Dress It Fresh: Plant-Based Dressing Recipes to Inspire Healthy Eating

Why Plant-Based?

We crafted these Silk dressing recipes as part of CAF’s Plant Forward Initiative. Plant-based and plant-forward recipes enable schools to make a positive environmental impact through school lunch offerings while teaching students the benefits of making plant-forward meal choices in and out of school. And since schools serve such a large population, serving plant-based and plant-forward meals and recipes is beneficial to both student health and the environment.

Below are the final tried-and-tested recipes:

• Coconut lime
• Cucumber mint
• Dairy-free ranch
• Honey mustard
• Sesame ginger

(Click any recipe name to check it out, or view all dressing recipes by clicking here.)

Each recipe was tested in a school production kitchen, taste-tested and approved by students, and is currently featured on The Lunch Box, complete with nutritional and cost analysis, and USDA meal compliance.

For more information on why plants are healthier for our bodies, our planet, and our school food operations, click here.

Every entrant will receive a scholarship to one of two School Food Institute online courses, Plant Forward or Salad Bars in Schools,* which meet USDA Professional Development requirements. Selected responses will be included in a summarized impact story on the More Plants Please section of The Lunch Box website, CAF’s national online database for school food change.

We hope these recipes will be a great starting point for districts interested in adding more healthy, plant-forward recipes to their school food programs. By using non-dairy milks as a base for scratch-made dressings, we can encourage schools towards the Plant Forward continuum and explore new ways to incorporate more plant-forward recipes for kids.

Many thanks to recipe sponsor Danone North America. As the largest certified B Corp dedicated to mission-based initiatives, Danone’s commitment to making delicious food that is good for you and good for the environment supports ingredient variety in a healthy, scratch-cook school food operation. The Chef Ann Foundation continues to support healthier school food for every child, every day through innovative recipes and forward-thinking initiatives. For access to 350+ free school food recipes, click here.

* = entries will receive a single course scholarship, while supplies last