Salad Dressing

Grrr! It's adding so many calories to my salad. What do you guys use as an alternative?

I don't like any of the diet dressings which tend to be full of dodgy things like 'guar gum'... whatever that is.  I prefer a simple vinaigrette... and just use a couple of teaspoons.

Hmmm... weellll I don't normally use anything,

But when lemon juice and coriander is nice, or tabasco, or balsamic vinager, or extra light mayo or salsa if your not opposed to something more solid?

Can't you just buy the low cal dressings from the shops? Or use less of your usual one? Some people get those little spray bottles to limit the amount they use but make sure that the salads better covered. If not, try googling low cal receipies I'm sure there are plenty on the web!

Good luck!

xxxxxx

for me, if it's just a veggie salad, I'll squeeze some fresh lime juice/lemon and a little red wine vinegar/balsamic on my greens, maybe with a little olive oil (but I completely agree with you and olive oil, while it's good fat, is still a lot of calories for a tbsp.) Dijon mustard is also an excellent way to dress your greens (but a little goes a loooong way.) I mix that with some lemon juice too and some freshly minced garlic/onion. It adds a bite for sure. I also think a couple tsps of Dijon and a tbsp of light miracle whip makes an excellent creamy dressing and it's not that terrible for you.

However, I love adding a spicy spin to my salads, so I use salsa as a dressing with some hot sauce. Green/verde sauce/salsa from like Baja fresh is a terrific dressing on a bed of veggies.

Have you ever tried light dressing? Ken's Stake House lite caesar only has 70 cals for 2 tablespoons. The lite raspberry walnut is good too, especially on spinach.

I like Walden Farms salad dressings but a lot of people think they're gross. They're just water and spices, so they don't have any calories. The Asian flavor is best, IMO. 

Olde Cape Cod fat free Balsamic Vinaigrette. 25 calories for 2 tablespoons. It's extremely good. 

I add salsa to the dressing so I only use half or I mix salsa and buttermilk (it's runny).  I also use regular dressing and only mix in part way and add later on if my salad goes dry. 

I've also recently started just squeezing fresh lime juice over my salad, tossing it around, and then adding maybe a drizzle of some type of vinegar, maybe a small drizzle of honey, and only a teaspoon of EVOO.  This seems to cover a pretty big salad very well.  I also normally put a drained/rinsed fruit cup in there, so that also adds a bit of moisture and extra flavor. 

If using a tomato-based dressing, I stretch it with salsa and/or chipotle puree.  If making my own, I usually go heavier on the vinegar and light on oil.

If using store-bought vinaigrette, I stretch it by adding some fresh squeezed citrus (whichever you have or whichever goes with the style of your salad) and/or some whisked all-fruit spread or low/no-sugar jam (especially nice if having fresh fruit in your salad), and maybe a little extra vinegar and/or honey and/or hot sauce.  I add extra dijon, honey, and vinegar to purchased honey mustard.  

I used to be a "little salad with my dressing" person.  Now, I find that I prefer a simple dressing.  Homemade balsamic vinaigrette made with EVOO is my favorite, but I don't make that light.  I just make it, use only what I need, savor it, and log the calories.   Of the light variety, a lot of fresh lime, vinegar of choice, a squeeze of honey, a little crushed red pepper flakes, and a teaspoon of EVOO is my absolute favorite and comes in at about 65 to 70 calories for a lot of all-natural, great flavor.

I use plain balsamic vinegar. It doesn't actually taste like vinegar..it's a bit tangy and a bit sweet. Odd to describe really. but I LOVE it on pretty much any kind of salad. It goes great with any kind of main ingredient you want to put-- whether veggies, chicken, tuna salad, beans, greens. It's 10 calories per Tbs.

edit; I also use salsa on some salads. I eat salads at a dining hall so what I do is crumble up a veggie burger and put it in with shredded carrots, 1/4 cup kidney beans, and a couple other veggies. Then the salsa. It may sound unusual but it's really nice.

i use my regular dressing and instead of pouring it over the salad i take it on the side, i dip the tip of my fork in the dressing and then into the salad...i still get some dressing tase and i dont have gobs of dressing all over my salad.

