Goddess Dressing (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free)

I love Annie's Goddess dressing, or should say, loved. When we went gluten-free that was one recipe I had a very hard time replacing and still have not perfected it, but the below recipe comes pretty close and definitely hits the spot.

Ingredients:

¾ cup sesame seeds

¼ cup Braggs liquid aminos

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup water for dip consistency (more for dressing consistency)

2 scallions

1 clove garlic, deveined

juice of 1 large lemon

¼ tsp sea salt

¼ cup fresh parsley

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth to get a thick consistency.

A note on sesame seeds - I use raw unhulled tan sesame seeds - these are powerhouses of nutrition and contain more nutrients than their hulled counterparts.

There is often concern that vegans do not get a sufficient amount of zinc in their diet. Include sesame seeds or tahini in your diet often and reap the benefit of plenty of zinc with one tablespoon supplying 1.17 mg.

Unhulled (sometimes called Natural) sesame seeds are high in calcium. One tablespoon provides 87.8 mg while the hulled variety offers only 10.5 mg for that same tablespoon. Comparing sesame seeds to milk turned up some surprising figures in the calcium count. One cup of natural sesame seeds had 1404.0 mg of calcium, while one cup of non-fat milk provided 316.3 mg. and one cup of whole milk contained 291 mg of calcium. Both natural and hulled sesame seeds contain healthy amounts of the B vitamins riboflavin, thiamine, and niacin. With natural seeds scoring 8.7 mcg of folic acid for 1 tablespoon and plenty of vitamin B6, you can count on sesame seeds for excellent nourishment.

Mineral values of the sesame seed:

One tablespoon of hulled seeds contains .62 mg of iron, 27.73 mg of magnesium, 32.53 mg potassium, and .82 mg of zinc. Figures for the natural, unhulled, are slightly higher.

Sesame seeds also contain healthy amounts of phosphorous.

If you're lacking iron, turn to the sesame seed. Its iron content is equal to that of liver.

(Source: nutritiondata.com)