Salad Dressing

[SandraDee]

I'm looking for some very light, low calorie salad dressing recipes.  Please post your favorites!

[Courtney]

Have you mixed up greek yogurt with ranch seasoning?  That's pretty good.  I use the 0% greek stuff, and a packet of ranch, but you could definitely mix up your own ranchy seasoning. 

[crazypants]

Drizzle with Olive Oil.
Drizzle with Balsamic Vinegar.
Done.

[redkitty]

My suggestion is sort of like HP's.  If you use a small amount of dressing and then toss your salad (heh) in the dressing you can use a lot less, but still get a very good flavor, than if you were to pour it. (if you have had a salad at Panera, this is what I am talking about). Tthey also have salad dressing misters you can buy. I actually have one and have never used it, so can't tell you how great they work, but they aren't expensive. $10 or so.  When making your own you can use more vinegar and less oil to help with calories. 

[Magic Microbe]

I like apple cider vinegar, mustard, a bit of olive oil, and a bit of honey.

[rocketgirl]

My suggestion is sort of like HP's.  If you use a small amount of dressing and then toss your salad (heh) in the dressing you can use a lot less, but still get a very good flavor, than if you were to pour it. (if you have had a salad at Panera, this is what I am talking about). Tthey also have salad dressing misters you can buy. I actually have one and have never used it, so can't tell you how great they work, but they aren't expensive. $10 or so.  When making your own you can use more vinegar and less oil to help with calories. 

Totally.  If you put your salad in a storage container, add dressing, put lid back on, and shake, you get your salad pretty evenly "dressed" with less dressing.  (But don't do this when you pack your lunch in the morning.  A few hours later, this is less than awesome.  It's just sort of soggy.)

[redkitty]

Totally.  If you put your salad in a storage container, add dressing, put lid back on, and shake, you get your salad pretty evenly "dressed" with less dressing.  (But don't do this when you pack your lunch in the morning.  A few hours later, this is less than awesome.  It's just sort of soggy.)

1. also, don't pack your container with too much salad or the dressing won't spread very well because it won't have room to "move around." 

[omega lambda]

I always make my own vinaigrette and when I'm not watching calories I use a 2:1 ratio of oil to vinegar.  When I am watching calories, I reverse that, so twice as much vinegar as oil.  For me, the trick is to use a milder vinegar, so I use a white balsamic or rice vinegar or regular balsamic.  My typical ingredients are oil, vinegar, an emulsifier of honey or dijon mustard (dijon when watching calories), some fresh garlic, salt, pepper and herbs if you feel like it.  Mix it up with a whisk, pour on the salad and toss well.  I think even a little bit of oil is good for keeping the dressing on the lettuce.

edited to add:  I have found a really good low calorie dressing at Trader Joe's, it's a pear gorgonzola and is quite good with not a lot of calories.  I've tried a lot of the bottled low cal dressings and am usually disappointed.  I think I will try the greek yogurt/ranch mix though.

[Courtney]

Balsamic is ok, but it's not my fave...  I'm working up to it!

[witchypoo]

3 T balsamic, a squeeze of lemon, a tsp of honey, some olive oil.  add your fave herbs, salt and pepper to taste...  this will dress a LOT of salad...

[SandraDee]

These sound great!  I will probably try them all!

[nadra24]

I like Ranch dressing, but not light ranch.  I have some little Tupperware containers that are about the size of shot glasses, and I put about a tablespoon of dressing and a tablespoon of water and use that to dress my salad, which is usually around 5 cups of lettuce and other veggies.  I use the "put the lid back on the storage container and shake" method that rocketgirl described above.  (Just make sure you hold that lid on really well, the cheap ziplock containers aren't always shakeproof!)  I like the creaminess of the ranch dressing, and figure that since my salad is a full meal only has in the neighborhood of 250-300 calories, 100 calories of dressing is no big deal.

[witchypoo]

sandra...  i have also added mustard and/or crushed garlic, depending on my mood.  pretty versatile.

[wherestheportojohn]

Oil, balsamic, smidge of honey, touch of lemon juice.
Or
Just lemon wedge to fresh squeeze.
Or
Oil, lemon, and a healthy dash of trader joes 21 herb seasoning whisked together.

Or, when I feel like it:
Globs of full fat blue cheese or ranch dressing!!

[merigayle]

now that Annie's makes a lowfat Goddess Dressing, I have not made any in ages!

[Magic Microbe]

I have a honey vinger that works really well as an oil and vinegar salad dressing. It has a lot less "bite" than balsamic.

[diablita]

A lot of times I just spray Braggs Amino Acids on my salad.

[Clementine]

1 TBSP seasoned rice vinegar + 1 tsp toasted sesame oil. Toasted sesame oil is really flavorful so a little goes a long way!


For store-bought, this one is low-cal, delicious, and relatively free of unpronounceable ingredients: http://www.bolthouse.com/product/asianginger

[caribougrrl]

if the greens and veg are really tasty, sometimes I just drizzle with a bit of walnut oil... it's a pretty thin oil so a little goes a LONG way, also it's got a lot of flavour

otherwise 2:1 of acid:oil, or even heavier on the acid side... lemon or lime juice or one of a multitude of vinegars on the market... I keep high quality olive oil, walnut oil, hazelnut oil, hemp seed oil etc. on hand for salads... add other flavours like garlic, mustard, honey, poppy seed, etc. as desired

a standard in my house is juice of half a lemon, olive oil, 1-2 cloves crushed garlic

[Ice Cream]

I use seasoned rice vinegar.

[merigayle]

All the seasoned rice vinegar at our big box market has HFCS in it Our natural food store does not sell seasoned varieties.

[LilyLily]

One of my favorites is olive oil, dijon mustard and lemon juice.  Add some salt and pepper too.  It's amazing on avocados.

[Ice Cream]

All the seasoned rice vinegar at our big box market has HFCS in it Our natural food store does not sell seasoned varieties.

I recently bought a bottle of mirin and was horrified to find corn syrup as its first ingredient.  I currently do not have seasoned RV in the house: can't check if it's the case. 

[ecodork]

This is my favorite dressing:

1 small shallot, minced
2.5 Tablespoons of champagne vinegar
1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard
1/4-1/2 teaspoon of honey
1/4 teaspoon of salt
fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup of olive oil

[hally]

We have a store called Fairway (it's a metro NY/NJ chain) that has their own balsamic. And they have it and a bunch of olive oils from different places out to taste with little chunks of bread. I tried the balsamic I usually buy then tried the one next to it which blew that one out of the water. It was $12.99 but heck, well worth it and less then a bottle of wine, going to last a lot longer too. With a drizzle of good Olive Oil and fresh pepper, yum.
Trader Joe's if you have them has among the pear vinaigrette mentioned, a raspeberry walnut and a champagne vinaigrette that are one point each for WW and good.
Also Bolton farms makes yogurt dressings and a blue cheese vinaigrette that are low and good too.

[diablita]

I like their Asiago Caesar

[Yogi]

I don't like using a ton of ingredients in salad dressing. I use one fat and one acid plus maybe one more ingredient.

The key is whiskey really well.

So... I might use olive oil (fat) and fresh lemon juice (acid).

Olive oil (fat) and balsamic (acid) with a dollop of grainy brown mustard.

Olive oil (fat) and white balsamic (acid) with a splace of fresh lemon juice (acid).

I usually keep it simple!

[gebuh]

Drizzle with Olive Oil.
Drizzle with Balsamic Vinegar.
Done.

add minced garlic and fresh ground pepper and you got it.