lower calorie salad dressing? page

[junebu8]

Hi all, I've hit a small stall in my weightloss and I have a banged up ankle too, so I haven't been as active lately, so I'm cutting my calories for a while. I love to eat salad but I'm a dressing fiend. I'm looking for some low calorie dressing recipes...something non dairy that doesn't rely heavily on oil or sugary fruit juice. So far I'm using homemade french a lot (homemade ketchup with tomato sauce, spices, vinegar, salt, stevia, culture, and then add extra vinegar and a touch of walnut oil) but I would love to mix it up a bit. I was thinking I could maybe do a grapefruit vinaigrette, but I don't really want to use a lot of sweeter fruits.

Any ideas?

[d2mini]

All i use is Macadamia Nut Oil or Olive Oil if the Macadamia Nut one isn't available.

[DaisyEater]

Salsa and guacamole make an awesome salad dressing. One of my favorite lunch salads is this will pulled pork. I got the idea from Chipotle's salad bow. I didn't use their dressing since it had soybean oil. I was going to make my own, then I tasted it and realized it was darned tasty without it.

I also like to do plain old oil & vinegar (or lemon juice). The trick that makes it lower calories is that I put the oil on first. Just a light drizzle. Enough to barely coat the leaves. Then I toss that so you get a nice thin film of the oil through out the salad. I season it and toss again. I'm usually tossing several times here and seasoning a little bit at a time so it doesn't bunch up. Then I give it a shot of whatever acid I'm using and give it one final toss. You want to be gentle so you don't bruise the salad. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy. Plus I like that the flavor is all the way through the salad and there's no goopy pools of dressing. I actually prefer a salad dressed this way than any store bought dressing out there.

[Diana Renata]

Ohh... macadamia oil... or avocado oil... yumm...

[Dr. Bork Bork]

a couple ideas:
EVOO and a twist of citrus
leftover bacon grease
melted EVCO
homemade chipotle mayo
homemade mayo w/a twist of citrus

that's all I gots

[Bissen]

Tahin + vinegar + sweetener (honey etc. - you can leave it out, but it's good!) + tamari + water = good dressing! You can add toasted sesame seeds.

Watch the n-6's though

[jmday]

I usually make my one oil concotions.

Good ideas:

EVOO
salt /pepper to taste
juiced lemon

EVOO
salt /pepper to taste
juiced orange/tangerine


Dean & Deluca sells a Blood Orange Olive oil that is to die for. mix this and really tasty.

[junebu8]

Thanks for all the ideas! I'm a weirdo who doesn't like mac oil. I like the idea of it and the nutrition profile, but to me it tastes like the castor oil I chugged to jumpstart a very late labor

I'm going to try the oil and citrus route using avocado or walnut oil, thanks!

[junebu8]

Tahin + vinegar + sweetener (honey etc. - you can leave it out, but it's good!) + tamari + water = good dressing! You can add toasted sesame seeds.

Watch the n-6's though

This sounds good! I used to make a yogurt-tahini dressing that I really loved (unsweetened) but I'm trying to cut dairy. I'll give this one a whirl too!

[Catherine]

i just drizzle olive oil & lime juice on my salad. I've also had a hankering for cumin for some reason, so i sprinkle some of that on too.