another thing i used to do i bought this little bakery type bottle (its the ketchup looking bottle with a pointed end with a tiny lil opening used to make designs on cakes..) i emptied the dressing into it and used that to put the dressing on my salads...regular dressing bottles have huge openings and it just pours out...with the fine hole in the bakery type bottle it releases a fine amount of dressing that you can even out on your letuce, i gurantee you will use less than half of what you normally would...doesnt work well for chunky dressings tho.

i ADORE ken's steakhouse light dressings. i have like 5 of em in my fridge right now. they range from 50-100 calories for 2 tbls. the light northern italian is my fave i think, second is the raspberry walnut (which is REALLY sweet, but yummy)

I love, love, love the Litehouse Blue Cheese Light dressing. It is only 70 cals for 2 tbls. And their Light ranch has only 60 cals per 2 tbls. They come in widemouth jars, so you just have to measure your portions correctly. But to me, they taste as good as the originals.

I'll add another recommendation for balsamic viniagrette, or any light viniagrette dressing. They're packed full of flavor so you don't use as much.

I don't go for the "light" creamy things (they just taste odd to me), but I concocted a really good one consisting of Fage 0% yogurt, salsa, lime juice, garlic, and pepper.

I like Wishbone's 2good to be lite Italian dressing.  It's 35 cals per serving.  BUT, the downfall is its sodium.  Heck, that's the downfall for most dressings, low cal or not.

My other thing is salsa.  Especially when you have actual meat going into your salad, like chicken or ground beef/meats.  Salsa is good on cals AND sodium.

I like newmans light dressings 80 calories for 2 TBSP.You can use less of any dressing if you put salad and dressing in a 1 gallon ziploc and toss so it gets evenly covered.

I use pretty much any dressing I want (well except for the creamy ones, but I dont like them that much anyways!) in small amounts :)  I do the fork-dipping method.... it works great!!

This idea revolutionized my salad:

I went and bought a rubbermaid dressing shaker/container at walmart for $1.

I buy a big container of ken's steakhouse chunky blue cheese dressing - you could do this with any full fat or light creamy dressing though.  Then I go to the gourmet market and buy a cup of nonfat plain greek yogurt.  If you can't get greek yogurt, regular fat free plain yogurt works fine too, it's just not as creamy and tangy.

Measure and mix equal parts dressing and yogurt in the shaker.  Thin the mix with 2-3 tablespoons of milk.  Thinning it out enables the dressing to coat the leaves well with less dressing!  You will need to measure and calculate the first time around so you know what your calories will be.  After that, you can just use the empty yogurt cup to get equal parts yogurt and dressing and it will be the same amount of calories.

I calculated out the calories per tablespoon based on the proportions I used.  

Here's the math:

16 tablespoons are equal to one cup.  I used 1/2 cup yogurt and 1/2 cup dressing.  Add together the number of calories for your yogurt and dressing.  Add 10-30 calories extra depending on what fat percentage of milk you used.  Divide the number by 16.  What you get is the number of calories per tablespoon.

Ken's chunky blue cheese is about 200 calories per serving.  My mix tastes almost identical (if not better, since the regular stuff is so heavy and can get nasty if you use too much) and is about 38 calories per tablespoon.  

For me, 80 calories of dressing is a good compromise to get a salad I can actually STAND!

I just made a large salad for dinner, about a quart of vegetables in all. I took a mere teaspoon and a half of sesame Goddess dressing (my favorite) and mixed it into two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. I minced a clove of garlic for extra flavor, added Italian herbs and black pepper, and tossed away. This combination was enough to dress the salad using a minimum of fat and sodium--only 29 calories of dressing which I stretched to dress a big salad bowl. Balsamic vinegar is much smoother tasting than the garden variety and it allows you to get by with a lot less oil.

Fat free Raspberry Pecan is soooooooo good if you're looking for a sweet fix.

I use regular vinaigrette dressing, but I have it on the side, and I don't pour it on the salad.  Instead, I get a forkful of salad, then take my knife and scoop up a little dab of dressing, and put that right on the end of the fork so I taste it.  I use a fraction of  the dressing that they give you in the restaurant that way.