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Liquid gold is right! This sauce is so simple and so tasty. Thanks Lindsay!
Danielle
Sunshine Sauce for the wintery win! I am obsessed with this liquid sunshiney gold.
A few weeks ago, I shared on my Instagram stories that I was doing some meal prep, and I got many responses from people asking to talk more about the recipe(s) that I was using for meal prep. So consider this your intro to a few meal prep posts that will be coming your way soon. Whee!
If you ask me (which, you’re reading my blog, so, I mean, you kinda did ask me), one of the major flaws of “meal prep” aka cook your veggies and protein and portion them out in containers for the week is that IT IS SO BORING. And bland. And sauce-less. Most of the meal prep that I see looks like a beautiful rainbow of color that is dry, flat, and flavor-less.
WHERE DAT SAUCE AT, PEOPLE? This is what meal prep is missing. This is what Pinch of Yum is going to bring to the meal prep game. We need some good healthy, flavor-packin sauces up in those Tupperwares.
Which is why I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to my new favorite 5-Minute Sunshine Sauce.
It’s not new, actually – I first made it as a really basic Italian dressing for this pasta salad way back here, and in the last few months, I have gone back to the dressing / sauce in that pasta salad post again. And again. And again.
It’s just too good. And too easy. And too ready-for-anything.
How To Make Our Sunshine Sauce:
The basic Sunshine Sauce crew includes:
- olive oil
- vinegar (or lemon juice would be fine, but sometimes there is no fresh lemon hanging around in your kitchen, which brings us back to vinegar)
- salt
- dried oregano and basil
- garlic! very important
That’s it. For real.
You can always add fresh herbs if you want to take it up a notch – you know, freshness, color, flavor, that kind of thing. But to me, the true beauty of Sunshine Sauce is that it can exist with only pantry ingredients. Even when you have ALMOST NOTHING in your kitchen, I bet you can find what you need to make a little jar-sized batch of this sauce.
This sauce totally drenched my meal prep situation involving spicy chicken and rice and beans, and I mean that in a good way, and you’ll be seeing that recipe soon. But really, this sauce needed its own post.
I make it often enough (weekly, at this point?) to justify a dedicated internet home for this 5-minute-vegan-no-grocery-shopping-required miracle. Roasted potatoes, scrambled eggs, salad, chicken, ALL OF IT. I am hard-pressed to find a food that does not benefit from a steady drizzle of bright and zippy sunshine.
5 Minute Sunshine Sauce, you beauty, you.
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5-Minute Sunshine Sauce
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings (2-3 tablespoons each) 1x
Description
5-Minute Vegan Sunshine Sauce – this stuff is liquid gold! ☀ made with olive oil, vinegar, spices, garlic, and a hint of salt. SO yummy!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 clove garlic
- black pepper to taste
- fresh herbs optional (see notes)
- fresh lemon (see notes)
Instructions
- Blitz everything up in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy. ☀
- Serve on everything! Roasted vegetables, salads, meal prep… it is so versatile and SO yummy.
Notes
Pantry upgrade: I wanted this recipe to be very pantry friendly which is why I didn’t add fresh herbs and lemon to the base recipe (I don’t always have them on hand). BUT. If you do have fresh lemon, add it! It’s delicious. And definitely add fresh herbs if you have them! I like to throw a handful of parsley or basil in for Italian recipes, and cilantro for Mexican recipes.
Storing and Re-Using: This keeps in a jar in the fridge for about one week. If it separates, just shake it up again. If the oil turns solid in the fridge, just let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes OR run the jar under warm water and shake again. If it’s too thick or gloppy, add a little more water.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Sauce
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: sunshine sauce, vegan sunshine sauce, lemon sauce
Edit 5/21/18: A previous version of this recipe listed a higher salt measurement, but I reduced it based on your feedback and because it was intended for a very coarse salt which most people are not using. If you are worried about the salt, a good rule of thumb is to just add salt 1/4 teaspoon at a time and adjust to taste. As always, thanks for your feedback! It helps make recipes better.
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our Sauces That Make Everything Better roundup. Check it out!
