No Salad Dressing?!!

Can salad be good without salad dressing? If you had asked me this a week ago I would have said a hard no! Plain lettuce? No thank you! However, a recent trip to Italy may have changed my mind.

Salad dressing has always been a necessary evil for me. It is typically loaded with sodium and fat. If I was having salad I would save up my sodium and carbs. I am a big ranch dressing girl so this was hard for me. One serving of ranch dressing can have over 300mg of sodium and 15 grams of fat! Despite that, I would still save up because lettuce without dressing is just...gross!

Then I took a trip to Italy. I ordered a salad and asked for salad dressing. I was met with blank looks. They didn't even know what salad dressing was! I was literally forced to eat my salad plain, with no dressing. I wasn't sure I could do it. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The salads were filled with a bunch of yummy vegetables and a few little chunks of cheese. These helped balance everything out and it was actually quite tasty. Instead of just tasting the dressing I was able to taste each of the vegetables and little bits of cheese. Plus, I didn't have to save all day just to eat a salad.

I am not sure I am going to go full on no salad dressing going forward, but I do think I am going to cut back. It opened my eyes to a new world without dressing. I never thought I could give it up, but I have learned I can definitely enjoy a salad without the fatty dressing. Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments.