Healthy Salad Dressing Hack

all photos by Emily Kolacz

Salad season is upon us. Truth be told I’m a year-round salad eater. A veggie lover at heart who would take a plate full of veggies over fruit any day. (Just give me m’damn chocolate at the end of the meal OK?)

It’s funny how salads have become synonymous with healthy, when a salad can be pretty much anything you want–including unhealthy. Of course this depends a little on your definition of “healthy” but for many restaurants salads can be one of the more fatty and calorie-heavy options. Last year when I started tracking my macros I felt like for the first time I had an idea of what “healthy” really looked like, and it was all about balance. Making sure I’m getting all my macro-nutrients–protein, fat and carbs–in the right proportions. I don’t keep strict track of my macros anymore, but I’m still very mindful of increasing my overall protein intake while keeping my fats and carbs at medium levels. When it comes to salads it’s easy to hit the right amount of proteins, fats and carbs with the base ingredients–greens, chicken, beans, peppers, fennel, sweet potatoes, avocado–just to name a few favorites, but it’s the dressing where that balance can really get out of whack. I prefer homemade salad dressings for the simple fact that you can’t beat the taste! But most dressings call for 1/2 cup or more of oil. Straight up oil.

Last year I discovered store-bought greek yogurt based salad dressings. They were so good with a fraction of the fat and calories of regular dressing AND because they use greek yogurt, they actually have protein. Then I figured, what if I try that same substation in my homemade dressings and of course it worked fabulously!

So next time you’re making a homemade salad dressing that calls for 1/2 or more of oil, use about 2 Tbls of oil and substitute the rest with greek yogurt! You’ll get a little more tang, but the same great taste overall. Here is one of my all time favorite salad dressing recipe’s from Our Best Bites that I subbed in greek yogurt for the majority of oil. Enjoy!

Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette originally from Our Best Bites

• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon stone-ground mustard
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1 pinch white sugar, more to taste if needed
• 2 TBLS olive oil (or better yet Our Best Bites bacon flavored olive oil)
• 1/2 cup or a little less greek yogurt

Combine all ingredients in blender except olive oil and greek yogurt until smooth.
Then turn on blender and slowly add olive oil to emulsify and then add all the greek yogurt and blend until smooth.

You could try this with almost any dressing and I bet it would be so good! Another oil substitute I’ve used in the past–particularly for peanut sauce–is low fat coconut milk. Tastes amazing!