Sugar Free French Dressing

Bring your salads to life with this sweet and savory Sugar Free French Dressing! It has all the tanginess and flavor your tastebuds crave.

 

It can come as quite a shock to discover how much sugar is in some of our favorite store-bought foods. Take salad dressing, for example. Even the ones we think of as completely savory can contain added sugars.

I grew up loving Catalina salad dressing, as did my father. He always had a bottle on the go in the fridge and we used it liberally on our salad. It never occurred to me that this tangy sweet condiment was so full of added sugars until I went low carb. In fact, sugar is the first ingredient on the bottle. Yikes!

Readers love my homemade dressings such as Sugar Free Honey Mustard and Chipotle Ranch Dressing. Several people have recently asked me for a healthier Catalina, so here it is! You will love this Sugar Free French Dressing.

Why you will love this recipe

Sometimes I don’t know why we bother with bottled dressing at all, since it’s so easy to make at home. This sugar free salad dressing takes all of about 5 minutes to make!

I played with the ratios of ingredients until I got just the right tangy sweet flavor. I found most recipes online were too heavy on the oil and didn’t have quite enough vinegar. I also added a little Dijon mustard to help emulsify the ingredients.

I used tomato paste rather than bothering to make ketchup, but then I added some of the spices that give ketchup its unique flavor. I then used other seasonings typical of French dressing.

As for sweetener, you can adjust this one to taste. I opted for liquid allulose but you can really use any sweetener you like best.

Ingredients you need

• Tomato paste: Classic French dressing takes ketchup, and you could make or purchase some sugar free ketchup. But it’s even easier to simply add tomato paste and some of the spices directly into the dressing.
• Red wine vinegar: Red wine vinegar is standard in French dressing, although you can replace it with apple cider vinegar if you wish.
• Avocado oil: You want a neutral flavored oil, so don’t use extra virgin olive oil. You can use avocado oil or light olive oil, which has been further refined so it has less flavor.
• Sweetener: You have a lot of options for sweeteners in this sugar free salad dressing. I used liquid allulose, as it helps make it a little thicker. But you can use granular sweeteners as well. Just make sure to shake the dressing enough to dissolve the sweetener.
• Mustard: A little Dijon mustard helps emulsify the dressing and keep the oil from separating out.
• Seasonings: French dressing typically takes celery seed, garlic, onion, and paprika. I also added a touch of allspice to mimic the ketchup flavor, as well as a little herbes de Provence.
• Water

How to make Sugar Free Salad Dressing

You hardly need step by step directions for this recipe. You simply place all of the ingredients in a jar and shake until well combined!

I have seen recipes for homemade Catalina that use a blender, which seems like overkill. You can get the same results from shaking it in a jar, and then you don’t have to dirty a blender.

You can also store it in the same jar you made it in!

Expert Tips

If you do happen to have some store-bought keto ketchup, feel free to use that. Just don’t add the allspice to the dressing.

For sweeteners, try to choose something that will dissolve easily. As you may be aware, granular erythritol sweeteners like Swerve don’t dissolve well. You can still use it but you may need to shake it for quite a while. Powdered Swerve (Confectioners) will work fine.

Allulose dissolves easily so you can use granular allulose in this recipe, or you can use the liquid kind. I find the liquid version to taste less sweet, but you can taste the dressing after mixing and adjust as you see fit.

Frequently Asked Questions