Salad Dressing ideas

jadedone

I make my own. The only prepared one I get is trader joes balsamic vinaigrette. It is I think 90 calories for 2 tablespoons and very tasty.

You really don't need lots of fresh stuff to make a tasty dressing. You can use pantry staples of garlic or onion (chop up around 1-2 tablespoons). Add 3 parts acid, one part Dijon mustard and 1-2 parts oil with salt and pepper to taste. You might even add a bit of sweetener. This is great if you use balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, lemon juice and orange or grapefruit juice. You can leave out the mustard. Add fresh herbs and even use a bit of jam for the sweetener. I typically have 5-8 kinds of vinegar in my pantry and 5-9 kinds or oil. I just switch around.

Another tasty option is tahini, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper, and cumin. Nutty creamy, and rich.

Or make a creamy dressing using greek yogurt.

I usually make one of these when I have salad. Half the time I am too lazy to chop onions/garlic so I just use oil,acid, salt, pepper, mustard, sweetener and mix. I save the mini glass jars from jam and similar and shake it up in that. No blending needed. These will keep for a few weeks in the fridge.

visiri

We make our own creamy basalmic vinaigrette by subbing half the oil with plain 0% greek yogurt. It's wonderful. We do the same with pesto too - sub out half the oil with the yogurt. Greek yogurt seems to work better as it doesn't give the sour taste that some yogurts have.

I'm working on making a creamy blue cheese dressing - but since I can't even make a yummy full fat version - dreams of a low fat version are off in the distance.

michknd

For a really good "honey mustard" flavor just mix mustard & a little splenda, zero calories I usually thin it with a little water but I bet with greek yogurt it would be good too. I also mix up my own dry ranch dressing & my own taco seasoning & am thinking combining the two with some greek yogurt would be a really good spicy ranch type.

ampa916

I must say ranch is probably the best dressing out there for me (hidden valley) But I drown my salad in it so, I only put 1 tbsp on my salad and grate (yeah grate) my cucumber so the cucumber juice goes into my salad, I mix it with my dressing and it really spreads out my dressing without losing flavor or adding a ton of calories and fat (but I usually make a salad my main lunch so I need it to be around 300-400 calories)

cressievargo

A few months ago, sick of salad dressings that had enough calories and sodium to make my salads unhealthier than mac and cheese, I discovered Bolthouse Farms dressing. It's yogurt-based, so it's creamy (which I like better than vinaigrette), but it's very low-calorie. The honey mustard dressing is also very low in sodium, but they have other flavors.

Now if I can find a substitute for crunchy croutons with less calories and sodium...

Have you ever tried making your own? I use sorta stale bread, cut into cubes, spritz very lightly with EVOO. Sprinkle on some Nature's Seasoning (there are 2 versions - reg & low sodium) and bake them in the oven.

cressievargo

I use taco sauce (Ortega) or salsa. both are like 10 calories for 2 Tbsp, plus if you do the salsa you are getting more veggies.

mznisaelaine

I switched from thousand island dressing to Italian. I use very very little however. I can also eat salads without dressing (especially if grilled chicken is in it). I think moderation of how much you put on your salad is important.