Lemony White Miso Vinaigrette

Making tasty oil free salad dressing can be a challenge, especially when over half the volume of an original recipe comes from oil. Take for instance the "Lemony White Miso Vinaigrette" (page 102). As written, the recipe makes ½ cup dressing with over ¼ cup of this coming from oil (grapeseed and toasted sesame oils). A quick calculation on a fat gram calculator shows you this equates to 77 grams of fat, not to mention over 900 calories! After thinking about this for a while, I decided to leave all the oil out, and instead use 2 tablespoons of whole sesame seeds plus 5 tablespoons of water. I put all the ingredients (sesame seeds, miso paste, lemon juice, soy sauce, agave nectar, Dijon mustard, and water) into my Vitamix and processed until the sesame seeds were puréed and the dressing was emulsified. This was the perfect work around! The flavor was exquisite - bright, fresh, and tangy, but not overly. The texture was somewhat grainy, which I found favorable, I suppose from using whole sesame seeds, and miso paste also has a slight grainy texture. Using the whole sesame seeds instead of the oils added only 9 grams of total fat and 106 calories to this dressing, quite a dramatic difference! I used this dressing on a salad of dark leafy greens, sliced red onion, and sugar snap peas. Scrumptious! The recipe notes also suggest using this as a tofu marinade in addition to dressing salads.

Keeping it "McDougall Friendly" checklist:

• Leave the grapeseed and sesame oils out completely. Instead use 2 tablespoons of whole sesame seeds plus 5 tablespoons of water, and process all the ingredients together in a blender until the seeds are puréed.