Sweet & tangy Blueberry Dressing with Basil! This fruity, berry dressing is sure to shake up your salad game in a fun, new way. (Vegan, gluten-free)
I was harvesting my wildly growing basil plant, trying to come up with new ways to use it, and recalled the small mountain of blueberries stashed in the fridge. Blueberries and basil together? Yes!
I experimented and came up with this deliciously tangy-sweet blueberry dressing with basil undertones. Plus the rich color is so wonderful and inviting – I love it! Drizzling it over a simple spinach salad is all it needs to really shine. Feel free to add other nuts, berries, or some thinly sliced onion if you prefer. Enjoy!
And if you’re looking for more salad inspiration, check out a few more of our favorites:
Carrot Ginger Miso Dressing (Oil-Free)
Black Bean Avocado Edamame Salad
Marinated Kale Salad
Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing
PS – come join The Garden Grazer on Instagram and share a pic if you make or adapt this! I love seeing your beautiful recreations. (Or leave a review/star rating below if you give it a try – your feedback is very appreciated!)
Blueberry Basil Salad Dressing
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- Baby spinach
- Blueberries (or other berries)
- Walnuts (or toasted almonds, maple-vanilla candied nuts, etc.)
For the Blueberry Basil Dressing:
- 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/8 cup fresh basil (chopped)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil (omit for oil-free, replacing with water as needed)
- 1/2 tsp. agave
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a blender or food processor, add all dressing ingredients and blend until relatively smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. (Salt/pepper if needed, more agave for sweetness, more vinegar for tang, etc.)
- Assemble salad on a plate, and drizzle desired amount of dressing on top.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving (estimate)
Enjoying this blueberry dressing? Also feel free to check out the full “Vegan Salad” recipe archives on the site for more fresh plant based inspiration! (Or these 10 Vegan Picnic Recipes for more summertime goodness.)
How many servings does this recipe make?
Hi! It makes just over a 1/2 cup dressing, which for us is enough for about 2 medium-large salads.
I have a basil plant now too AND a new food processor. This is what I need!
Oh yay!! Sounds like this was meant to be 😉
Sounds like this would be fabulous drizzled over grilled salmon. Thanks for the recipe.
-elizabeth lincourt
Sorry, I didn't see that this is a vegetarian site; I only saw the recipe. No offense intended.
Hi Elizabeth! No offense taken whatsoever! This is a judge-free zone, and vegan/vegetarian is simply just what works for my body 🙂 Thanks for your sweet comment – hope you enjoy it!!
Any chance you have a per-serving calorie count for this recipe? PS–i made the dressing with lemon basil leaves instead of regular basil… Amazing!
Hi! So glad you enjoyed it – lemon basil sounds incredible! Unfortunately I don't provide nutritional stats here, but if you'd like to calculate your own I've heard this website is pretty easy to use:
http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
Hope that helps! 🙂
Update: I know this is an old comment, but just wanted to let you know that the estimated nutritional content is now provided on the site! (You can find it below each recipe in the post.) Hope you find it useful! 🙂
Hi there. Found this on Pinterest. Any chance this would work with frozen blueberries?
Hi Melanie! So sweet of you to stop by. Great thought (especially since blueberries are out of season right now!) I haven't tried it with frozen blueberries but I bet it would still work. Would love to hear if you give it a go 🙂 I'll try to update in the future when I get a chance to test it out with frozen ones!
Haha well I live in New Zealand, so we are in Summer right now, so they are definitely in season. We picked a whole lot a few weeks ago, but what we couldn't finish, we froze, so wanted ideas for frozen berries. Will totally give this a shot this weekend.
Ohhhh perfect! Can't beat fresh picked blueberries – YUM!! Hope it turns out! I admit to only having used frozen blueberries for smoothies 🙂