Salad Dressing?
 

What is your favorite low cal salad dressing?
I *love* salad. I love RANCH! I could eat salad with regular ranch all.day.long!
I hate FF and LF Ranch to me. It just doesn't taste good to me. I have a hard time eating any salad because I just don't like the taste of FF salad dressing... or at least the ones I have tried.
So, what are your favorites?

I love Newman's Own Lighten Up Balsamic Vinaigrette and their Lighten Up Raspberry Walnut Dressing. :T I also love Maple Grove Farms Strawberry Balsamic dressing, which is fat free but doesn't need it anyway. Fantastic flavor.

These dressings have simple ingredients and are delicious.

I also love a good aged balsamic vinegar without anything else.

Good choice- love Newman's own balsamic!

I don't tend to use salad dressing but if I do, I'll use a bit of Marzetti's simply dressed blue cheese. Yep, not low calorie, but it's more important to me to have simple, non-engineered (lol) ingredients. Plus, since I never use dressing I only use a little bit, and it's so good! I haven't tried the other varieties they have but they make some very interesting flavors.

A much lower calorie option that I just saw in the grocery store would be Marie's Yogurt dressings. 70 calories per serving for the ranch- sounds interesting!

Newman's Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger is SO good, just like the dressing at japanese steakhouses -- I put it on salads with avocado and bell peppers and LOTS of carrots.

I also have Maple Grove Farms Fat Free Poppyseed dressing for sweet salads with lots of fruit (pineapple, strawberries and blueberries with grilled chicken -- yum!)

I love straight balsamic vinegar. I also like to use Miracle Whip Light diluted with skim milk.

I have a similar issue; I prefer creamy salad dressings because I find most oil based ones to be too sweet. Kraft makes a lot of good fat free or light dressings, and their light caesar dressing I find is good once in a while. I don't like to have too much of it too often, but it works when I'm looking for a creamy option. I also like their light balsamic vinaigrette with roasted garlic in it. I'm also a fan of honey mustard, which can be a bomb for calories, but Maple Grove Farms makes a lite version that comes in at 35 calories per tablespoon.

You can also try using the ranch dressing seasoning packets and making your own light ranch. If you use 1 cup of kraft light mayo (45 calories per tbsp, or 720 calories a cup) plus 1 cup skim milk (90 calories) plus the mix itself (80 calories) you'll make 16 servings of 2 TBSP of ranch meaning that each serving comes out to just over 55 calories. If you don't like light mayo from any brand out there, that could pose the same problem as not liking the reduced fat or fat free ranches on the market though.

THIS is the best blue cheese dressing I've ever had, hand's down.

I also love Trader Joe's light champagne vinaigrette or the Wishbone olive oil balsamic vinaigrette.

Same (well, not same BRAND, but same general idea). I go with the full-fat stuff and just use a little, partially because the fat-free stuff tastes like crap and partially because I'd rather eat real food than chemicals. I only use a tiny measured portion, so I figure it's not too bad. Most of the time I just go with a little olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice, though.

i actually prefer the salad ready pacs! they are like 300 calories and plenty of sald and i eat the whole bag. it comes with toppings and dressing to so its perfect!

Agreed! I eat food prepared in a kitchen, not a laboratory :lol: Most salad dressings have frightening ingredient labels. It's hard to find dressings with real ingredients, but they are out there.

I do the same. I have yet to find a lf or ff salad dressing that's palatable.

Actually Hidden Valley Light Ranch is delicious, it doesnt taste anything like light at all. Also, Kens steakhouse light Blue Cheese is very good too.....those are my two go-to's for creamy light dressings. I think both have only 70 or 80 calories per 2 tbsps....not bad!

Usually I jsut drizzle my salad with a capful of olive oil and a capful of balsamic vinegar. Lately I've been doing just the balsamic - even less cals :D

Litehouse brand Lite Dressings are a good option too -70 cals per 2 tbsp.

