French Dressing Recipe

First Do No Harm

Low Cal French Salad Dressing
Low Carb, Low Fat, Low Calorie

Ingredients (as always, as organic as possible)

¼ cup MCT Oil or Macadamia Nut Oil
½ cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 ¼ cup Water
½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum (1 tsp if you want extra thick)
2/3 cup Ketchup (links to our low carb version)
Juice of one lemon
2/3 cup Erythritol or ½ teaspoon Better Stevia
1 medium to large Sweet Onion
2 teaspoons Celtic Sea Salt

1 pinch fresh crushed garlic (optional)

Editor's Note: In all our recipes, we've discovered two new healthy substitutes. In place of apple cider vinegar, we sometimes substitute Coconut Vinegar. It's fermented, like apple cider vinegar, and it contains many minerals and electrolytes. It's also slightly less sour than apple cider vinegar. And instead of extra virgin olive oil, we sometimes substitute MCT Oil or Macadamia Nut Oil (both can be found at the same link). This link will bring you to the most inexpensive version we've found on the web. You can read about it here: Macadamia Nut Oil ─ Healthier Than Olive Oil.

MCT Oil will not hang around in your fat cells. Read about it here: MCT Oils.

Because you are health conscious, you have probably read about the problems with buying extra virgin olive oil; that most of the time you are being ripped off. We purchase ours at our local co-op. Find a place you trust and stick with them.

Instructions:

In a blender combine the lemon juice, salt, onion (chopped), and honey. Blend on a low setting till everything is blended together. Turn up the blender’s speed to somewhere in the middle. (You can add the optional pinch of garlic at this point).

Editor's Note: the type of onion you use is really up to you. The yellow onion is the most potent and contains 11 times more flavonoids than the Western White. Shallots actually contain more antioxidant activity than any onion. For most recipes that are sweet, the sweet onion is a nice addition. However, some like their onions more potent. Additionally, a red onion blended in will modify the color. It's really up to you.

Combine the ketchup and vinegar into one container. Then, add both the ketchup/vinegar concoction and the olive oil at the same time, pouring slowly. This makes for less scraping with a spatula to get everything out.

The dressing comes out creamy with a slightly pink color and makes approximately one quart of dressing.

In Minnesota we love mixing French and Blue Cheese together, so you might want to try our Blue Cheese Dressing too, or just crumble some blue cheese over this dressing.

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