Category: Healthy Italian Dressings

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Italian dressing is a vinaigrette-type salad dressing in American and Canadian cuisine that consists of water, vinegar or lemon juice, vegetable oil, chopped bell peppers, sugar or corn syrup, and a blend of numerous herbs and spices (including oregano, fennel, dill and salt). Onion and garlic can also be used to intensify the dressing’s flavour.

A variety of Italian dressing known as creamy Italian consists of the same ingredients, but with milk products and stabilisers added to make the salad dressing creamy. It is often bought bottled, or prepared by mixing oil and vinegar with a packaged flavouring mix consisting of dehydrated vegetables and herbs.

Italian dressing is not used in Italy, where salad is normally dressed with olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, salt, and sometimes balsamic vinegar at the table, and not with a pre-mixed vinaigrette. Italian dressing is also used as a marinade for meat or vegetables, for stir-fries, and on sandwiches. Pasta salads sometimes include Italian dressing. The caloric content of Italian dressing varies widely.