Bottled Salad Dressing

OK, as a general rule, I hate all bottled salad dressings! But, I have been working out of the house more lately and have been bringing lunch with me! Short on time I have not been making dressing as much as I would like. I am also trying to diet... so any of the bottled dressings that I actually like are out as they are not even close to low-fat... so my question is.... ARE THERE ANY GOOD LOWFAT BOTTLED SALAD DRESSINGS OUT THERE??? ALSO IF ANYONE HAS A RECIPE FOR A LOWFAT DRESSING THAT WILL KEEP WELL LET ME KNOW!!!

[Isa]

I always make my own salad dressing. I do have a book, FCI Salute To Healthy Cooking that have a few lower fat salad dressing recipes. If interested let me know and I'll post them.

Thanks for the thought... but I am going to keep trying to find a good bottled one... becoming lazy in my old age I guess!!! I just wonder why they all taste so awful!!

[monpetitchoux]

For green salads, I suggest using a lower acid vinegar (like rice wine vinegar) so that you can cut down on the amount of oil. Or use a pinch of sugar in your regular vinegar so that you can cut down on the oil to balance the flavor. Use olive oil because that contains the good kind of fat.

Last time I had a very simply dressed salad with lots of pickled beet slices (in three different colors!) on top. The pickled beets have no fat added but supplied such great flavor, texture and lots of additional vitamins. If you accompany your green salads with pickled things like pickled beets, cauliflower, roasted peppers, capers, etc. you can add great interest to your salad with less dressing and be even more satisfied than if you were eating just a simple green salad.

There are lots of salads that are dressed sans fat. My favorite is a Southeast Asian one that combine 1/3 cup strained lime juice, 1/4 cup fish sauce, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 clove garlic minced or pureed and 2 tablespoons chili sauce or paste. This dressing usually goes over shredded green papaya. But I don't usually have that on hand so I put it over thinly shredded cabbage or cucumbers that have been peeled, seeded and cut into batons. I like to throw in tomatoes with the cucumbers. Cold poached chicken breasts pulled into big shreds make a great acommpaniment as do sections of pink grapefruit for the cabbage. Garnish with cilantro if you like it or chopped roasted peanuts. Or boiled shrimp, too. Actually, this dressing is very versatile. You can put it over cold rice vermicelli and blanched mung been sprouts, chiffonade thai basil or spearmint. This is the base of Vietnamese Bun (pronounced boon? as if you are asking a question). You can put a grilled thin cut pork chop on top, grilled chicken, spring rolls, etc. PS, if you bring this just to the boil and allow to cool, it keeps for a long time.

There was a very good marinated mushroom salad I had once in college. It was marinated in a slightly sweet soy sauce dressing with only a few drops of sesame oil added for flavor. There was no other discernable fat.

Unfortunately, I realize that almost all the options I listed are while low in fat, high in sodium. I am not sure if this is a concern of yours but I've been told that every one should watch sodium intake. Good luck.

Thanks!!! Those all sound great... I will have to experiment!! Right now I am more worried about the size of my rear that the level of my sodium intake LOL

Hi OneSock - wow I could have written your post. I agree about the bottled dressings and I too wonder why...they are overflavored and use cheap oils and vinegars, I think is the symptomatic reason - but why no-one has sought the money of such as us for better tasting dressings that we'd pay more for I do not know.

Chefs don't read this - I often buy decent oil and vinegar and just mix them myself, perhaps with a bit of salt, pepper (that sort of thing). It's much more gentle flavored than the pre-mixed ones one can buy.

I love the kinds of dressings I've had in [good] restaurants and wonder too why they are not in stores...but then I guess it probably keeps us keep the chefs in business, to some extent...

fim

I know I was wondering the same thing... I mean I would pay for a good dressing!!! I would pay at least twice the price of the nasty stuff they put out! Even the dressing that are packaged in those great artsy bottles with the mouth watering names are horrible when you get them home! Maybe we should start a Salad Dressing company foodisme!

[Isa]

You might want to try Japanese salad dressing. Some have very little or no oil at all. They all are very falvourful.

OneSock...yikes...I have no bizness acumen!!!

But tell me if you start one and I'll try your dressings now I know we have apparently shared likes and dislikes re: dressings...no blue ones though and if you resurrect Apple Slice I'll maybe even buy some of that too...

(It's ok to be in more than one line [of business], I think? )

Let me know!

fim