Elephantastic Vegan

  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • Cookbooks
  • About
  • Contact
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • Cookbooks
  • About
  • Contact
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • Cookbooks
  • About
  • Contact
×
Home » Recipes » Sauces & Condiments

Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing

Published: Nov 11, 2022 · Modified: Apr 25, 2025 by Bianca · This post may contain affiliate links · 12 Comments

5.2K shares
  • Facebook186
  • Email
Jump to Recipe
Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing
Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing

Pour this raw, vegan, and gluten-free Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing over bowls or salads, use it in wraps or tacos, or make it into a dip for veggie sticks or crackers! It's versatile and easy to make.

Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing

As a non-salad-eating person, this vegan blog seriously lacks salad dressings. But when I have lots of weird leftovers, I tend to make a bowl or wrap and this is the perfect time to drench everything in a delicious dressing.

This Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing is not only vegan but also gluten-free and raw. It’s super easy to make and the perfect garlic-y addition to any salad, bowl, taco, wrap, or you can make it thicker by adding less water and use it as a dip for veggie sticks or crackers. I'm a sucker for versatile recipes!

Sunflower seeds are such a great alternative to cashews (because they are cheaper and considered a superfood because of their health-promoting effect). And it's always good to switch things around every now and then and eat a wider range of foods.

Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing

How to make this Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing

The Ingredients

You'll only need 6 ingredients:

  • sunflower seeds (hulled)
  • water
  • lemon juice
  • garlic clove
  • salt
  • maple syrup

The ingredients are pretty basic, you probably have all the ingredients for this dressing at home already!

The basic steps

soaking sunflower seeds
rinsed and drained sunflower seeds
Step 1: Soak the sunflower seeds in water for 1-2 hours. Then rinse and drain.
sunflower seeds, garlic, salt, water, lemon juice, maple syrup in blender
Step 2: Add the soaked sunflower seeds, garlic, salt, maple syrup, lemon juice, and fresh water into a blender.
Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing in blender
Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing in blender
Step 3: Blend until smooth. Adjust the consistency: Add more water for a thinner dressing or leave it as it is for a dip.

I love my small blender for making sauces. It's one of the best investments ever because it wasn't expensive and it's especially great if you don't want to make a massive amount of sauce/dressing.

Garlic Sunflower Seed Dip Sauce
You can easily make this into a Garlic Sunflower Seed Dip by adding not so much water.

Serve it with...

  • Vegan Taco Salad Bowl with Walnut Meat
  • Pulled Jackfruit Wrap
  • Baked Samosas filled with potatoes and spinach (vegan)

Love it? Rate it!

I hope you enjoy this Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing as much as I do! Let me know if you give it a try! 

If you don’t want to miss out on any new recipes, subscribe to my newsletter, follow me on Instagram and Facebook!

Cheers, Bianca

Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing

Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing

Elephantastic Vegan
This raw, vegan and glutenfree Garlic Sunflower Seed Dressing can be used as a super delicious dip or on a salad as a dressing - you simply adjust the consistency by adding more or less water.
4.06 from 17 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Soaking Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins
Total Time 5 minutes mins
Course Condiment
Cuisine Vegan
Servings 10 servings (1 ½ cups in total)
Calories 79 kcal

Equipment

Blender
Blender

Ingredients
 
 

  • 1 cup sunflower seeds (raw, hulled)
  • ⅔ cup water + more for soaking
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon maple syrup
  • 1 garlic clove peeled
  • ¾ teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

  • Soak the sunflower seeds in water for about 1-2 hours. Then rinse and drain.
  • Add the soaked sunflower seeds, garlic, salt, maple syrup, lemon juice, and fresh water into a blender.
  • Blend until completely smooth. Now you can adjust the consistency. You might want to add more water for a thinner dressing or leave it as it is for a dip.

Nutrition

Calories: 79kcalCarbohydrates: 2gProtein: 2gFat: 6gSodium: 176mgPotassium: 86mgFiber: 1gVitamin A: 20IUVitamin C: 0.8mgCalcium: 10mgIron: 0.7mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @elephantasticvegan or tag #elephantasticvegan!
5.2K shares
  • Facebook186
  • Email

Comments

    4.06 from 17 votes (15 ratings without comment)

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




  1. Rebecca Strength and Sunshine says

    June 07, 2016 at 7:05 pm

    This would have gone beautifully with the wraps I made today! The perfect dip for them :O

    Reply
    • Bianca says

      June 08, 2016 at 9:43 pm

      Definitely! It's so good and I love when recipes are multi-functional and work as an dip & dressing :)

      Reply
  2. Natalie | Feasting on Fruit says

    June 07, 2016 at 7:40 pm

    Ahh hight speed blenders, how I love you! It's incredible that we can make such beautifully creamy dressings out of such a healthy simple handful of things. And my favorite part about healthy delicious dressings like this is you can pour them on generously :) This summer weather has me craving all the salads all the time so I'm pinning this for when I inevitably get really bored with my current avocado "dressing". It sounds so tangy and bright!

