Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Creamy Avocado Dressing

I love avocado so much!  Especially on a nice big fresh salad!  But once I add that plus my favorite salad dressing (Pizza Hut's Romano Cheese dressing), that really adds a Lot of calories...about 300 to be exact.
So, I kept thinking would it be great if I could use an avocado to create a creamy dressing?!  So that I can get both the avocado flavor and the creamy dressing without all the calories?!  And so I finally tried one today from my favorite cooking blog and it was awesome!  It had a little heat, and a little southwestern kick, so I loaded up my plate with lots of salad mix and spinach, thawed frozen corn, salsa, and a few southwestern flavored Artisan Tortilla Chips, topped it with about 3 spoonfuls of the avocado dressing and that's it!  And it was AMAZING! 

I don't ever buy buttermilk anymore...I just take my measuring cup and add about 1 Tbsp lemon juice and then fill to whatever line I need with my 1% milk and just let it sit for about 5 minutes.  No need to stir or anything.

And I did add the spinach at the end.  It wasn't in the original recipe and I just figured it was a good way to sneak a little extra greens in!  :)  You'd never even notice it...so I'm sure you wouldn't notice if it wasn't in there. 

And I only added about 1/8 cup of olive oil mayo to this instead of the 1/4 cup...and it was divine!  Might try substituting low fat sour cream too, to see how that tastes and of course to lower the calories even more!  But, according to My Fitness Pal (the app I use for counting calories) as I wrote it below, there is only about 65 calories per 3 Tbsp...and that sounds great to me!!!!  :)


Servings: makes 2 cups

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
  • 1 medium avocado
  • 1 small jalapeno*
  • 1/4 cup cilantro
  • 1 lime, juice
  • 1 green onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk**
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise (completely optional)
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 cup fresh spinach
Directions
  1. Puree everything in a blender until smooth. Store in fridge and finish within a few days.

* Leave the seeds in for more heat or remove them for less.
** Use more buttermilk to make it thinner or less to make it thicker.

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