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Want to drizzle your salad with something light? Try these homemade healthy salad dressings: all under 50 calories per tablespoon!
Looking for lighter ways to dress your salad? We’ve got them! Here’s a list of our top healthy salad dressings to try at home: fresh, bright and bursting with flavor! What makes them healthy? These salad dressings are:
- Homemade with no additives or preservatives. Making dressing at home is healthier than store-bought because it uses high quality ingredients and less extra fats and sugars. It also avoids the preservatives or additives that companies add to make bottles last for years in the refrigerator.
- Less calories. These healthy salad dressings all have less calories than the typical salad dressing! Most store-bought dressings recipes have about 70 to 80 calories per tablespoon: each of these have less than 50 calories per tablespoon. Ready to get started?
And now…our top healthy salad dressings to try!
Here’s a healthy salad dressing that will amaze you with its fresh, zingy flavor: Green Goddess dressing! Sure, you can buy it at the store. But nothing beats the flavor of this creamy green drizzle made at home with fresh herbs and ingredients. Making your own salad dressing is easy, you know exactly what it’s made of, and it tastes incredible!
Calories per tablespoon: 44 calories
Want a killer drizzle for your taco salad...that's incredibly low cal? Try this Creamy Salsa Dressing! This genius hack uses just a handful of ingredients to create a healthy salad dressing that’s full of flavor…in just 1 minute. You’ll be surprised at how creamy and zingy it is…with no effort at all.
Calories per tablespoon: 18 calories
Here’s a healthy salad dressing that’s both irresistibly tasty and undeniably simple: Parmesan Peppercorn dressing! It’s tangy and savory, essentially a simplified version of Caesar dressing that’s just as bold with less ingredients. You can whisk it up in 5 minutes: no blender, no zesting of lemons: nothing fussy at all! When we serve this to guests, they can’t help remarking, “What’s in this dressing?”
Calories per tablespoon: 38 calories
Need an easy healthy ranch dressing? Here’s the recipe you need. It comes out so creamy and tasty using only a few simple spices. Every time we serve it, it gets rave reviews! It’s perfect for salad or dipping veggie sticks, and comes together in just 5 minutes. Even better, it skips the additives, preservatives, extra salt and sugar of store bought dressing.
Calories per tablespoon: 39 calories
This raspberry vinaigrette couldn’t get much better! Blend ripe red raspberries and dress them up with a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and maple syrup. The result? The perfect blend of tart, savory, and sweet that will smother your salads to perfection.
Calories per tablespoon: 43 calories
Why not put pesto in salad dressing? Turns out, this emerald green sauce adds the perfect boost to salads. This spin is a healthy salad dressing that has much less calories than the typical dressing, but is creamy and addicting. It’s kind of like a ranch dressing, but with pesto.
Calories per tablespoon: 48
This strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing is a family favorite. It’s lightly sweet, tangy, and perfect for green salads. Made with apple cider vinegar and maple syrup, it’s naturally sweet too! Even better, it takes only 5 minutes to whip up in a blender.
Calories per tablespoon: 33
Most blue cheese dressings are made with a lot of mayonnaise. But this healthy salad dressing substitutes a bit of the mayo with with plain yogurt! This helps it to be a little lighter, and adds a bit of those lovely yogurt probiotics. It's so creamy and delicious.
Calories per tablespoon: 38
Here's the creamiest, dreamiest green avocado dressing we’ve ever made. It stars ripe green avocado, tangy lemon, and our secret ingredient: avocado oil! Avocado oil brings in an essence of pure avocado, at the same time being a fantastic healthy oil to add to your pantry.
Calories per tablespoon: 33 calories
Here’s a healthy salad dressing you’ll want to drizzle on just about everything: Chipotle Ranch Dressing! This zingy, zesty dressing is creamy with just the right heat on the finish. It takes only 5 minutes to whip up, using our favorite dressing trick: a combination of yogurt and mayonnaise! It gives just the right amount of richness, but it’s a healthy spin on the traditional ranch.
Calories per serving: 37 calories
Want a quick and easy healthy dressing? Look no further than this easy Tahini Dressing recipe! You can whisk it up in just 2 minutes. It makes a huge pop of flavor: a little tamari and grated ginger make it taste irresistibly savory and fresh.
Calories per tablespoon: 56 calories
More salad dressing recipes
There are so many great homemade salad dressings to try! If you’re looking for a bit of a splurge, here are a few more great dressing recipes:
- Go for Classic Caesar Dressing Recipe (46 calories per tablespoon)
- Try Cilantro Lime Dressing or Carrot Ginger Dressing (64 calories per tablespoon)
- Go for Sesame Ginger Dressing (69 calories per tablespoon)
- Try Best Balsamic Vinaigrette (79 calories per tablespoon)
- Opt for Honey Mustard Dressing (85 calories per tablespoon)
10 Healthy Salad Dressings: Green Goddess Dressing & More!
This Green Goddess dressing takes 5 minutes to make and is great on salads or as a vegetable dip. Perfect for weeknight meals!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
- Category: Dressing
- Method: Blended
- Cuisine: Salad Dressing
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 very small garlic clove, minced
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 2/3 cup Greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise (or substitute olive oil)
- ¾ cup fresh parsley leaves and tender stems, loosely packed
- ¼ cup basil leaves or tarragon leaves and tender stems, loosely packed
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ tablespoon anchovy paste (or omit and use another ¼ teaspoon kosher salt)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Mince the garlic. Thinly slice the green onions.
- Place all ingredients in a food processor, smaller blender or the cup of an immersion blender (also works in a standard blender). Blend to combine. Taste and add another pinch of salt if necessary. Transfer to an airtight container; the dressing stores in the refrigerator for 1 week.
I love all your salads and homemade salad dressings! Everything is better when it is made from scratch!
Let us know if you have any questions!