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A salad dressing is a sauce that is designed to bring out the flavor of the ingredients in a salad. There are many types of salad dressing available on the market. How do you choose the one that’s right for you or for the type of salad you are preparing?

Typical salad dressings include:

• Hummus
• Wafu dressing
• French salad dressing
• Honey Dijon
• Russian dressing
• Italian dressing
• Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Ranch dressing
• Blue cheese dressing
• Louis dressing
• Thousand Island dressing
• Caesar dressing
• Tahini

Salad Dressings may also be categorized as low-calorie dressing or high-calorie dressing.

A low calorie dressing helps to cut down on the extra fat that comes when we add dressing to our salads to send the flavor up a notch.

You can make your own low calorie dressing at home by making a vinaigrette with a blend of oil and lime juice or vinegar, in a 3:1 ratio. Low calorie dressings may be called by the following names:

• Low calorie
• Reduced calorie
• Reduced fat
• Oil free
• Sodium free

Hidden Valley Ranch Light Dressing, Wishbone Raspberry Hazelnut Vinaigrette and Newman’s Own Lighten Up! Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing all have less than 12 grams of fat per three tablespoons of dressing.

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Oil free dressings will benefit persons who have problems with cholesterol. If your aim is to avoid dressings that have extra fat and take care of your heart, look for the dressings that contain canola oil or olive oil.

Vinaigrettes are more often used in dressing green salads. Vinaigrettes also don’t usually contain mayonnaise and eggs, which are off limits to vegetarians.

Sodium free dressings will benefit persons who are supposed to reduce their salt intake.

If you order a salad at a restaurant, you can ask for the low fat or fat free dressing. If you make your dressing at home, substitute low-fat yoghurt or cottage cheese for mayonnaise and fruit juice for oil in the recipes that you like.