Buttermilk dressing with meats, veggies, reduces calories

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Lighter, healthier, lower in fat and calories are the virtues that fuel your appetite for summer salads. But if you're

smothering a salad with a typical dressing, you're not getting the health benefits you seek.

For every tablespoon of oil you use in a salad dressing, you're contributing about 120 calories and 13 grams of fat to your diet.

Use a quarter cup of oil in a dressing to serve two, and what you put on the salad will probably have more fat than what's in it.

Commercially prepared dressings -- unless they're a diet formulation -- may not be much of an improvement. Many bottled dressings contribute about 100 calories per tablespoon.

Fortunately, you can make a delicious and satisfying salad dressing with a fraction of the calories of a traditional vinaigrette recipe or bottled dressing if you start with buttermilk.

Despite the name, buttermilk isn't a liquid form of butter. Manufacturers make buttermilk by adding harmless bacteria to low-fat milk. The resulting milk product is almost as thick as yogurt with the same tangy taste.

The thick-bodied buttermilk gives dressing a creamy texture. However, since an entire cup of reduced-fat buttermilk has as many calories as a single tablespoon of oil, you're trimming calories.

You're also getting a delicious salad topper that partners well with fish, seafood, chicken breast, meat and vegetables.

Although you can make buttermilk dressing with no oil, I prefer adding a little. Oil gives salad dressing a smoother consistency and helps the dressing cling to the salad ingredients.