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Home Veg and Salad Sides Avocado

Creamy Avocado Salad Dressing

By:Nagi
Published:26 Aug '20Updated:6 Oct '20
25 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

Creamy Avocado Dressing is what you make when you want a creamy salad dressing without the guilt of mayonnaise or tons of oil! Like a cross between pourable Guacamole and Avocado Dipping Sauce, this healthy creamy dressing works with leafy greens or sturdier vegetables like green beans (pictured).

Pouring Creamy Avocado Dressing over green bean salad

Creamy Avocado Dressing

This is a dressing that uses avocado to make it creamy, rather than mayonnaise or loads of oil. It doesn’t taste very avocado-ey because avocados are dense so it needs to be thinned out to make it pourable as a dressing.

Rather, think of the avocado as a better-for-you means to get a creamy dressing fix!

Excellent use for avocados that are a bit overripe or with brown spotty bits that don’t look appealing enough to use in salads. Use it as dressing for all your favourite salads – it’s particularly good salads that call for Ranch, Caesar or other mayo-rich dressings.

Jug of Creamy Avocado Dressing

What you need

Here’s what you need for this creamy, healthy avocado dressing:

Ingredients for Creamy Avocado Dressing

  • Avocado – one that’s ripe and creamy!

  • Yogurt (or sour cream) – for an extra hit of creamy (without the guilt of mayo) plus tang;

  • Lemon juice – the tang;

  • Extra virgin olive oil – to add some richness to the Dressing. Without it, it’s a bit too “watery”;

  • Garlic – flavour!

  • Water – to thin the dressing. Avocado is very dense! It actually needs quite a bit of thinning to make it pourable – about 6 tablespoons of water for half an avocado.

Flavouring Options

The plain dressing is delicious as is, and also a great base to add flavour. Here are some suggestions:

  • Ranch – add 1/4 tsp EACH dried dill, parsley, chives, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, plus 1/2 tsp white sugar

  • Mexican / South Western – use lime instead of lemon, add 1/4 cup coriander/cilantro leaves, 1.5 tbsp chopped red onion, 1/4 tsp cumin powder

  • Fresh herbs – 1/4 cup chopped parsley, dill, coriander/cilantro, chives (any combo you choose)

  • Coriander/dill – 1.5 tbsp each coriander and cilantro (wonderful flavour combo)

  • Extra lemony – add the zest of 1 lemon

  • Greek – add 2 tsp dried oregano and a squeeze of extra lemon (use for Greek Salad!)

  • Italian – add 1.5 tsp mixed dried Italian herbs (or use a combo of parsley, oregano, red pepper, basil)

  • Dried herbs – use 1.5 tsp dried herb mix of choice


How to make Creamy Avocado Dressing

Here’s how it’s made – plonk and blitz!

How to make Creamy Avocado Dressing

I use my Nutribullet for dressings and small batch things I blitz. One of the best value kitchen investments I’ve made. (Truth be told, I got it to make cocktails…. but now I use it practically every day for smoothies, pesto, curry pastes, dressings. So much easier to clean than blenders and food processors!)

Making Creamy Avocado Dressing

Pouring avocado dressing over Green Bean Avocado Salad with Avocado Dressing

Best Salads for Creamy Avocado Dressing

Use this Avocado Dressing for anything you’d dress with a creamy dressing – like Ranch, Caesar, creamy mayo dressings like used for Coleslaw. So – fresh leafy salads, cold cooked vegetables (I can’t imagine it with hot vegetables – someone could prove me wrong?), juicy fresh vegetables like tomato and cucumber are ideal.

It’s pictured above in a Green Bean Avocado Saladwhich is a copycat of a salad sold at an Aussie charcoal chicken chain called Chargrill Charlie’s. It was a reader request – they love it, but it’s darn pricey ($7 for a small tub!), and given they have a store in my suburb, I just popped in to get a sample, then copied it.

