sea salt if desired
- Dressing:
- 6 Tablespoons unrefined cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 ½ Tablespoons raw cashew butter sub mayo for nut-free
- 3 Tablespoons water
- 1 small garlic clove
- ½ shallot or 2 scallions
- Zest of half a lemon optional - gives it more lemon punch than just juice
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt + more to taste
- Few grinds of black pepper
- 1 box .75 ounce fresh dill, tough stems removed, fronds chopped
Instructions
- Place the butter lettuce in a large bowl and layer the remaining ingredients on top.
- Blend all dressing ingredients except dill in a blender until smooth and creamy. Taste for seasoning. Stir in chopped dill.
- Drizzle just enough dressing to coat lightly and toss together. Finish with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt, if desired.
Notes
For a nut-free version of this recipe, substitute mayonnaise, plain Greek Yogurt, or even sour cream for the cashew butter.
I recommend using a high-speed blender instead of a food processor to get an extra smooth and creamy consistency. What Components are Great with Creamy Dill Sauce?
Salad greens: For a creamy dressing, you want sturdy greens like romaine, green leaf lettuce, iceberg, or even fresh butter lettuce. Nice to mix something bitter like radicchio with a mild salad too.
Fruit: Dill is delicious with kumquats, pictured here, or other citrus or even strawberries.
Raw veggies like snap peas, carrots, radishes, and red cabbage are my go-to's in the spring.
Cooked veggies like asparagus, green beans, or pickled onions would be great, too.
Other herbs like chives, basil, tarragon, and mint can be part of this salad.
Creamy cheese like feta, goat cheese or avocado
Crunchy nuts or seeds like toasted pistachios, almonds, or walnuts; or sunflower seeds. Make-Ahead & Storage Tips
I always wash and dry my salad greens as soon as I bring them home from the market. I store them in Vejibags or damp kitchen towels.
Hearty veggies (such as cabbage and radish) can be washed and chopped a day in advance if needed.
This dressing can be made a few days in advance but it cannot be frozen. The dressing keeps for at least a week if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.