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
- 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.
- 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.
Last Step! If you loved our recipe, leave us a review below. This helps future recipe makers and ensures continued high-quality recipes for years to come!
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….
Laura
Saturday 25th of March 2017
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?