Salad Season

I'm back! We're all moved and the kitchen is finally (mostly) unpacked and settled (We're still working on the rest of the house).

It's been hot as Hades here! Isn't it supposed to get cooler as you move north? Anyway, this brought out the need for entree salads.

One of my most favorite summer salads is Crab (or shrimp) Louis. In its original form, however, the dressing is quite a calorie spike. I set out to make a creamy Louis dressing (which is generally just Russian dressing or Thousand Island, depending on where you are and what you call it) that wouldn't break the caloric bank.

The secret, I've discovered, is my faithful decade-long standby: Plain Greek yogurt. (I feel like a hipster for saying it, but I hate that it's gotten trendy. Mostly because it used to be really cheap!)

If you mix a small amount (maybe a tablespoon) of light mayo with the yogurt, you get a nice, creamy consistency. The tang of the yogurt also seems a bit calmed, which is preferable in this instance. Using that as my base, I added catsup (the natural, no-HFCS kind) and a smattering of sweet relish (sugarless). Since I also like the dressing with a slight kick, I also tried adding cayenne pepper, but that didn't quite do it, so I also added a few shakes of hot sauce (Frank's Red Hot- another go-to of mine). It turned out perfectly.

As far as this particular salad was concerned, I mixed romaine lettuce with a pre-pack of salad greens, sliced carrot, chopped roma tomatoes, sliced cucumber, a sliced hard boiled egg and a big ol' pile of crab.
We each had the dressing on the side, but with as few calories as it ended up being, I didn't mind that I used the whole serving. I love creamy dressings, so am used to eating as little as possible, but this was pretty guilt-free.Unfortunately, we gobbled it all down before it occurred to me to take a picture.

I have a sense there's going to be some more experimentation in sauces and more creamy dressings soon.  I've also had a few more discovery over the past few weeks. I'll be sharing them soon, now that things have settled down a bit. Writing just may take my mind off the heat.