Agreed. The salad I mix is 40-50 calories of greens and mushrooms, so I'm cool putting full fat ranch dressing on it at 110 calories. TMI ALERT: I burp up non-fat or low-fat dressing, so it's a even better reason to stay away from the stuff!

I use the ranch mix packet and add twice the amount of skim milk. It is a little runny (though it thickens by the next day) but you are reducing the total calories and fat.

I'm another one for plain old balsamic. It doesn't coat very well, though, so I'll reduce it. Slight up in calories--'cause it's more concentrated--but you really don't need very much, as it's quite strong. You can also add honey to sweeten it, but that's not terribly necessary. That ups the calories some, obviously.

Panera does something similar on their steak salad; they use a cabernet reduction. They also use some fatty blue cheese dressing, but I never get the dressing on it. Just the reduction. Nom.

Now, if you don't feel like making it, or you want a change of pace, I'll have to third the recommendation of the Newman's Old light balsamic.

I like ken's light sweet vidalia onion vinaigrette and kraft light asian toasted sesame.

I love salsa on salads. It is super low cal like 10 a tablespoon and gives it a real kick!

I usually make my own dressings.

I typically use only 1-2T of salad dressing for both DH and my salads (I make them at the same time.) I don't mind splurging on full-fat dressing when I'm only eating 1/2-1T.

I mix these two dressing together for a unique flavor:

1. Maple Grove Farms Sugar Free Raspberry Vinaigrette
2. Hidden Valley Ranch LIGHT (taste like regular to me)

Together you have a rich creamy, but sweet/tart delishous dressing!:D

Ooh, that's a good dea - I shall have to try that!

I love Kraft's low fat Thousand Island dressing.

Hmm I'll have to try that too. My favorite used to be Maries Blue cheese but I switched to the maple grove farms sugar free vinaigrette when I started watching what I ate...but sometimes it's too sweet to me so this will really taste yum I bet.

What I REALLY love is the cherry vinaigrette that they have on the harvest salad at Panara's. YUMMY!!! But I've never found it at the grocery store.

Favorite salad dressing ever: 2 frozen cubes of crushed garlic (Dorot brand from Trader Joe's), lemon juice, smidge of olive oil, cumin

Mix it up, toss it on, yum!

Another one for salsa here - especially a good chunky low(er)sodium kind like Green Mountain. Even better - try mixing up the salsa with some greek yogurt, or low fat or fat free sour cream - results in an extremely low cal spicy ranchy type dressing!

I will also sometimes make a kind of spicy asian dressing by mixing siracha and rice wine vinegar - this is very vinegary and spicy and not for everyone. Sometimes I'll add a packet of truvia to it to sweeten it up, or a drop (literally, a drop) of sesame oil to give it that rich toasted flavor.

I mix plain lowfat greek yogurt with milk and ranch powder. Tastes good, and because of the greek yogurt, has some great protein content.

I've also dressed salads with some lf cottage cheese and balsamic vinagrette. It looks really gross but tastes really good. =)

Count me in as another plain vinegar person - well, vinegar with salt and pepper. I prefer red wine vinegar to Balsamic, but Balsamic is fine too.

When I have calorie room I will drizzle a little olive oil, or mix together a mustard vinaigrette at home - olive oil, mustard, and vinegar in a 1-1-3 ratio, then just use a small amount to flavor the salad again sprinkling salt and pepper on the salad before adding the dressing).

I never cared for gloppy, creamy salad dressings, even when I wasn't being mindful of what I ate - I guess I'm lucky that way, I don't have to look for a substitute for Ranch or anything like that.

I LOVE Trader Joe's Champagne Pear Vinaigrette With Gorgonzola. SO GOOD! Actually I just ran out and have to go back... but every time I go to that store I get sucked into buying $100 of stuff I don't really need...

I love, love, love...the Bolthouse Farms creamy yogurt dressings. The ones I have tried so far are Creamy Honey Mustard, Creamy Ranch, and Creamy Blue cheese....they all are low in calories AND sodium! :carrot:

I also make my own. Once you get the hang of it, you can learn to make just what you need for the meal, whether it's a single serving or a huge pot-luck bowlful.

