Why Youll Love This Recipe
- Homemade dressing is so much better than store-bought. Homemade isnt loaded with chemicals and preservatives like its grocery store counterpart.
- Its quick. You can make this in a matter of minutes.
- French vinaigrette goes great with almost any salad.
- Its also a great marinade for vegetables, chicken, and fish.
- Its gluten-free and low carb.
Why Make Your Own Salad Dressing
If youve taken the time to make a big healthy salad chock full of fresh veggies, you dont want to ruin it with a salad dressing with questionable ingredients. Making your own is the best way to ensure your salad dressing is fresh and nutritious.
These are just a few of the reasons you should set aside a few minutes to make your own salad dressing:
- Store bought salad dressings usually have a lot of refined sugar.
- To make salad dressing shelf-stable, manufacturers have to use chemical preservatives.
- Salad dressing can be high in bad fats and calories.
- When you make your own salad dressing, you know it was made with fresh ingredients.
- These homemade dressings taste way better!
- Its cheaper to make your own.
- You can make salad dressing to fit any eating plan gluten-free, paleo, keto, Whole30 and more!
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Healthy Honey Mustard Dressing
Honey Mustard is often filled with sugar but my version is not! It’s light, bright, and creamy thanks to the mustard and greek yogurt. My Healthy Honey Mustard Dressing does have honey but no added refined sugar.
Serve it with my Fall Harvest Salad or any other salad you’d normally like Honey Mustard with. It also works great as a dip!
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A Good Salad Starts With The Dressing
A few years ago I wrote a post about my familys Sauce System how we often start with whatever sauce sounds the most appealing, and build our meals around that.
Today, I want to share a similar technique for building salads, only with healthy, homemade, oil-free dressings instead of sauces.
The technique goes, if you learn a few simple dressing recipes, then you can shape nearly anything in your kitchen into a delicious salad of your choosing.
But before we get to the recipes, lets talk about why Im going oil free with these seven staple recipes.
Healthy & Creamy Avocado Lime Dressing
This dressing is nothing short of dreamy! My Healthy & Creamy Avocado Lime Dressing features all the flavors of guacamole but in a healthy salad dressing package. If you love avocado, lime, and cilantro… this is for you.
Serve this dressing with any salad or even as a drizzle on top of tacos. It’s also great with my Vegetarian Taco Salad.
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Zesty Avocado Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing
Just the name has us craving it we didnt even need the beautiful photo. Healthy creamy dressings are hard to come by, but Skinnytaste found that low-fat buttermilk and avocado do the trick without ruining our diets. In addition to being creamy, it also offers a nice kick the recipe includes garlic, scallion and jalapeno.
Why Make Your Dressing At Home
Making a low-calorie and healthy salad dressing more imaginative than a little bit of oil and vinegar is not all that easy.
Most published recipes for homemade dressing are high in calories because they contain lots of fat and sugar. While some types of oils are healthy in moderation, overdoing it can be tempting.
Then I thought about my favorite food groupYOGURT.
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Healthy Greek Yogurt Ranch Salad Dressing
If you love classic home-style Ranch Dressing, but dont love how high in fat and calories it is, then youre going to adore this Healthy Greek Yogurt Ranch Salad Dressing. It is low in calories, coming in at only 42 calories per serving, and low in fat But that doesnt mean we have to sacrifice flavor! This Greek Yogurt and Buttermilk ranch has a tangy homestyle ranch flavor we all know and love so well and will totally satisfy your craving for creamy dressing.
The Best Healthy Salad Dressing Brands
Ideally, you want your healthy salad dressing to meet certain nutritional criteria.
- Less than 250 milligrams of sodium
- Less than 3 grams of added sugar
- No artificial colors or preservatives
- Few to no vegetable oils
And while fat-free dressings may seem synonymous with fitting into your skinny jeans again, thats not actually the case. You want your topper to contain some healthy fats, which help your body absorb vitamins A, D, E, and Kslimming nutrients found in many salad staples such as spinach and tomatoes.
These are the 10 healthiest salad dressings you can buy.
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Homemade Healthy Greek Yogurt Poppyseed Dressing
Poppyseed dressing is often filled with mayonnaise and refined sugar making it a not great choice. My Healthy Homemade Greek Yogurt Poppyseed version once again uses greek yogurt to get the creamy base and is sweetened by a touch of honey. If you like a sweet salad dressing, this is it!
Serve it with your favorite fruit salad or my Copycat Panera Strawberry Poppyseed Salad.
This one is unique! My Healthy Basil Vinaigrette features only 5 ingredients including fresh basil, lemon, and olive oil. I love it in the summer to bring out the flavors of fresh greens and tomatoes.
