Six healthy dressings for every type of salad

Amp up your leaves with a nutritionist’s little black book of delicious and easy dressings

The other day I was musing on my late mother’s habit of smothering a plate of otherwise crisp and healthy salad ingredients with a bottled salad cream. With nearly as much sugar as fat, it rather drowned any virtuosity. Even foregoing sugary bottled salad dressings, it is all too easy to add a serious number of calories when dressing a salad without actually adding anything beneficial. For this reason as a nutritionist, I like to keep a little black book of healthy dressings to hand that will cover me for every type of salad, with a crafty eye at maxing the health benefits of the ingredients at the same time as providing allure and deliciousness.
These dressings range from being thin, light and zesty for coating a bowl of green leaves, to voluptuously thick and creamy for steamed and roasted vegetables. The key lies with using raw, unrefined and unprocessed ingredients, be it kefir, unpasteurised miso, cold-pressed oils, vinegar with the mother, and flavourings with proven health benefits such as garlic and turmeric root. But the unspoken hero is water, by thinning a dressing it goes that much further and you cut the energy. 
Protects against inflammation (that is linked to chronic disorders), as well as reducing the risk of diabetes, cardiac disease and stroke 
With half the saturated fat of extra virgin olive oil and being rich in unsaturated fatty acids (beneficial for diabetes and metabolic syndrome), cold-pressed rapeseed oil is a powerhouse of beneficial nutrients. Be sure to select cold-pressed oil, British brands excel and can be bought for half the price of an average olive oil that has recently soared in price. 
Serves 6 
Supports gut health and aids digestion
This umami-rich dressing is one of my go-tos. Miso is a fermented paste and probiotic (be sure to look for unpasteurised) that is linked to aiding digestion and boosting immunity. There is also evidence to suggest it may protect against cancer, in particular breast cancer if it is eaten regularly. The longer fermented misos seem to have the greatest benefits, which tend to be dark in colour.
Serves 4
Helps reduce high blood pressure
This gorgeous thick dressing that relies on almonds is an excellent way of supporting your heart health and reducing blood pressure. With a high vitamin E content, it also supports your vision and is well known to be beneficial for our skin. Similar to a gado-gado dressing, it makes for a superlative Bang Bang chicken salad, usually made using peanuts. This is great spooned over any combination of noodles and vegetables (radishes, beansprouts, cucumber, mangetouts, green beans, asparagus, broccoli, courgettes, spring onions, chilli).
Serves 6
Check the small print on the nut butter, that it is 100 per cent nut and free of palm oil and salt. 
Boosts gut health 
With a broader range of probiotics than live natural yogurt, kefir makes for a good choice for a salad dressing, the seasoning offsetting its natural sourness. Kefir is one of a number of fermented foods thought to promote gut health by preventing gut dysbiosis and promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria. In addition its calcium content is a valuable nutrient to prevent osteoporosis, and it is further thought to help blood sugar regulation, which is especially relevant to Type 2 diabetes. 
Serves 4
Anti-inflammatory and anti-ageing
Tahini is an anti-oxidant that helps lower inflammation, the precursor to so many illnesses and conditions, in addition to containing sesamol that also has anti-ageing benefits. Turmeric too is well known for being rich in phytonutrients such as curcumin and has long played a role in alternative remedies, such as treating colds. 
Serves 4
*Make a salad of sliced tomatoes seasoning them with salt and leaving for 20 minutes. Then mix in some lamb’s lettuce, drizzle over the dressing and scatter with pomegranate seeds and spring onion.
Protects against osteoporosis and cancer
Serves 4-6
Avocados boast vitamin K that supports bone health by slowing down bone loss which prevents osteoporosis. The folate content may counter certain cancers and help to ward off depression. They also contain a surprising amount of fibre, in a deliciously delicate way, most of us struggle to get enough. 
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