Salad Topping?

StephStepByStep
StephStepByStep Posts: 131 Member
edited December 24 in Food and Nutrition
I love salads, but dressings are full of calories and fat. I was wonder what I can top my salad with to flavor it besides using salad dressing? OR does anyone have a low calorie homemade salad dressing recipe?

Replies

  • AshleyA1222
    AshleyA1222 Posts: 4
    I use buffalo wing flavored hot sauce (no calories but a lot of salt), cottage cheese, or kraft light 3 cheese ranch!
  • jc86
    jc86 Posts: 151
    I use bolthouse farms dressings. they are delicious, range from 30-45 calories per serving, and have natural ingredients
  • vjrose
    vjrose Posts: 809 Member
    I use Annie's fat free raspberry vinagrette. Also trader joe's orange champagne vinegar with a bit of olive oil to cut the zing. I could go on, I love salads but couldn't give up dressing, try the "health food" section of your store for some better alternatives.
  • tajour
    tajour Posts: 134 Member
    I love to sprinkle those little non-pareil capers on my salads. Hardly any calories and they just POP with flavor!
  • chris1816
    chris1816 Posts: 715 Member
    People are of course hyping it because there was a recent news article about it, but you really don't want to scimp on fats with a salad...you're eating it for nutrition right mostly right?

    There is a reason why on any vitamin supplement bottle it recommends you take with food; not to prevent an upset stomach but because many micro nutrients in both vitamin supplements and food are fat soluble. You need some kind of lipid involved in order to let your body to absorb the fat. Now does this mean pile on the ranch? No (plus ranch is gross).

    Olive oil and balsamic vinegar are great for flavor and digestion in the case of the vinegar but you will get a good amount of healthy fats out of the deal to allow you to absorb all those sexy nutrients from the *kitten* you are eating that came from the ground. Keep this rule in mind when eating things. Sweet potatoes? Olive oil or butter if you want all that vitamin A...spinach or kale? Needs to be cooked to get the full Vitamin K value, and also needs a bit of fat to get all the other nutrients out of it. List goes on.
  • lwagnitz
    lwagnitz Posts: 1,321 Member
    I use olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I'm not really into heavy dressings it kind of grosses me out. If I'm not feeling the "greasy" with the oil, I'll go for the vinegar and some lemon juice :)
  • mrsheu
    mrsheu Posts: 30
    I make an asian dressing using rice wine vinegar, sesame seed oil and sugar. One tablespoon is under 60 calories, and enough for a large salad. Add to that chicken breast, boiled eggs and other vegetable, and it makes a complete meal at under 200 calories. I like to add fried wonton strips, bringing the total to around 300 calories. Not bad, and it completely fills me up.
  • jldunn713
    jldunn713 Posts: 41 Member
    salsa
  • becabean
    becabean Posts: 49 Member
    i like pineapple cottage cheese , salsa or just some chopped chilli's mixed in to give it a lil kick :)
  • lyttlewon
    lyttlewon Posts: 1,118 Member
    Olive oil and lemon juice
  • sparkie51
    sparkie51 Posts: 98 Member
    A little OJ and balsamic vinegar(many flavors available now) it is so good
  • Teachinjen
    Teachinjen Posts: 88 Member
    I use homemade salsa made with lot's of tomatoes, cilantro, onions........In fact i just had a huge yummy salad with 7 tablespoons of salsa.......35 calories!
  • BVannillie
    BVannillie Posts: 140
    You could fry some onions, shave some carrot or cucumber over the top, sprinkle some seeds, cheese or bacon if you had the calories to spare, flavoured oil or vinegar.
  • wftiger
    wftiger Posts: 1,283 Member
    Salsa mixed with sour cream or Greek yogurt or some crushed pineapple or mandarin oranges if I want something sweet.
  • wftiger
    wftiger Posts: 1,283 Member
    I use buffalo wing flavored hot sauce (no calories but a lot of salt), cottage cheese, or kraft light 3 cheese ranch!

    There is a brand called Wing Time that you can check for. Really low in sodium and tastes just as good as Franks. One of my local stores has it in the hippy aisles (health food). Before I found it there I ordered it here -- http://www26.netrition.com/wing_time_wing_sauce.html. BTW that site also has a BBQ that is sugar free and sodium is decent too here -- http://www26.netrition.com/guys_bbq_sauce.html
  • ginaquinn2
    ginaquinn2 Posts: 136 Member
    I love salads, but dressings are full of calories and fat. I was wonder what I can top my salad with to flavor it besides using salad dressing? OR does anyone have a low calorie homemade salad dressing recipe?

    Hi we love salad's here too, but for a while they just seemed like a place our salad dressing on. Especially my husband he poured gobs of the stuff on. But I recently stopped using salad dressing altogether! I just had to stand up and say enough. My husband and I both really like blue cheese dressing so instead of the dressing I have bought blue cheese crumbles. It has such a strong flavor that you only need a couple of tablespoons to flavor the whole bowl of salad. I also have a salad spritzer from Wishbone in ranch flavor. They also come in balsamic and Italian. They are about 15 calories for 10 sprays. If you go to http://www.wish-bone.com/ you can find out where they sell it in your area. Best wishes for a healthy and yummy salad. :drinker:
  • mycatgidget
    mycatgidget Posts: 3 Member
    +1 to the Salsa!

    A can of that flavoured tuna adds protein without needing any dressing at all - makes for a nice filling salad.
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