I just made this sunshine sauce, and it’s incredible! So quick and easy to whip up, and the flavor is out of this world. I can’t wait to drizzle it over my grilled veggies and fish. Thank you for sharing this gem! 🌟
Just found this and LOVED it! I’m dressing challenged and totally believe the sauce pulls everything together with rice, quinoa or other vegetable bowls. Thanks for a simple and totally yum sauce!
Very good and really simple. . Lemon is better and I added a bit more salt. Thanks
I was not a fan of this sauce.
Lovely, easy sauce recipes – I’m trying them all.
I added a bit of lemon juice and a teaspoon of lemon zest. We love it on asparagus, broccoli, all green veggies really, and kale salad. Beats making hollandaise!
I really like the sunshine sauce. However I usually cook for 2 or 3 people. My solution is to make a full batch and then freeze the remainder in individual snack cups. You can add fresh herbs when you use it.
One has to remember not to try and thaw it out in the microwave. MESSY!! I know from experience. Just put it in a shallow bowl of warm water
This is about the same at the mix I use for balsamic dressing…just replace half of the vinegar with balsamic…as 100% balsamic will be too mouth-puckering strong. Also, I have found that adding about a tablespoon of dark sesame oil adds an intriguing taste to the flavor profile.
Hi, I really wanted to like this because your write up about it was great and the feedback was good. Just didn’t wow my palette with the basic ingredients listed. I didn’t want to see the oil go to waste so added some additional seasonings and I have been using it in lieu of plain olive oil when cooking. Works great that way. I think the basic idea is promising and just need to tweak it for my taste buds. Thanks for inspiring me to make my own sauce…I will definitely have fun experimenting.
Hi Lindsay,
I’m a newcomer to your site but love your recipes and plan to be a loyal viewer for many years to come. I just wanted to point out something that you wrote in context of the sunshine sauce ( which I tried btw last night when I made the sweet potato quinoa recipe. It was all delicious!) WHERE DAT SAUCE AT, PEOPLE? That statement suggests bias, although I’m sure it was not intentional. You may want to think about removing it, and know I am only suggesting this with the best of intentions.
Your sauces look amazing!
This sounds so good! There’s nothing worse then dry and bland food, this completes cures that. It’s looks super versatile too! But the first thing that came to my mind is that these would be great on wings! Can’t wait to try it.
Yum! Love that idea, Jacob!
Hi Julia. Just making your sunshine sauce, but unsure how much lemon juice to put in. I’ll go with 1/2 lemon and add more if needed. How much do you use? Many thanks.
That’s kinda what we did here. Just add to taste.
Since it is pretty much a vinaigrette, which is delicious, you might consider adding a tablespoon of Dijon mustard (up the sunshine factor!) to thicken and reduce need for extra salt. Just a thought
What brand of olive oil do you use and would recommend?
Mine keeps coming out a bit bitter. I tried it again being more careful about taking out all the fresh parsley stems but had the same flavor. Could it be the dried herbs or do you have any way to counteract that flavor?
There is a comment above about not using extra-virgin olive oil in a blender/food processor which is right on. I just made the sauce before I read all the comments & I used EVOO in the food processor which made my sauce bitter. I love it anyway & it’s not enough to deter me from finishing off.
Where does this fit in with Slimming World syns, please?
Is there a canning process for this?
I would never have thought of putting a sauce with scrambled eggs – and totally agree meal prep needs sauce – tell us more – yum!!!
Hi. Wondering if I can use Avocado oil as I’m out of Olive oil.
Thanks,
Pamela
Should be just fine!
The sauce is out of this world.simple to prepare.
Having this on a salad as I type this comment – soo delicious, and came together so easily! A great alternative to store bought dressings with who knows what in them. Thanks for another great recipe, Lindsay!
I usually improvise salad dressing wih the same or similar components, shaking it up in a jar, but decided to make this blitzed-up version for a change. Happily ate it on salad for lunches for days then used the last of it to make an impromptu (if inauthentic) version of linguine vongole with a can of baby clams. Delicious! *I reduced the salt by half and used a good amount of fresh basil that I had on hand instead of dried.
I love this sauce. I used apple cider vinegar instead and it was perfect. Definitely helps me stop using as much ranch dressing as I was using. Fantastic!
So glad to hear that, Kristin!
Liquid gold is right! This sauce is so simple and so tasty. Thanks Lindsay!
Glad to hear that, Danielle!