And it didn’t cost much more than $7 to make a giant bowl of this!! MUCH cheaper than buying it! 🙂 – Nagi x


Watch how to make it

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Pouring Creamy Avocado Dressing over green bean salad

Creamy Avocado Dressing

Author: Nagi
Prep: 5 minutes mins
Side Salad
Western
5 from 8 votes
Servings8
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. This is a dressing that uses avocado to make it creamy, rather than mayonnaise or loads of oil. It doesn't taste very avocado-ey because avocados are dense so it needs to be thinned out to make it pourable as a dressing. Rather, think of the avocado as the better-for-you means to get a creamy dressing fix!
Excellent use for avocados that are a bit overripe or with brown spotty bits. Use as dressing for all your favourite salads. Particularly good salads that call for Ranch, Caesar or other mayo-rich dressings.
Makes 1 1/4 cups - enough for a side salad for 6 to 8 (depending on how much you use!)

Ingredients

Creamy Avocado Dressing:

  • 1/2 cup ripe avocado (smush into cup to measure, or estimate - 1/2 medium avo)
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tbsp sour cream or yogurt (Greek or plain, unsweetened) - OPTIONAL (Note 1)
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 garlic clove, small , minced using garlic crusher (Note 2)
  • 4 tbsp water (to thin out, it's very rich!)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

EXTRA FLAVOURING OPTIONS:

  • See Note 3

Instructions

  • Place all ingredients into a Nutribullet or small food processor and blitz until smooth. (Inc Extra Flavouring Options)
  • Use water to thin to just pourable consistency (so it's not super gloopy and thick).
  • Taste and add the following to taste: salt, pepper, lemon, oil. Use as salad dressing!
  • Keeps 3 days in the fridge without going brown. See Note 3 for how to keep even longer!

Recipe Notes:

1. Sour cream or yogurt - adds bit of fresh creaminess to this dressing. Still very tasty without. 
2. Garlic - best to use a garlic crusher because it makes the minced garlic "juicy" which is perfect for dressings (rather than minced using a knife - garlic pieces are dry - this is perfect for high heat cooking like stir fries).
3. Flavouring options:
  • Mexican / South Western - use lime instead of lemon, add 1/4 cup coriander/cilantro leaves, 1.5 tbsp chopped red onion, 1/4 tsp cumin powder
  • Fresh herbs - 1/4 cup chopped parsley, dill, coriander/cilantro, chives (any combo you choose)
  • Coriander/dill - 1.5 tbsp each coriander and cilantro (wonderful flavour combo)
  • Ranch - add 1/4 tsp EACH dried dill, parsley, chives, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, plus 1/2 tsp white sugar
  • Extra lemony - add the zest of 1 lemon
  • Greek - add 2 tsp dried oregano and a squeeze of extra lemon (use for Greek Salad!)
  • Italian - add 1.5 tsp mixed dried Italian herbs (or use a combo of parsley, oregano, red pepper, basil)
  • Dried herbs - use 1.5 tsp dried herb mix of choice
4. Storage - keeps for 3 days in the fridge, won't go brown. (Only reason I wouldn't keep for longer is the fresh garlic in the dressing - if you exclude or sub with 1/4 tsp dried garlic powder, it should be good for up to 5 days).
5. Nutrition per serving.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 71cal (4%)Carbohydrates: 1gProtein: 1g (2%)Fat: 8g (12%)Saturated Fat: 1g (6%)Cholesterol: 2mg (1%)Sodium: 150mg (7%)Potassium: 52mg (1%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 1g (1%)Vitamin A: 42IU (1%)Vitamin C: 2mg (2%)Calcium: 5mg (1%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
Keywords: avocado recipe, Avocado salad dressing, healthy creamy dressing
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

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25 Comments

  1. Lynn says

    March 19, 2023 at 1:25 am

    This is an amazing dressing! It also works as a fabulous dip for taco chips if the water is slightly reduced. Excellent!

    Reply
  2. Rory says

    February 20, 2023 at 10:12 am

    5 stars
    This was so easy and really good! Personally I swapped out mayo for the yogurt simply because thats what I had available to me at the time. So quick, and really tasty, thanks for the recipe!!

    Reply
  3. Chelsea says

    May 11, 2022 at 9:10 am

    5 stars
    Excellent flavor! I used half and half instead of water, and added a little ranch dressing, so delicious!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      May 11, 2022 at 3:44 pm

      Great tips Chelsea!! N x

      Reply
  4. Angela W Broyles says

    April 5, 2022 at 10:13 pm

    5 stars
    This was super! Love all your recipes, Nagi!

