How to Make the Easy and Delicious MUFA Friendly Green Salad

I love a fresh, crisp green salad, packed with a colorful variety of diced vegetables. Throw in some nuts or seeds, cranrasins, or top with freshly shredded Parmesan cheese, and suddenly it becomes a gourmet masterpiece.

Then there is the dressing, which ultimately makes or breaks a green salad, both in taste and calories. Personally, even the non-diet bottled dressing is a deal killer for me. I simply can't tolerate the inevitable bottle aftertaste.

When it comes to diet dressing, I simply don't see the point. After all, it is incredibly easy to quickly create a dressing that is healthy, delicious, and ultimately lower in calories than most bottled diet dressing.

When I was growing up, my mother had one of those glass cruets, where you poured in oil, then added vinegar and seasonings, before shaking vigorously. The dressing was then poured over the salad. The problem, you were pouring the dressing on your salad, and inevitably adding unnecessary calories while not improving the taste.

Once we went to a friend's house for dinner, and I watched as she prepared an oil and vinegar dressing in this fashion. I was horrified as I watched her pour the entire cruet of dressing over the salad. I estimated each serving had over 500 calories in dressing alone. But, this isn't necessary.

The trick? When tossing your oil and vinegar dressing, add the ingredients separately, and in a particular order; oil first, vinegar second.

I use a combination of Greenleaf and Iceberg lettuce. Sure, Iceberg is lacking in nutrients, yet it adds crunch to the meal. Rinse your lettuce in ice cold water, pat dry, and set it in the refrigerator to "crisp up."

Dice the vegetables you plan to add to the salad. It might include bell pepper, celery, onion, mushrooms or tomato. Set aside in a separate bowl.

When you are ready to toss your salad, tear your chilled, crisp, and dry lettuce into bite size pieces. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the bowl of lettuce, about 1 Tablespoon per four servings of salad. This breaks down to about 30 calories per serving for dressing. Toss well, until all the lettuce is lightly covered with oil.

After the lettuce is coated with the olive oil, add your diced vegetables. Gently toss again, until everything is coated with oil. Then add some red wine vinegar, or balsamic vinegar, or flavored red vinegar, such as raspberry. Add vinegar to personal preference, gently tossing and tasting.

You will also want to add some seasoning, again this is a personal preference. I usually toss in a shake or two of powdered garlic, seasoning salt or lemon pepper.

The dressing recipe is not an exact science, and you can experiment with amount of seasoning and vinegars. The most important trick is to toss your olive oil with the lettuce, before adding any vinegar or seasoning. If you add the vinegar first, your oil will not adhere to the lettuce, and you will inevitably be forced to add more oil to the salad.

When your salad is tossed and seasoned, you can add some cranrasins or top with grated cheese.

Enjoy!