Avocado Dressing
Quick Look: Avocado Dressing
- ⏱️ Prep: 5 minutes
- 🍳 Cook: 0 minutes
- 🕒 Total: 5 minutes
- 👥 Servings: 16 (makes about 2 cups)
- 📊 Calories: ~120 kcal/serving
- 🔥 Cook Method: Blend and drizzle.
- 👩🍳 Flavor Profile: Bright, creamy, citrusy and beautifully balanced.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Very Easy.
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What Makes My Avocado Dressing So Good
- Adding oil slowly while blending makes it extra silky. Drizzling it in while the blender runs creates a true emulsion, giving the dressing a velvety texture that holds together beautifully. If you love avocado in all its forms, you’ll also love avocado corn salad and avocado shrimp salad.
- Two acids instead of one. Using both white wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice together gives you a more complex, layered brightness than either alone.
- Flexible herbs. Cilantro, basil, or parsley all work, so you can match the dressing to whatever you’re cooking.
- Creamy with no dairy, no mayo. This is purely plant-based and stays light while still being incredibly rich and creamy.
Ingredients in Avocado Dressing
- Avocado: use just ripe avocado to it blends smooth. Underripe will affect the texture and overripe will affect the flavor.
- Avocado oil: avocado oil has a smooth and neutral flavor. A light or mild olive oil works as a substitute, but avoid a strong extra-virgin olive oil since the flavor can overpower the dressing.
- White wine vinegar: apple cider vinegar can work in a pinch but has a noticeably stronger flavor.
- Agave nectar: Just a touch of sweetness to round out the acidity. Honey can work as a substitute but it will have a slightly different flavor.
- Cilantro: Basil or parsley are both great swaps if cilantro isn’t your thing.
How to Make Avocado Dressing
Equipment matters here. Use a blender or food processor that has a pour opening in the lid. You need to be able to drizzle oil in while the motor is running without stopping or lifting the lid. That steady stream while blending is what creates the emulsification, binding the oil into the dressing so it’s smooth and cohesive rather than greasy or separated.
Build the base first, then add oil. Add everything except the oil and then start blending. After a few seconds, start drizzling in the oil. This gives the avocado, acid, and aromatics a chance to come together as a base, so the oil emulsifies into something that already has body and flavor.
The drizzle is slow and deliberate. Think of it like making aioli. If you rush and dump the oil in all at once, the dressing will break and look oily on top. A thin, steady stream while the blender runs gives you that silky, pale green, almost creamy result. You may hear the blender tone shift slightly as the emulsion forms.
Consistency check at the end. The dressing straight from the blender will be a thick, rich and creamy consistency dressing. If you want it more pourable, almost like an avocado vinaigrette, drizzle in a little more oil and blend again. Taste for salt to make sure you have enough and adjust if needed.
Ways to Serve Avocado Dressing
This dressing is incredibly versatile.
- The obvious choice is salads, and it’s especially beautiful over a simple green salad, kale salad, or a loaded taco salad.
- It also works as a drizzle over grain bowls, roasted vegetables, and grilled proteins.
- Try it over grilled meats like Greek marinated chicken, grilled shrimp tacos, or garlic butter grilled salmon.
- For something a little more fun, serve it as a dipping sauce alongside fresh cut vegetables or use it as a spread on wraps and sandwiches.
- It’s also a natural companion to anything with an avocado base, like chicken salad stuffed avocado or shrimp salad stuffed avocado.
Storing Recommendation
Serve immediately for the best color, or transfer it to an airtight glass jar and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the dressing before closing the lid to help slow down browning. Give it a good stir before using if it has been sitting.
Avocado Dressing FAQs
Avocado oxidizes when exposed to air. Store it in an air-tight sealed glass jar to slow down browning. Don’t worry, it takes a few days for it to start turning brown though.
It will take some work! You can mash the avocado and whisk by hand the base ingredients. Then whisk vigorously while drizzling in the avocado oil. The texture may not be as silky but still great! A blender or small food processor gives you the smoothest result and makes the emulsification technique possible and minimum effort.
Yes. A light or mild olive oil that’s meant for finishing and dressings works well. Avoid strong extra-virgin olive oil because the flavor can overpower the dressing.
Fresh basil gives a slightly sweet, Italian-leaning flavor. Fresh flat-leaf parsley keeps it neutral and bright. Both are great swaps if cilantro isn’t your preference.
Yes, it’s completely dairy-free and vegan as written.
More Avocado Recipes to Try
If you love avocado as much as I do, there’s no shortage of ways to use it. My guacamole recipe is always the classic go-to, but avocado also makes one of the best salad add-ins, like in avocado salsa. For a full meal built around avocado, my avocado salmon rice bowl is the best and chicken salad stuffed avocado are both absolutely worth making.
Avocado Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ripe avocado
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 1 lemon – juice only
- 1 garlic clove
- 3/4 cup avocado oil
- 2 Tbsp agave nectar
- 2 Tbsp cilantro (or basil, or parsley)
- coarse kosher salt to taste
Instructions
- Before starting, make sure to use a blender or a food processor that has an opening on top meant for adding ingredient without stopping blending or opening the lid.
- Cut the avocado in half, take out the pit, take off the skin, and add avocado meat to the blender/food processor.
- Pour in the white wine vinegar, lemon juice, agave nectar and add garlic clove, cilantro, and salt. (Don't add oil!)
- Close the lid and start blending and slowly drizzle in the avocado oil and the blender is running. Once all the avocado oil is added, blend another few seconds.
- Note: check the consistency and taste for the amount of salt. If you wish a thinner/runnier dressing, you can add another 1/4 cup or so of avocado oil and blend.
Notes
Nutrition
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Categories:
Backyard BBQ Recipes, Dressing Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Healthy Dinner Ideas, Lunch Recipe Ideas, Salad Recipes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
