I rarely am a fan of salad dressings. The market’s selection normally consists of too much sodium, an overload of hidden sugars or a dominating taste that ruins the salad. Michael’s grandmother, Michiko, passed this recipe along to us, making it nearly impossible not to whip up at least four times a week. Since it’s so light and refreshing, the taste never gets old. No one wants to eat their calories in dressing ( or in a salad, for that matter ); try this super low-calorie concoction- your taste buds & butt will thank you later.
Lowest Calorie Dressing Ever
* Works well for a large salad
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil ( EVOO )
6 dashes of red wine vinegar ( I add ten shakes sometimes- I LOVE it! )
1/2 Meyer lemon juice
2-3 dashes of Italian seasoning
2-3 dashes of garlic salt
Shake up. I use a martini shaker to mix my dressing! Depending on your taste buds, garlic salt and Italian seasoning could be one, two or three dashes. Mix EVOO, red wine vinegar, half a lemon [ just the juice ], seasoning and garlic salt together; shake well. This dressing works well on any type of veggies. Pairs well with a dry red wine.
( Note: for this particular salad I used arugula, broccoli, orange bell pepper, Italian parmesan cheese, & cucumber ).
yum! i can never justify throwing away calories on a salad dressing, but its nice to see a variation that doesn’t include balsamic. can’t wait to try it!
I’m a huge fan and will definitely be trying this dressing on for size (no pun intended).
Thanks Brandee!
hi, i’v just started read your blog, like it already! just wondering, were are you writing the reciept? or do u just post pictures of whats in the dressing and so on?
They’re under “Click for Skinny Recipe” or in the recipe section.
oh sorry! saw it now!
Stupid question (i’m not american though so maybe i’m excused?), what is EVOO?
I believe it stands for “Extra-Virgin Olive Oil” 🙂
Yes! Thanks Johanna!
Extra Virgin Olive Oil : )
Why not just do balsamic vinegar. 15 calories and it tastes so delicious?
I don’t like balsamic vinegar :(. I prefer Red Wine Vinaigrette, but you could substitute balsamic in this recipe.
Wow, we grew up eating this dressing and still enjoy it today, now that’s a test of time…again, great pics
thanks for the memories
No problem 🙂 Thanks for reading Karen.
My mom-in-law has been doing this for years! She taught me this recipe & it is now the only way I like to dress my salad or dip my veggies! I love Meyer lemons too! Thanks for sharing this!
Yum!
One of our mother’s best recipes and one or our kid’s favorites as well…glad to be able to contribute an old family recipe from one of the greatest mothers (and grandmothers) ever!!
I tried this on my salad tonight and it was delicious!! However, I know EVOO contains heart healthy fats, but the kind I used tonight had 120 calories per 1 tbsp serving. Did I completely defeat the purpose of the low calorie dressing?!
I don’t count calories! And yes EVOO is a “good fat.” I use it on everything! xox
I agree with you LIndsay. I was kind of wondering what the point of this article is. The title is “The Lowest Calorie Salad Dressing Ever.” But, 2 Tablespoons of EVOO is 220 calories!!! It is a healthy fat. But, I was searching for a low calorie salad dressing. You can buy many prepackaged organic store bought dressing for that. I occasionally do put EVOO on my salad. But, I hate using up daily calories just for salad dressing. Within the last few years, I lost more than 100 pounds counting calories. I know some people say they don’t do it. And that is fine, but it is the only weight loss technique that worked for me. When I was trying to eat all raw foods, I was trying to squeeze fresh lemon juice on my salad or put a lot of tomatoes in the salad. The juiciness of the tomatoes gives it a salad dressing-like feel and has flavor. Currently, I very rarely use salad dressing and just load up my salad with many veggies and healthy additions like dried cranberries, apple slices, walnuts, etc. These things do contain calories, but at least they are more filling than EVOO. I have also used fresh herbs such as basil, dill and parsley to give it flavor.
I count calories too. It’s the only thing that works for me. Actually, you really can’t call this low calorie unless a serving is half a tablespoon. I love the low sodium, but this is not low on calories. Nature of the beast when you’re working with oil. It does sound good, though.
I love salad dressing and normally use Balsamic but will certainly be trying this recipe out.
Looking into a three day cleanse I ran into your blog/website and I instantly fell in love with it…. it is awesome! You have changed my life and made it easier to find healthy recipies and health information… love it!!! How often do update the blog?
Wow! I am flattered you like it Diana! I update it at least 6 times a week + posts from Instagram [ username: LaurynBoBoryn ].
i looked at my ranch dressing bottle to see how many calories it had. it blew my mind. i found this recipy on dressing and i just wanderin how many calories it has. any ideas ?
At most 20 calories a serving! XO.
and how big is the serving ?
About four tablespoons! There’s barely anything in it! 🙂
What is Meyer lemons???
thank you so much that is really awsome ! i’m sure gonna give a whirl..
I’m just imagining you with the martini shaker! We get meyer lemons here but they are prohibitively expensive. I’ll try this but probably with normal ones!
I love homemade salad dressing! It changes everything. I bought a huge white bowl just for making fresh salads for lunch with my own dressing. The bowl is big enough I can put just a tad of dressing on and mix it all around. It’s delish. I like to mix up the flavors for the olive oil and vinegar – sometimes using champagne vinegar, sometimes a dash of walnut oil… It’s fun to get creative. Thanks for sharing your recipe! I’ll have to try it.
I am trying out your low cal dressing as we speak and I would just like to say that I am impressed. I thought I might not like it as I’m not a huge fan of red wine vinegar, but when mixed with the other components it is really GOOD!
I didn’t make it much differently than you. Although I did stir the mix in a glass, used a regular store bought lemon, and I made my own garlic salt by mixing 3 parts salt with 1 part garlic powder.
I’ll definitely be mixing up this dressing whenever I eat a salad!
I went to the store and bought red wine vinegar just so I could try this! But how long does it hold? I was thinking about bringing a small jar of dressing to keep at work and I don’t want it to spoil.
Making it fresh tastes best! Xx.
Just how many calories DOES this dressing have?
Another stellar recipe! I’m so excited to be making my own vs buying pre-made. You are helping me to eat whole foods. I never thought that would be possible for me to pull off. Thanks sooo much Lauryn!!
Do you know if it would taste well with basalmic viniger?
did i read that correctly?? 2o calories/ 4 tablespoons??
How is this low calorie with 2 T of oil? that is over 200 calories alone. Am I missing something? Is this multiple servings of dressing?
Calorie break down….
2tbspn evoo… 220 cals
6 dashes of vinegar = 1/4 c …..0 cals
Juice from meyer lemon….15 cals
Italian seasoning….1 tspn….8 cals
Garlic salt…..1tspn….15 cals
Total is 258 cals for 6 tablespoons or 43 cals a tablespoon.
So 172 calories for a 4 tablespoon serving, not the 20 suggested.
Its low cal, sure….but not ridiculously low. Most dressings are between 30 & 70cals a tbspn. A more accurate title would be “delicious, but average calorie, dressing”.
How many calories please?
I’m confused, this is supposed to be low-calorie and it requires 2 tbs of olive oil?? Olive oil is 120 calories per tablespoon, that means this recipe has 240 calories with just the olive oil alone. That’s low cal?
Oddly I did not find the calorie content despite the claim that this is the lowest calorie dressing ever.