Low Calorie Salad Dressing Suggestions Please

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  • I am on the hunt for a great low calorie salad dressing. I found one from a local restaurant that is oil and vinegar based and only has 10 calories per 2 tablespoons. It’s okay, but a bit vinegary for my taste. I typically like ceaser or catalina dressings. Any suggestions?

    I was also wondering about the zero calorie salad dressings from Walden Farms. Has anyone tried them?
  • If you like creamy dressings, you can mix up a packet of dressing flavor (ranch, cesar, dill- in the dressing aisle) with greek yogurt (just the yogurt for rich dips, or add some buttermilk or I suppose water would work for salad dressings). This yeilds just a bit more calories (for 0% yogurt, about 75 calories per half cup, which I guess is a little less than 20 calories per tbsp), and takes great with veggies! It's also a great way to get more lean protein. I like eating it after weight training.

    There are a lot of salad dressings you can make with various combinations of oil, vinegar, and spices- have you tried searching online?
  • I really love fat free italian dressing. A little goes a long way
  • If I'm lazy and going store bought, the two I usually buy are Trader Joe's Light Champagne Vinaigrette or Wishbone Balsamic Vinaigrette.

    Otherwise, I make blue cheese dressing or a simple vinaigrette with whatever is on hand.
  • I like salt and pepper on my salad.
  • I like the ranch flavor from Walden Farms. It's not anything amazing but it's easy and I don't like to make my own. I'm too lazy! Some people can't tolerate it so it's just a matter of how your respond and my liking it doesn't mean you will, but I sure hope you do.
  • I often eat salad without dressing. However I put lots of different veggies on my salad. i will also put 1/4 to 1/2 of an avocado on my salad. I find the fat helps keep me satisfied and I do seem to lose weight a a better rate f I eat some healthy fat regularly. If I have diced tomatoes (cherry/grape tomatoes cut in half) and some avocado and mix it into the salad well I don't miss not having dressing. Smetimes I will throw ona table spoon of cottage cheese and mix that in well also. The "juicey" part of the cottage cheese lends a dressing like creaminess. Also a fresh dashes of balsamic vinegar are a nice flavor boost and help "moisten" the salad.
  • I'm having a huge problem with creamy fat free dressings. Why do they have a slimy texture? It makes me gag just to think about it!
  • Rice wine vinegar is my "secret weapon" for making low-calorie dressings that require little or no oil. It's a much milder vinegar, so it makes a pretty good salad dressing just on it's own. I usually add a bit of sweetener (Splenda, xylitol, stevia, or nutrasweet) and whatever spices I feel like (from ranch dressing mix powder to garlic powder and lawry's seasoning salt...).

    For a red french, I'll pour a bit of rice wine vinegar and sweetner in a bowl and add a squirt of ketchup or tomato powder.

    Some champagne vinegars are nearly as mild, but other wine vinegars usually aren't.

    I'll also do a buttermilk/ranch by diluting sour cream or my homemade yogurt with skim milk or almond milk until it's pretty runny but still has a little bit of body and I'll add ranch dressing mix powder to that. I buy ranch dressing mix powder in bulk and don't measure I just keep adding powder until the dressing is as strong as I like it.

    The thinner the salad dressing the less it takes to coat the salad (but the more dressing mix because you want the consistency diluted, not the flavor).

    I also will put my salad greens in a zip loc bag or tupperware container along with dressing and then shake to coat the lettuce. If you shake a salad instead of stirring, you can often use a lot less dressing.
  • So far ive only tried the Balsamic Vinegar by Walden Farms...its pretty good.
    Just dont pour too much on then it starts to taste funny but overall pretty decent for no calories .

    Quote: I am on the hunt for a great low calorie salad dressing. I found one from a local restaurant that is oil and vinegar based and only has 10 calories per 2 tablespoons. It’s okay, but a bit vinegary for my taste. I typically like ceaser or catalina dressings. Any suggestions?

    I was also wondering about the zero calorie salad dressings from Walden Farms. Has anyone tried them?
  • Newman's Own light dressings are tasty - I especially like the light lime. It isn't creamy, but it adds variety.
  • Bolthouse makes a line of Yogurt dressings that are divine! From Ranch, french, blue cheese, thousand island to ginger sesame and Mango vingerette..they are 35-45 calories for 2 tablespoons and no artifical stuff in em
  • Thanks everyone!
  • Have you ever tried eating a salad sans dressing? I always avoided salads because I found I didn't really care for a lot of dressings, but the expectation was that one would have dressing with the salad.

    I decided to toss that out the window, and provided that my salads are just more than lettuce, I find that I LOVE a good salad without dressing (why waste the calories on something I don't like anyway??).

    People think I'm absolutely nuts when I refuse salad dressing, but considering that I'm already going against the norm in the way I eat in order to maintain my weight I might as well add one more oddity to the mix.
  • I like the Maple Grove Farms Balsamic Vinaigrette, it's pretty mild but powerful enough for some twang in a salad, it's 15 calories for 2tbsp! I just use balsamic vinegar sometimes, but dilute it with a little water cause it's pretty potent, and mix some pepper and a dash of salt. Dunno if that's just my taste though :-)