Black Garlic Cashew Ranch Dressing

Your favourite dressing taken in a new direction: Black Garlic Cashew Ranch dressing. Black Garlic adds complexity and sweetness with hints of balsamic to the nutty cashews. It is oil free, yet high fibre, making this a great choice for weight loss.
Use this Black Garlic Cashew Ranch Dressing as you would any Ranch dressing – drizzle it over your favorite salad for example my Black Garlic Mushroom salad or serve it as a creamy dip for crisp crudites.

 

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• Why You Will Love This
• The Ingredients
• How to Make This
• Meal Prep

Why You Will Love This 

Summary

• Ranch, but Make It Fancy – Your fave creamy Ranch gets an upgrade: umami-rich black garlic meets nutty cashews. Sweet, tangy, complex. No mayo, no oil, all flavour.
• Great for Weight Loss – Just 60 kcal per 2 tbsp! High fibre, no refined sugar (hello, sultanas), and all plant-based goodness. Creamy and guilt-free.
• Endless Uses – Pour it on any salad (especially my Black Garlic Mushroom Salad), use as a dip, or just eat it off the spoon. No judgement here.
• Homemade Black Garlic? Yes Please – 40 days in a rice cooker * gives you jet-black cloves of balsamic-liquorice umami magic. Totally worth it. Smelly house for 2 weeks, though. You’ve been warned.
• Fresh Herbs > Dried – Fresh dill + black garlic = dressing dreams. Onion powder’s still in, but skip the dried parsley if you can help it.

A dressing so good, it might steal the spotlight from the salad.

Black Garlic

After I fell in love with the unique flavors of black garlic a few years ago, I decided to make a large batch of it, to use in my recipes. This is incredibly easy by keeping it, wrapped in aluminium foil, in a rice cooker *, Which I set to “keep warm” for 40 days. Make sure you have this in a well aired room, to minimize the intense garlic smell for the first 2 weeks.
Check this post for detailed instructions on how to make your own Black Garlic.

The result are small black gems with a captivating blend of liquorice, umami, and fruity balsamic notes. It can be used in a million ways, including sliced on your favourite cheese. Or just nibbled straight from the jar, as I love doing.
No wonder restaurants have picked up on the trend and use it in all kinds of adventurous ways.

Health Benefits

Being oil free, based on nuts, this is fantastic for weight loss, because it skips the mayonnaise from the classic Ranch dressing, resulting in just 60 calories per portion of about 2 tbsp. It also has a better nutritional profile due to the added fibre from nuts and sultanas, helping you with weight loss.

If you follow the Nutritarian* diet, you are probably already convinced. But if not, apart from the fibre and nutrition they provide, here is a great explanation why cashews are really good for you. Now, I don’t follow the above diet closely, as I find it too restrictive, but got plenty of good ideas from it during my weight loss journey. As always: Do what works for you.

The Inspiration

I got the Inspiration for the base Cashew Ranch recipe came from the fantastic YouTube channel, “The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show.” Their amazing plant-based recipes make a healthy diet both easy and delicious. To enhance the dressing’s sweetness, they replace maple syrup or sugar with raisins or sultanas, resulting in a better nutrition profile without compromising on taste.
Since I now had a full jar of the precious cloves, I decided to combine it with a Cashew Ranch dressing – my personal favorite, to use on another recipe from this weeks series: A Black Garlic Mushroom Salad.

My Adaptation

While traditional Ranch dressings often rely on powdered and dried herbs, I prefer to use fresh ingredients whenever possible. The exception is dried onion powder, which offers a distinct flavor that complements the dressing perfectly.

If fresh herbs are not readily available, dried alternatives can be used. However, I highly recommend incorporating fresh dill if you can find it, since its gentle anise flavor enhances the dressing and pairs wonderfully with the liquorice undertones of the black garlic.

The Ingredients

• Cashews – Soak them ideally overnight or at least 1h in just boiled water. That way they turn super creamy when blending
• Raisins –  Try 1 tbsp first if you prefer your dressing on the more savoury side.
• Seasonings – Onion powder, fresh dill, parsley and garlic.
• Black garlic – Giving this creamy dressing its characteristic flavor
• White wine vinegar – For acidity. Lemon juice works too.
• Liquid aminos – Giving that undefinable umami-salty-sweet hit. Alternatively Tamari or soy sauce. Liquid aminos are slightly sweeter, so you might have to adjust the seasoning if you are using one of the other options
• Water – Otherwise you’ll have nut butter. Adjust to your preferred consistency. The dressing will thicken once blended and while stored in the fridge, so you might want to add more water on the next day.

Equipment Used

Nutribullet

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Kilner jars

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*

How to Make this

Creating this Cashew Ranch dressing is incredibly simple. Once you have your black garlic and soaked cashews. Just combine all the ingredients in a high-speed blender like Vitamix* or Nutribullet*. Blend for approximately a minute until the cashews turn creamy, and voila – your dressing is ready to be enjoyed.

Meal Prep

I usually make a large jar of Black Garlic Cashew Ranch Dressing on my weekend and keep it in the fridge for my daily salad. It keeps for 4-5 days without any issues.

Other recipes you might enjoy

Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?

If you enjoyed this recipe, please share. It helps me a lot.

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