Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes

Why did the tomato blush?

Because it saw the salad dressing.

Ok, ok. I know. Bad joke. But you try writing a blog about salad dressings and thinking about a good intro!

Salad, as we all know, is a great, healthy choice, UNTIL we glop dressing all over it. It’s not the salad that’s unhealthy, it’s the dressing. Take McDonald’s Southwest salad for example. (note: some websites are touting this as an unhealthy choice because of its calorie count, fat gram count, and sodium measure. We are only judging by ingredients, and comparing those to the tiers.) McDonald’s Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken has at least 9 red tier ingredients. Nine. Even if it had only one, this would be a red tier choice, but it has NINE. Not surprisingly, the “vegetable blend” has only green tier ingredients. It stands to reason, then, that what makes this a (very) red tier choice is not the salad itself, but the stuff that is put on it, dressing being the main one of them. (In this example, the salad dressing itself has at least 4 ingredients from the red tier, three of which are varieties of sugar.)

So, if you’re trying to eat healthy by eating salads, it’s very possible you’re doing it wrong.

Not to worry, though, because we have you covered! We have over ten healthy salad dressing recipes that contain zero red tier ingredients, but that taste amazing on a salad. It turns out there’s a world of possibilities between McDonald’s version of salad dressings and “just put lemon juice on it.” (And, I’d like to clarify that there is nothing wrong with just putting lemon juice on it IF THAT’S WHAT YOU LIKE. But if that doesn’t get your tastebuds dancing, you might try one of our healthy salad dressing recipes.)” ” Be sure to buy the freshest, most quality ingredients you can find and can afford when you’re making your own salad dressing. Quality ingredients can make the difference between an okay salad dressing and a dazzling one. Walmart makes passable clothes, but you’ll never see them on the red carpet. It’s the same way with ingredients. A little splurge for some quality balsamic vinegar or extra virgin olive oil can be the difference between “now THAT is a salad” and “even my rabbit wouldn’t eat that.””