Sugar not only makes you fat, it leads to binge eating and hunger.
Karen Bentley

Secrets of Great Salads and Dressings

The secret of a great salad with a super tasty dressing is to use the very best oils, vinegars, greens and herbs your budget can afford. The practice of being attentive to high quality ingredients immediately transforms a dreary, predictable tasteless salad into a salad that you look forward to because it's so very flavorful and delicious.

I personally eat a lot of salad, always at least once a day and sometimes twice, especially in the warmer months when I have access to fresh, locally grown produce. My basic shopping strategy is to buy a supply of greens a week at a time, which I wash, make ready and re-package for storing in the fridge. Then the next week I buy a different supply of greens, and so on. This keeps things interesting. I also like to make up a couple of different dressings for the week, and then I alternate using them. Sometimes I get on a dressing kick and make the same dressing week after week, but my husband gets very bored with it. The practice of switching your dressings around will keep you from falling into the same-old, same-old salad rut.

Occasionally I buy salad dressings off the grocery store shelf, but I always, always check to make sure there are no caloric sweeteners listed as one of the first four ingredients. Store-bought sugar-free salad dressing choices do exist, but you have to take the time to look for them. It's better to go for the ones made with oil and vinegar or the ones that have a cream base of some kind. Don?t be fooled by the word "organic" on the label. And keep in mind that most light, low-fat or fat-free store-bought dressings are loaded with sugar, HFCS and every other kind of sweetener you can imagine. Sugar has no fat, so it's a food manufacturer's dream. Since most people do not bother to look at the ingredients, they don't realize that all that sugar undoes any beneficial dietary effect.

Salads and Dressings Collection

Table of Contents
Secrets of great salads and dressings
Arugula Strawberry Salad
Asian-style Salad
Asparagus and Artichoke Salad
Basic Green-leafy Salad
Celeriac Slaw
Chickea (Garbanzo) Salad
Cucumber and Walnut Salad
Endive Salad
Gazpacho Salad
Greek Salad
Green Bean and Olive Salad
Marengo Salad
Marinated Carrots
Mushroom and Walnut Blue Cheese Salad
Pea Salad
Roasted Pepper and Onion Salad
Three-bean Salad
White Bean Salad

Dressings:
Asian-style Dressing
Avocado Dressing
Basic French Dressing
Basic Sour Cream or Yogurt Dressing
Blue-Cheese Dressing
Creamy Roasted Garlic Dressing
Shaker-Style Dressing
Tomato Dressing
The Vinaigrettes:
-Balsamic Vinaigrette
-Basic Vinaigrette
-Caesar Vinaigrette
-Creamy Vinaigrette
-Lemon-Chive Vinaigrette
-Sherry-Nut Vinaigrette