Trader Joe's: The Best Salad Dressings in Town

It is a challenge to find a salad dressing - specifically, of the low-fat variety - that tastes indulgent. The non-fat varieties arouse skepticism. The ingredients list often begins with water or corn syrup, with little promise to follow. The low-fat choices have improved over the years, but after a house-made, chunky blue cheese dressing at your favorite restaurant, or some true, oily, salty Caesar, everything else fades by comparison.

This is where Trader Joe's again solves the problem. The store, known for its reasonably priced and unique packaged foods, presents a grand selection of dressings in its refrigerated section. The Champaign Pear Vinaigrette clocks in at just 50 calories for the standard two tablespoon serving. If you prefer a sweeter dressing, the dominant pear flavor will satisfy. Better yet, the dressing is spiked with crumbles of blue cheese that enhance the flavor without overpowering it, as blue cheese so often does.

The Thai peanut dressing is another good choice. It clocks in at just 70 calories and four grams of fat per serving. This dressing offers an Asian-inspired flavor, hence the name. It is more viscous than typical Asian vinaigrettes, and thankfully less salty in both flavor and sodium content. Try it over a nice tofu salad with some mixed greens, and feel righteous...if only momentarily....about your healthy eating habits.

The Cilantro dressing is a personal favorite. While fresh cilantro loses its luster within days of purchase, this dressing offers an authentic cilantro flavor over the course of the eleven servings housed within each bottle. This dressing has a noticeably thicker, slightly textured consistency than that of its peers. And be cautioned: although the flavor is pleasing in an intense sort of way, it will linger in your mouth, despite vigorous brushing and a cup of Scope, for hours to follow. So, it is best to apply this dressing to your salad when you know that the remainder of your day requires minimal social interaction.

The only letdown on the dressing shelf? The Low fat Parmesan Ranch. Its flavor is weak, and it is quite disappointingly milky when it splashes out of the bottle. On the bright side, it contains a mere thirty calories and a gram and a half of fat. Consider that Hidden Valley, Kraft, and their other brand name cohorts cannot make a low fat dressing under seven grams of fat and seventy calories per serving.

The jury's still out on the raspberry dressing, as I've yet to try it. When the others are so good - and all for $2-4 a bottle - it is difficult to stray from a known winner. Stay tuned.