Batch Prep-Friendly Blender Thai Salad Dressing
If you know me, you may already know my love for Thai food which includes making almost everything I make taste like Thai/Asian-inspired or frequenting my favourite Thai restaurant in Toronto, which is Pai (if you haven't been, you MUST go and you MUST get the Khao Soi!).
One of the things that I love to make taste Thai/Asian-inspired is salad dressings, which is how this Blender Thai Salad Dressing was born! I'm usually an olive oil/apple cider vinegar/pinch of sea salt kind of gal, but every now and then, I love to switch it up with something a bit more exciting and flavour.
The reason why you might be a bit hesitant to whip up an exciting dressing is that it involves pulling out all of the ingredients, making a bit of a mess and throwing it all together – all for one salad. Don't get me wrong, it's entirely worth it, but when there are that many steps involved, it just makes it that much easier to opt for bottled salad dressing (which I'm not a huge proponent of).
I've definitely loosened up on my "food rules" over the years and have become more flexible when it comes to food (but always striving to eat as much #RealAssFood as possible), so I thought, heck – why not pick up a bottled salad dressing just like old times? I was at a Farm Boy Grocery Store (which is actually really nice and has a lot of amazing products and produce) but it only took one glance at the ingredients (canola oil and sugar being the first two) to realize that it wasn't worth it.
PSA: Farm Boy is still an amazing grocery store, but you still need to be an avid label reader because a lot of the products that look to be healthy, aren't always as healthy as you think.
It was a reminder to myself that it really is so simple to make your own salad dressing, so that way, you can make use of high-quality ingredients and healthier sweeteners like raw honey or pure maple syrup (if you want to sweeten it up a bit!).
The beautiful thing about this Batch Prep-Friendly Blender Thai Salad Dressing is exactly the first part of its name – you can batch prep it and make use of it for your salads (or how I say as "sallys") all week long!
I recently got the Vitamix Ascent 3500 and I have been whipping up all sorts of goodness in it, starting with this salad dressing. I'm obsessed with how sleek it looks, the touchscreen and its programmable timer so that when you see a recipe that says to "blend something for 30 seconds" (like this salad dressing!), you can simply set the timer and it will do all of the intuitive magic making for you!
Based on the number of people that have shared my Sweet Potato Veggie Pad Thai recipe over on Instagram, I'm sure this Batch Prep-Friendly Blender Thai Salad Dressing will win your heart over just as much!
Batch Prep-Friendly Blender Thai Salad Dressing
Makes: 1 1/4 cup salad dressing (approx. 10 servings of salad dressing)
Ingredients
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil
1/2 cup tamari
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp almond butter (or sunflower butter, for a nut-free alternative)
1 fresh lime
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp fresh ginger
1 clove garlic
Directions
Place all ingredients in a high-powered blender and blend for 30 seconds or until smooth. Store in glass container or mason jar for up to 5 days.=