Homemade dressings only take a few more seconds to make that it takes to use a bottled dressing, and even if you buy expensive oils and vinegars, they usually come out better and far cheaper.

My favorite dressings are vinaigrettes. I use rice wine vinegars, because most of them are far milder than other vinegars (champagne vinegar is also usually very mild). And with a mild vinegar, you can use little to no oil or sweetener. You can also dilute stronger vinegars with water, but that can be a little less tricky. To me, rice wine vinegar has the perfect acid/sweetness balance, so I'll even use it straight if I don't feel like making a salad dressing, but I'm a "condiment" gal, so I like making my own dressings.

One of my favorite dressings is just rice wine vinegar and a little bit of the peanut oil poured off of a jar of natural peanut butter and a dash of pepper (and salt if it's a salt-free peanut butter).

If I'm in an asiany mood then I do about 7-10g sesame oil, some rice vinegar, salt (or bragg's). Sometimes I'll add garlic powder or fresh garlic and some ginger. Delicious!
Or, about the same amount of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some spices.
I have been looking into making my own dressings, but I just don't have the time. We keep light ranch and light blue cheese around. If I want something creamy I'll use one of those.

dressings are one of the ways I get my healthy fats in, so I usually keep the oil in, unless I'm way over my fats for the day.

Homemade dressings don't have to be time consuming. My most complicated salad dressing (which involves chopping scallion, red onion, cilantro, green pepper, and jalapeno) takes less than 10 minutes to make, but I'm too lazy to take 10 minutes every day, so when I make that one, I make enough to last a week (because it doesn't take but 5 seconds longer to make a week's worth than a salad's worth).

Choosing a bottled salad dressing takes me longer.


Most of my salad dressings (whether I'm making a batch to last a week or making just enough for one personal salad) take less than a minute, and the ones I use most often take about 20 seconds (maybe 30 seconds if you count the trip to the pantry).


To save time (and mess) I mix the salad dressing in tupperware style bowls (with leakproof snap on lids). Shaking mixes the dressing faster than whisking.


I bought a bunch of containers (you can find them in 2 to 4 ounce sizes in most stores that stell storage containers, even the dollar store), for making a single serving, especially before going out to eat (I slip the container into a ziploc bag for extra protection and then toss in my purse).


Or I'll mix the salad in a larger storage container, then after I mix the dressing, snap off the lid, add lettuce and veggies, snap the lid back on and shake again - it takes less time than tossing a salad with bottled dressing.


With some dressings you can even splash on the ingredients directly onto the lettuce, then snap on the lid and shake, tossing the salad and mixing the salad dressing at the same time. I don't like to do this though, because it only saves me 5 seconds, and some ingredients don't mix as well.

Here are some of my quickest salad dressings - Just pop the ingredients into a container (either a small one, or one big enough to put your salad in after you make the dressing), snap on the lid, and shake for about 5 to 10 seconds.:)

I've given single salad sizes, but after only a little practice, it becomes easier and easier to just eyeball the measurements, and make as much as you need. Most have only two or three ingredients, so it can take less than 10 seconds to make some of them.


Basic Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons vegetable or nut oil (walnut is awesome)
1-3 tablespoon vinegar or citrus juice (strong vinegars I use only 1 tablespoon and for milder vinegars and orange juice I use more vinegar)
pinch of sweetener, any kind (optional)
dash salt and pepper


Fruit vinaigrettes (I like raspberry)

add a pinch of flavored gelatin mix or drink mix to the basic vinaigrette


Creamy fruit dressing

add a pinch of flavored gelatin mix or drink mix to the basic vinaigrette to 2 tablespoons of light, fat-free or regular mayo, yogurt, buttermilk or sour cream (or combination of any)


Thousand Island Dressing

2 tablespoons mayo (any kind), yogurt, or sour cream
2 tsp ketchup
1 tsp sweet or dill relish