It’s also the perfect dressing for a Caprese salad. Serve it with my Grilled Peach Caprese Salad.
More Healthy Homemade Salad Dressings To Try
- Try this Tarragon Vinaigrette over your spring greens. It pairs well with asparagus and goat cheese.
- This Thai Peanut Dressing is savory and delicious on power bowls, noodles or try it on a green salad with cucumbers, scallions and radishes. Our Japanese-inspired Carrot Ginger dressing is our Benihana Copycat!
- This Asian Sesame Dressing with soy is great on fresh mesclun greens or tender spring lettuce and toasted sesame seeds. Nothing more!
- Our love of maple syrup in salad dressing runs long and deep. A few favorites include this Balsamic Walnut Vinaigrette, this Maple Tahini Dressing and this Sherry Maple Vinaigrette.
- We also love Lemon Tahini Dressing with Middle Eastern-themed dinners and for drizzling over our pita pockets.
- Our Mustard Salad Dressing was inspired by the lovely dressings we had on our recent trip to Germany. Try it with a big composed salad!
- Our egg-free Caesar dressing is tangy and bright!
- If you love Salad Nicoise, try this caper-spiked Salad Nicoise Dressing.
- One of our other yogurt dressings is this Cumin Seed Yogurt Dressing. It is great with kale and feta with homemade croutons!
Thanks so much for reading. If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my free weekly email newsletter where I share weeknight meal plans delivered right to your inbox. Or follow me on . If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review! It is very appreciated. Happy Cooking! ~Katie
- Yield:1 1/4 cup1x
- Category:Salad Dressing
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Carrot Ginger Salad Dressing
This Carrot Ginger Salad Dressing lies somewhere between the honey mustard and Asian dressing with added creaminess and nutrients from carrots. It combines ginger, honey, sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and carrot for a healthy homemade salad dressing that is zingy, bright, and super fresh. All you need is a blender and a few minutes, then youll be struggling not to drizzle it over everything (at the very least lots of leafy salads and stir-fries!
Ingredient Basil Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Disclosure:
Use summer’s fresh basil to make my healthy and homemade Basil Vinaigrette Salad Dressing.
Hi guys,
I didn’t intend on having two salad dressing recipes in a row, but this is the first recipe the Hubs helped me with and I decided it was best to keep it as simple as possible. I’m so glad with the way the pictures turned out! He helped me set up a tripod, get the camera in the right place and basically did everything except hit the button.
This Basil Vinaigrette Salad Dressing idea came from having a lot of fresh basil in the garden and loving the fragrant flavor of the herb in summer. It really is like summer in a jar.
Like most of my salad dressings I like to keep these recipes with as little ingredients as possible. My homemade basil vinaigrette salad dressing is only five ingredients.
The secret to this one are simply a really good high-quality olive oil, I like this one, fresh basil a nice vinegar, lemon and minced garlic. I like to keep a really nice olive oil in the pantry that I use exclusively for salad dressings and other uses were you really taste the oil. I think it makes a big difference.
Now you can leave a salad dressing with visible basil leaves, or you can blend it into more of a puree. Either way you get a pretty green color and the taste is the same.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. As always, I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.
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How To Make Fat Free Avocado Salad Dressing Recipe
Even a novice chef can wash, chop, and mix fresh vegetables. But this mixture will turn into a salad only after it is coated with a delicious dressing. This ingredient plays an important role, it can make the appetizer tasty or tasteless, increase the benefit of the dish or harm it.
Creating a salad dressing can take even longer than preparing the main ingredients, but the result is worth it. The delicate creamy cream-based sauce will give the salad a pleasant creamy aroma, a delicate aroma.
The vegetables with it digest well. This version of the salad dressing refers to French cuisine, which is famous for its sauces.
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Avocado dishes are not just a fad. Avocado is really healthy, that is, its fats are very healthy and necessary for our body. The price is not naive, so we dont have to eat it often, but its ok sometimes to include it for breakfast, lunch, or, if youre out of restrictions, for a snack.
Monounsaturated fats , which avocado is rich in, reduce the level of bad cholesterol and increase the level of good . In addition to good fats, avocados have many different vitamins and minerals. Primarily vitamins E, K, and B vitamin complex.
It is also rich in magnesium and potassium. This is important information for those who start with a Chrono diet. So they often complain of pain in the legs, which appear due to the expulsion of excess water, because magnesium and potassium go with the water.
Ingredients To Make The Healthiest Salad Dressing
- Red wine vinegar The best vinegar to use, both in flavor and how mild flavored it is. You can use apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar.
