Salad Dressing for ZReduction

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z2 (ZReduction) recipe. BEWARE: This is a no-frills “I-just-want-to-wet-my-salad” recipe from the early days of the Plan Z Diet. I created this recipe before we allowed oil in ZReduction. Yes, that’s right, when we first started Plan Z, no oil was allowed – not even in salad dressing. The recipe below is a golden oldie. Keep in mind, if you are looking for a mellow, tasty, salad dressing, this is not your recipe. This is a heavy-duty dieter recipe for folks who are eliminating all oils and just want their salad greens “wet.”

Please note: Certain regular, full-fat salad dressings are allowed on ZReduction. To learn more about salad dressings that you can buy that are approved for ZReduction click here.

Servings: See details below.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of water
• 1/3 cup of vinegar*
• 1-2 packets of stevia**
• herbs, spices and salt and pepper to taste. Mustard too

Instructions:

Making dressing is very easy on Plan Z. A blender is a handy device to make this. A “bullet-style” blender makes it a breeze if you have one.

I have laid out the proportions above to make a generous amount of dressing but you can just follow the proportions if you want to make a smaller amount. Just remember the portions are 3 to 1. So if you are making dressing for one serving, 3 Tbl of water and 1 Tbl of vinegar would do it. See the process?

Your serving of dressing for a salad is 2 Tbl max of any dressing. All you are really trying to do is give your greens some extra flavor.

Suggestions for kinds of vinegar include:

Apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, red wine, garlic red wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, balsamic and on and on. There are so many flavors now. Read labels so you don’t choose one with sugar in it.

Suggestions for stevia:

This is a matter of taste. Some like their dressings sweet; others like more vinegar flavor so just add a bit and keep adding til you find out how much you like for a dressing. For an Asian dressing I might add more stevia so I get a sweet dressing or a sweet-hot dressing.

Herbs, spices, salt and pepper:

Go crazy. You can use any of these and choose your amounts.

• For a French dressing I’d use a white or red vinegar, and tarragon. For the larger amount of dressing a tsp of tarragon is fine. Add salt and pepper to taste and you’re set. When you get a bit more daring you’d add a Tbl of sugar-free mustard to this and maybe a bit of garlic
• For a dressing over cucumber salad I’d use apple cider vinegar and salt and pepper. That’s the basic. For a spicy dressing, you can add cayenne
• For a Mexican dressing get out your oregano and chili powder. Add to the water/vinegar combo
• For an Indian slant, I’d add cumin or curry powder or both to my dressing

Just experiment with your spice and dried herb collection. It’s really an open field.

Suggestion for travel:

Get some small baby-food jars so you can carry dressing in your purse or pocket. This is one thing you’ll need to take to a restaurant unless you want to just dress your salads with vinegar. They will bring the oil to your table, but don’t use it.

If you order a grilled piece of meat on top of your salad, often the juice from the meat is satisfying without the dressing. The further you get into ZReduction the less likely you are to miss the dressing but either way, you’re covered.

Enjoy!

Cheers,