Asian Dressing

2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
sprinkling from a packet of ramen noodles or 5-spice powder
pinch of sweetener (I use Splenda)



Ranch Dressing

2 tablespoons mayo, sour cream, or yogurt
2 tablespoons skim milk or fat free buttermilk
a couple pinches of ranch dressing mix from a packet (or a pinch each of garlic powder and dill)


Mexicali Ranch (great for taco salads)

2 tablespoons sour cream (or mix of may and sour cream)
2 tablespoons salsa
ranch powder (optional)
,


Aoli

2 tablespoons mayo
1/4 tsp granulated or minced garlic, fresh or dehydrated (if you use dried minced garlic you need to make it a few minutes ahead or the garlic will be crunchy)


Western french

Add 1 tablespoon of ketchup to the basic vinaigrette
sweeten to taste




Dijonaise

Add a squirt of dijon mustard to mayo, sour cream, or yogurt





Barbecue dressing or barbecue ranch

Add a squirt of barbecue sauce to mayo, sour cream, yogurt or ranch dressing.



Blue cheese

3 tablespoons of mayo, sour cream, yogurt, or ranch dressing
1 tablespoon crumbled blue cheese



Awesome garlic caesar dressing

2 tablespoons oil (I like olive oil or walnut oil)
2 teaspoons mayo
1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated parmesan, romano, or asiago cheese
1/4 tsp viatnamese fish sauce
shake of pepper
pinch of sweetener (optional)
a pinch of garlic powder, or minced fresh or dried garlic - I use dehydrated dried - so I have to make it a few minutes ahead).

I make my own honey mustard dressing and it is phenomenal, I am also a fan of blue cheese and thousand island. Dressing is one of those areas I just weigh out the serving size and factor in the calories. I like some reduced calorie dressings, but in general I'd rather have good fat from oil or cream than hydrogenated, engineered crud in a light dressing.

That's just my preference, though :)

If you like blue cheese dressing, I'm going to plug the one I posted earlier in the thread again. It's homemade, lowfat/cal, and it's better than any full fat blue cheeses I've had. It passed the stuck-in-the-mud, finicky grandpa test too, lol!

Yes! I LOVE this dressing. When I first bought it there was some guarantee about "bet you can't tell it's light" and I thought "yeah right" but I was WRONG. The calories are low and it doesn't taste all weird. It even passed the DH test and he doesn't like light dressings at all.

I also love Wishbone salad spritzers!

Please do post this recipe. I must have missed it somewhere but I am totally intrigued by the description!

My favorite dressings are the Bolthouse Farms Yogurt Dressings (in the refrigerator section with the packaged lettuce). The Honey Mustard is my favorite (haven't tried ranch or caesar) and is only 40 calories - very flavorful, creamy and no diet aftertaste. Great for dip too!

4star here is the recipe that Munchy linked earlier in the thread. I looks divine and I'm going to try it ASAP.

Olive oil, salt and pepper and sometimes vinegar is my usual.

If I do have a prepared dressing, I eat the regular version but I only eat 1/2 a serving.

Another favorite is avocado. 2oz of finely diced avocado gives the salad a creamy coating and is under 100 calories.

Weight Watchers cookbooks have some pretty fabulous low calorie dressing recipes. My favorite is an asian sesame dressing which takes about 45 seconds to make. Shake together 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 3 tbsp chicken broth, 2 tsp sesame oil, 2 tsp canola oil, 1 tsp grated ginger, and 1 tbsp soy sauce. Voila! 40 ish calories for two tablespoons. The chicken broth really stretches it out, but it doesn't taste or feel like it. YUM. (If you use unseasoned rice wine vinegar, add 1 tsp sugar. Calorie count doesn't change.)

I love using a good flavored balsamic (my fave is blackberry ginger) mixed with equal parts olive oil. You really don't need a whole lot, it adds a nice sweetness to the salad....and most importantly, it's real food!