- Sugar substitute Keep the calories down but add some sweetness. I like using a brown sugar substitute or a powdered sugar substitute.
- Water Lukewarm water to whisk into the vinegar easily.
- Garlic Freshly minced.
- Salt and pepper To taste.
- Italian seasonings Optional, but adds a lovely subtle flavor.
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Serving Recommendations For Homemade Salad Dressing
When it comes to adding healthy homemade salad dressing recipes to my list of go-tos, I love something thats versatile for dressing, drizzling, dipping, and use as a sauce. Here are a few suggested recommendations:
You can also serve any of these healthy homemade salad dressings as part of a party spread alongside other appetizers/sides , dips , and other healthy snacks!
How Do I Use This Balsamic Vinaigrette
Oh my goodness, the question really should be, what doesnt this dressing pair well with? Everyone should have a balsamic dressing recipe because it works well with everything! I love it on salads, and its excellent paired with fruit . You can drizzle it on your tomatoes, or it can be used as a quick marinade for all kinds of meat.
Want a simple fruit salad thatll knock your socks off? Combine diced pears with blue cheese, spinach, and walnuts. Then add a little bit of cinnamon to this balsamic vinaigrette and drizzle it on top of your fruit salad. Youre left with a sweet little bowl of yum!
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The Best And Worst Salad Dressings For Weight Loss According To Dietitians
Help your salad stay nutritious by picking a good-for-you dressing.
Salad is a go-to meal if youre trying to lose weight, since it tends to be lower in calories and pack lots of nutrients from fresh produce. But lets face it: Theres nothing worse than a boring or dry salad. You need a delicious dressing to add moisture and flavor to your bed of greens. Plus, the fats in salad dressing helps your body absorb the nutrients in your salad. However, the dressing you choose can hinder, rather than help, your health goals if its too high in calories, saturated fat, sugar or sodium.
Ultimately, you need to create a calorie deficit to lose weight, and there are certainly some dressing options that are higher in calories than others, says Lauren Harris-Pincus, M.S., RDN, and author of The Protein-Packed Breakfast Club. While it can vary depending on what type of diet youre on, these are generally some of the best and worst dressings if youre trying to lose weight.
What Foods Can I Use This Sesame Ginger Dressing With
Sesame and ginger are staples of many Asian cuisines, so this dressing works well with Asian-inspired salads or slaws. This dressing also makes a fantastic marinadeit is especially great for marinating chicken drumsticks or for using with meat in the slow cooker. We also love it on cold noodle salads.
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How To Make Homemade Salad Dressing
Each of these recipes are made with minimal ingredients. There are a few ways to mix up homemade salad dressings:
- Put all of the ingredients in a mason jar and shake it up! I like using this method for oil-based dressings like vinaigrettes.
- Put all of the ingredients in a high powered blender and blend! I like using this method for creamier dressings that use ingredients like avocado but it also works great for vinaigrettes!
Creamy Dijon Honey Mustard Vinaigrette Dressing
Creamy, slightly tangy with a hint of dijon and a touch of sweetness. My favorite salad dressing for kale salads.
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
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Coconut Oil Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
If you are unfamiliar with coconut oils many benefits, heres a quick run-down of a few: it supplies energy to the brain, it can prevent heart disease and high blood pressure, it can reduce inflammation and arthritis, and it improves energy and endurance! The list goes on and on. But the bottom line is that adding coconut oil is an awesome way to make a healthy homemade dressing!
Tangy Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing
Fresh vibrant red raspberry notes mixed with a bit of tanginess and a hint of sweetness.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
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What Is The Shelf Life Of A Homemade Dressing
Of course, it’s always best to prepare only small amounts. That way you can always be sure that your low-calorie dressing won’t go bad.
You can also store dressings. Just put them in the refrigerator. Preferably in a jar with a tight screw cap. Yogurt dressings in particular dry out quickly otherwise.
Skinnygirl Poppyseed Salad Dressing
SkinnyGirl Poppyseed salad dressing works out at 10 calories per 2 tablespoons .
It is fat free and sugar free and is suitable for anyone following a gluten free diet or a vegan lifestyle.
It is available to buy from Amazon and from many larger food stores including Walmart, Kroger and Publix.
SkinnyGirl Honey Dijon dressing works out at 10 calories for 2 tablespoons .
It is fat free and sugar free and is suitable for people following a gluten free diet.
Buy it online from Amazon or in store from stores such as Kroger, Walmart and Publix.
SkinnyGirl produce another 4 flavours of dressing including Buttermilk Ranch and Balsamic Vinegar all work out at 10 calories per 2 tablespoons.
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