Recipe for Italian Dressing

As you surely must know by now, we are big salad eaters and our recipe for italian dressing (plus we added in oil-free Russian and Green Goddess too!) makes those salads so much more delicious. Since we are also big on eating for flavor we know a lot about how to make salads taste good. And one thing is for certain, a good dressing or flavor-packed salad booster are essential ingredients for a great salad.

Although our salad boosters and salad dressings are oil-free, they are not fat-free. You actually need a bit of fat in your salads. Not only does fat help your body absorb fat-soluble nutrients found in foods like tomatoes and carrots, it is also one of the most important conveyors of flavor that exist. In other words, if you eat a fat-free salad it probably won’t taste very good and you probably won’t be too excited about eating it every day either! So, just to set the record straight, we don’t advocate “fat free” salad dressings.

However, pouring excessive amounts of oily dressing on top of your salad in the name of taste isn’t exactly the best way to boost health either. Keep in mind, the healthiest fats are always in their “whole” and unprocessed form, such as raw nuts, raw seeds, olives and avocados. This means if you had to choose between eating an olive or olive oil, the healthiest choice would be the raw naked olive. The whole raw olive will have more nutrients than the oil, especially because most oils are not processed properly (this is particularly true of the omega-6 rich vegetable oils that are ubiquitous in bottled salad dressings.)

Clean Cuisine’s Oil-Free Salad Dressings

Our oil-free salad dressings are the “Clean Cuisine” solution to having a great-tasting salad made with the healthiest fats from “whole” food sources such as nuts, seeds, avocados and olives.

 

Directions for Making Oil-Free Salad Dressings:

Step 1: Use a high speed blender. In order to make our oil-free salad dressings you will need a high speed blender. We suggest the Ultimate Soup and Smoothie Blender.

Step 2: Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and process for about 1 minute, or until smooth and creamy. If dressing is too thick you can thin it out by adding one tablespoon of water at a time. Oil-free salad dressings will keep for up to 1 week if stored in a mason jar and kept in the fridge.

Recipe for Italian Dressing

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons raw pine nuts
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 tablespoons minced sundried tomatoes
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh basil
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
  • ½ teaspoon Mrs. Dash Italian Seasoning
  • ¼ cup raw apple cider vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon anchovy paste
  • ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons water
  • Unrefined salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. Step 1: Use a high speed blender. In order to make our oil-free salad dressings you will need a high speed blender. We suggest the Ultimate Blender.
  2. Step 2: Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and process for about 1 minute, or until smooth and creamy. If dressing is too thick you can thin it out by adding one tablespoon of water at a time. Oil-free salad dressings will keep for up to 1 week if stored in a mason jar and kept in the fridge.

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How to Make Clean Cuisine’s Gourmet (& Versatile!) Salad Boosters at Home

What exactly is a “Salad Booster” you ask? Just like our oil-free salad dressings, our Clean Cuisine Salad Boosters contain healthy “whole” fats from raw nuts and seeds. However, instead of adding water and making a creamy oil-free dressing we grind the nuts and seeds along with other ingredients dry, without any liquid. Because the raw nuts and seeds are ground into small crumbs they can be sprinkled over your salad so that you get a bit in every salad bite. If instead you simply added a few whole walnuts or almonds to your salad you might get the health benefits but you won’t get the same taste satisfaction you would get if the nuts were ground into crumbs.

Sprinkle a few tablespoons of the Salad Booster and just a drizzle of high quality cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil on top of your salad and you’ll have an amazingly healthy and super tasty salad in seconds! Clean Cuisine Salad Boosters are the tasty and nutritious alternative to empty calorie, processed bottled salad dressings and oily condiments.

***Note: Clean Cuisine Salad Boosters can be sprinkled on so many different foods! See the photos below for ideas….

clean cuisine salad boosters

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3 Comments

  1. In your book, you use oils in your dressings such as olive and flax oil. I started using hemp oil in mine. When and why have you changed your opinion about them?

  2. In your book, you have dressings with oil in them such as olive and flax seed oil. I started using hemp oil in my dressing. When and why have you changed your opinion about them?

    1. Ivy Larson says:

      Hi Laura, I am so sorry for the confusion. I have definitely not changed my opinion on oils such as extra virgin olive oil or flax oil (hemp oil is also great!) —In the book on pages 102-104 we just say that if you had the choice of choosing between the “whole” fat (such as olives verses olive oil), it would always be healthiest to go with the “whole” fat (the olives) because it is the least refined. However, as long as you are using a high quality UNREFINED oil and using it at the right temperature (for example you don’t want to heat polyunsaturated rich oils such as flax or hemp oil) then you should be ok! Just use oils in moderation, that’s all 😉

      Hope this helps clear up the confusion? I think if you read the pages in the book it might help too…