    Reply
  3. Wenchypoo says

    January 22, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    Anybody know how long this can store in the fridge before it goes bad? n The Paleo egg/oil recipe is only good for 3 days, since there are no kind of preservatives in it to give shelf life. Is it the same for this stuff, or does the Vit. E in the sunflower seeds make up for it?

    I ask because I'm currently doing a low histamine diet, and olive oil, vinegar, and lemon juice are off my to-eat list (but i have a vinegar/lemon juice sub that i can use). There are no condiments allowed on this diet (because they all contain vinegar), but my histie bread is so dry...I'm hoping this is the answer!

    Reply
  4. Connie says

    October 31, 2020 at 9:11 pm

    Using my high speed blender, I added a bunch of parsley. Then wondered maybe cumin, more garlic, more salt. Either way it's fresh and delicious.

    Reply
  5. Tyler says

    April 23, 2022 at 12:38 am

    Honestly, this dressing was extremely bland.

    Reply
  6. Suzi says

    November 19, 2022 at 7:13 am

    So my vegan chef hubs and i made this tonight. Need to replace Vegenaise we've been buying in large quart jars forever. Not the healthiest or worst stuff. One of the only processed food we consume daily. Addicted.

    First of all, when it's out of stock in grocery store, we're out of luck. Second, price has recently gone from $8 to $12 per jar. That's crazy at the rate we use it.

    Been a staple in our fridge forever. Basis of our daily salad dressings, so while i've tried to find good recipes to make a decent sub for years, i never had any real luck. Till tonight!!

    We started with this exact recipe minus raw garlic clove for our first try. I added too much water in blender, so it's a little bit runnier than we need. It'll be fine tomorrow on our fresh salad! Next time, less water. Easy.

    Ended up putting in juice of one medium-sized juicy lemon. Yum!! Maybe that's another 1.5T fresh squeezed lemon juice added to recipe. Total: 3.5T

    Added a LOT more (RealSalt) ... so maybe a total of 2.5t of salt.

    Added some (Sari Foods) nooch for more body and oomph... maybe 1T or so?

    Added maybe 1 - 1.5t garlic powder (since no fresh garlic) and maybe 1t onion powder.

    Added 2t ACV for more tang.

    Added maybe 1T EVOO for smoothness.

    Added 1-1.5t dried Italian seasoning herbs.

    Mind you, we're trying to reproduce the salad dressing and its base we use every day, which has always been mostly Vegenaise. It's pretty tasty right now! Tomorrow, on our yummy fresh salad, we'll have it with breakfast to try it out!

    Thank you so very much, Bianca! You might not be a salad person. Tonight, you have made these two salad lovers very happy with your excellent recipe!! We'll be playing with the herbs and spices, tang (maybe throw a little sauerkraut in), and proportions. This basic recipe saves us money, calories and replaces a processed staple with something much healthier and just as rich and creamy. Wow.

    We're bringing a big fresh salad to our family Thanksgiving feast next week. And this dressing (some version of it) will be featured, too. Sorry this is so long. You've given us such a wonderful gift with this genius recipe. Grazie!!

    Reply
    • Bianca says

      November 20, 2022 at 5:26 pm

      Wow, thank you so much for the detailed feedback, Suzi! So glad you find the recipe useful! You could also try using a combination of cashews and sunflower seeds, this will give it a richer and smoother texture.

      Reply
    • Haley says

      August 26, 2023 at 9:44 pm

      @Bianca, have you tried this with pumpkin seeds?!

      Reply
      • Bianca says

        August 31, 2023 at 12:32 pm

        I haven't tried this with pumpkin seeds. I think it would work BUT pumpkin seeds have a more intense taste. So that's a thing to keep in mind. It's also possible that the dressing sauce will not turn out as smooth or creamy.

        Reply
  7. Marilyn Larden says

    May 06, 2023 at 8:17 am

    Hi Bianca, how long will this keep?

    Reply
  8. Glenna says

    December 20, 2023 at 11:42 pm

    If I use sunflower seed butter instead of ground fresh, what would be the amount to use?
    Have a Great Day,
    Glenna

    Reply

Welcome!

I’m Bianca. On my blog, you’ll find easy & delicious vegan recipes. I create 'meaty', 'fishy', and 'cheesy' recipes because I like to blow minds.

More about me

Most popular recipes:

  • Vegan Falafel Curry
    Vegan Falafel Curry
  • Vegan Banana Bread Pancakes with Chocolate Chunks | ElephantasticVegan.com
    Vegan Banana Bread Pancakes with Chocolate Chunks (+Video)
  • Green Falafel with collard greens
    Vegan & Gluten-free Green Falafel
  • Vegan Breakfast Recipes
    12 Vegan Breakfast Recipes

As seen in...

Footer

↑ back to top

Follow Me

Subscribe

Sign up for my newsletter.

Quick Links

  • About the author
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. While clicking these links won't cost you any extra money, they will help me keep this site up and running!

Copyright © 2025 Elephantastic Vegan

5.2K shares
  • 186

Rate This Recipe

Your vote:




A rating is required
A name is required
An email is required

Recipe Ratings without Comment

Something went wrong. Please try again.