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).
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.
What you need
Here’s what you need for this creamy, healthy avocado dressing:
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Avocado – one that’s ripe and creamy!
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Yogurt (or sour cream) – for an extra hit of creamy (without the guilt of mayo) plus tang;
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Lemon juice – the tang;
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Extra virgin olive oil – to add some richness to the Dressing. Without it, it’s a bit too “watery”;
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Garlic – flavour!
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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:
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Ranch – add 1/4 tsp EACH dried dill, parsley, chives, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, plus 1/2 tsp white sugar
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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
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Fresh herbs – 1/4 cup chopped parsley, dill, coriander/cilantro, chives (any combo you choose)
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Coriander/dill – 1.5 tbsp each coriander and cilantro (wonderful flavour combo)
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Extra lemony – add the zest of 1 lemon
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Greek – add 2 tsp dried oregano and a squeeze of extra lemon (use for Greek Salad!)
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Italian – add 1.5 tsp mixed dried Italian herbs (or use a combo of parsley, oregano, red pepper, basil)
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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!
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!)
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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Creamy Avocado Dressing
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:
- 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
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Helping me choose flowers for a friend at Aqua Rosa, a local florist. 💐💐 I love how dog friendly my area is!
I saw this recipe two years ago & I finally made it last night. A versatile, easy & delicious dressing. No changes made (used Greek yoghurt). I poured it through 325g of cooked spaghetti & roasted 400g of sliced zucchini (no added fat)… serves 4. We absolutely loved this combination! Next time I’ll add in shredded poached chicken (also your recipe).
This is an amazing dressing! It also works as a fabulous dip for taco chips if the water is slightly reduced. Excellent!
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!!
Excellent flavor! I used half and half instead of water, and added a little ranch dressing, so delicious!
Great tips Chelsea!! N x
This was super! Love all your recipes, Nagi!
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.
I am happy that you enjoyed it Rochelle! N x
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
Very good!
Thanks Nagi 🙂
Wonderful! Good for dip, grilled salmon and chicken, as well as salads. Thanks for a great recipe!
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.
I added fresh parsley and basil. Just perfect 👌
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.
I don’t put in water. Absolutely great on toast and as a dip.
Absolutely lovely
Thank you
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
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
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
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.
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!!
I was wondering what “elm” is under the Greek variation.
Lemon! Typo. Not a secret ingredient!! LOL
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?
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
I’m curious how long this would last, if at all, in the fridge?
Hi Lara – storage is all listed in the recipe notes. N x