    Reply
  5. Rochelle says

    March 20, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    This dressing is always a hit. Making it tonight for a simple entree salad also using your poached chicken (shredded). There’s two of us so one recipe usually works for 2-3 entree salads (we eat a lot of salad – Los Angeles so it’s been 80 degrees most of March!). Thank you for these simple and lovely recipes.

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      March 20, 2022 at 10:01 pm

      I am happy that you enjoyed it Rochelle! N x

      Reply
  6. Ren says

    March 14, 2022 at 1:27 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Nagi,

    I have been following your recipe food blog for many years now and this is the first time I made this avocado dressing. I was looking for a way to use a ripe avocado and bingo, I found your recipe. I followed the mexican style, using lime and cumin. SO GOOD!!!!!!!

    Thanks,
    Ren

    Reply
  7. Holly says

    November 30, 2021 at 2:08 pm

    5 stars
    Very good!

    Thanks Nagi 🙂

    Reply
  8. Hannah says

    November 23, 2021 at 1:09 am

    Wonderful! Good for dip, grilled salmon and chicken, as well as salads. Thanks for a great recipe!

    Reply
  9. Inez says

    September 3, 2021 at 4:06 pm

    5 stars
    I will never throw out an over ripe avocado again!!
    We love this it is our new Mayo… We keep a small jar the fridge all the time.

    Reply
  10. Caroline says

    December 17, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    5 stars
    I added fresh parsley and basil. Just perfect 👌

    Reply
  11. RonneeSue Scott says

    November 12, 2020 at 11:20 am

    Absolutely LOVE this recipe! I hate mayo, and I always use sour cream or yogurt instead. This is the BEST salad dressing/dip recipe I’ve seen. Thx Nagi!💗 Your dog is adorable too.

    Reply
  12. ellie says

    October 21, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    I don’t put in water. Absolutely great on toast and as a dip.

    Absolutely lovely
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      October 22, 2020 at 10:04 am

      Hi Ellie, I put in water as it thins it out to be used as a dressing. By all means withhold it if you want to use as a dip! N x

      Reply
  13. Judith Berry says

    October 6, 2020 at 3:54 am

    Im not sure if this is the correct place to ask a question, but, I need some help finding two recipes.
    The avocado green bean salad, and you bacon, corn griddle cakes. I’ve searched your site and cannot find them
    I had the recipes and can’t find them. Thanks

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      October 6, 2020 at 9:48 am

      Hi Judith, here is the link to the green bean salad: https://www.recipetineats.com/green-bean-avocado-salad/ I’m unsure what other recipe you’re referring to, unless you mean my corn fritters here: https://www.recipetineats.com/crispy-corn-fritters/ N x

      Reply
  14. Charli says

    September 28, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    5 stars
    delish! I subbed buttermilk for the yogurt and a bit of cumin and ginger powder for the garlic, which I can’t eat.
    It’s a creamy, flavorful delight. Great on steamed veggies too.

    Reply
  15. Liz Myers says

    August 30, 2020 at 8:12 am

    Thank you so much! We wanted to try this but could not figure out what that ingredient was. Makes perfect sense now. Can’t wait to make and try!!

    Reply
  16. Liz Myers says

    August 29, 2020 at 3:10 am

    I was wondering what “elm” is under the Greek variation.

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      August 30, 2020 at 7:25 am

      Lemon! Typo. Not a secret ingredient!! LOL

      Reply
  17. Deyanira says

    August 27, 2020 at 2:10 am

    Hi. Love your recipes! Although I am Paleo/Keto, I try to adapt the ones that I can to my lifestyle. With this one… I absolutely love the substitutions, but can I use Mayo instead of sour cream if I don’t have it?

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      August 27, 2020 at 3:05 pm

      Hi Deyanira, you certainly can although it will taste richer, balance with a splash more lemon to counteract not having the tang of sour cream/yogurt. N x

      Reply
  18. Lara Rose says

    August 26, 2020 at 4:04 pm

    I’m curious how long this would last, if at all, in the fridge?

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      August 26, 2020 at 6:07 pm

      Hi Lara – storage is all listed in the recipe notes. N x

      Reply

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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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