from www.whfoods.com

Most of your salad dressings are the same – olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper. Are there other low fat, delicious, healthy options?

We like using those ingredients as a basis for salad dressings. From there, you can add other ingredients to add variety. We like to experiment, and basically make a salad dressing that suits our tastes at the moment, mixing and matching oftentimes from ingredients we have in the kitchen.

For example, if we want a dressing with a creamy texture, we’ll add a little low-fat yogurt and some water. Or we’ll blend a little avocado with some water and add that to the basic recipe as this not only gives it an good texture but a rich flavor. These ingredients will give you a creamy dressing without the added fat of traditional regular creamy dressings.

We’ll also sometimes add herbs and spices. Fresh herbs are best when we have them on hand. Depending upon the flavor profile we want, we’ll add ones like oregano, thyme or marjoram (for Italian) or cilantro (for Asian).

Other ingredients we like to add to some of our dressings include lemon juice, cranberry juice concentrate, Dijon mustard, and ground pumpkin or sunflower seeds.

As you can see, you can really be creative when it comes to making delicious salad dressing that are low in calories and really good for you.

Here are two healthy dressing recipes, which are examples of what you can create using the ingredients mentioned above:

Italian Vinaigrette

1 TBS dried Italian mixed herbs 3 cloves garlic, pressed 1 TBS prepared Dijon mustard 3 tsp honey ½ tsp salt ½ tsp cracked black pepper 3 TBS lemon juice ½ cup olive oilWhisk all ingredients together, drizzling olive oil at end a little at a time.

Yields: ¾ cup

Oriental Dressing

• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 3 TBS rice vinegar, or lemon juice
• 1 TBS honey
• 3 TBS soy sauce
• ½ tsp dry mustard
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp white pepper
• 1/3 cup olive oil

Whisk together all ingredients, adding oil a little at a time at end, until oil is incorporated. If not, dressing will separate. This takes about 2 minutes.

Yields: approximately ½ cup