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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Real vs Fake, Part VI - Salad Dressing

I've mentioned before of my struggles to find an acceptable ( to my taste buds ) CE alternative to bottled salad dressing. Problem is, even after almost a year, I still find myself vaguely dissatisfied by CE salad dressings. After doing a little research this morning...I'd say an attitude adjustment is coming my way!




The salad dressing aisle in the grocery store is chock full of flavor variations and styles. Unfortunately, almost all are heavily salted, heavily sugared, and just plain Unclean. Even brands that promote themselves as fat free or "healthier" alternatives are just as bad.


The ingredients in Kraft Fat Free Italian Dressing:

water, vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, contains less than 2% of parmesan cheese (part-skim milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), garlic, onion juice, whey, phosphoric acid, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate and calcium disodium edta as preservatives, yeast extract, spice, red bell peppers, lemon juice concentrate, dried garlic, buttermilk, caramel color, sodium phosphate, enzymes, oleoresin paprika

Water, vinegar, sugar, sugar, salt. Yum ( not )!

Fake salad dressing comes in a bottle. There is no way around it; real salad dressing is made at home in small batches.


 
Real Italian dressing is olive oil, vinegar, perhaps a few herbs, and salt and pepper. Pretty simple and definitely made of stuff that’s good for you and that you can easily envision in its natural state. We all know that olive oil is a healthy oil and the rest of the ingredients don’t have any real drawbacks. The best part is that you can tailor this dressing to your own liking. Add minced garlic, or pepperoncini juice instead of salt.