Rhubarb Chutney Salad Dressing Recipe (Dairy Free, Vegan)

If you’ve got a jar of rhubarb chutney in the pantry, then you’re 5 minutes away from a refreshingly sweet, tangy, slightly spicy chutney salad dressing. Equally good with ANY chutney, this is good on everything from greens to slaw to chicken.

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If you’re a regular Oregon Cottage reader, you know that homemade salad dressings are a HUGE win for me. They check off a number of boxes towards a simple homemade life:

• Healthy: the ingredients are basic, whole food that YOU get to choose.
• Inexpensive: whipping up a bottle of homemade dressing is about half the cost of store-bought.
• Quick: basic vinaigrette takes less than 5 minutes and most others will never take more than 10.
• DELICIOUS: while I can appreciate a bottle of quality dressing every now and then, the cheaper dressings I used to get just taste blah to me with a weird goopy texture now. They just can’t compare with homemade.

So when I wanted to find some other ways to use the homemade chutneys I make and preserve, I was drawn to the idea of using it in a salad dressing. With so much flavor in the chutney, the other ingredients would only need to compliment it.

I started my experiments with a jar of spicy rhubarb chutney and it was an immediate success!

This rhubarb chutney salad dressing scored on a couple of levels:

• Obviously, using home canned chutney is a big thing (although this is just as good with store bought chutney!). Using what we’ve grown, harvested, and preserved as a basis for another recipe is one of the perks of gardening and preserving.
• It tasted amazing – as in sweet, tangy, and slightly spicy.

Seriously, we’ve had it on regular green salads (yum) and a turkey-cranberry-feta salad (yes, please) as well as that same cranberry-feta combo with chicken.

It’s a simple way to make so many salads taste better.

Creamy Without Dairy

Since the ingredients are mixed in a blender or food processor, it emulsifies into a creamy dressing – without any added mayo, cream, or yogurt.

So this is a tasty option for anyone following a dairy-free diet.

Rhubarb Chutney Salad Dressing (or Other Chutney)

Ingredients

Besides the chutney you need only four other simple pantry ingredients.

What about salt?

You can taste the dressing after blending and add salt if you’d like – I never do, as the chutney has enough salt and other flavors. I’d start with only a shake of salt up to 1/8 teaspoon if you do add it.

Supplies

• Blender (this is like mine) or food processor
• Measuring cups, spatula
• 8-ounce jar for storing (reuse a glass bottle or an 8-ounce mason jar with a pour-spout lid)

Directions

Add all the ingredients, except the oil to a blender or food processor.

Pulse a few times to mix.

With the machine running, add the oil in slowly and blend until smooth.

TIP: Depending on the machine, the dressing may be thick. I add about 2 tablespoons of water when I use a blender, but don’t find I need much at all when I use a food processor. Add water as needed to get a pouring consistency.

Scrape the dressing into an 8-ounce container – a half-pint canning jar works great (especially when used with one of these lids like the one pictured). You can also reuse a glass ketchup or dressing bottle.

More Chutney Recipes

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