How to replace mayonnaise in salad: 30 ideas and recipes for delicious dressings and sauces

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In the kitchens of many housewives there is a cult of mayonnaise. This store-bought sauce ends up in salad, meat, gravy, or even mashed potatoes. Because of this, dishes become very high in calories and have a monotonous taste. What if you don’t have mayonnaise on hand? Or do you prefer healthier dressings? How to replace mayonnaise in a salad so as not to spoil the taste? We will answer these and other questions in more detail.

• Composition of store-bought mayonnaise
• How to make mayonnaise less harmful
• How to replace mayonnaise in the salad “Herring under a fur coat”
• Crab salad
• Salad with squid
• "Olivie"
• Meat salad
• Fish salad
• Beetroot salad
• Greek salad
• "Caesar"
• "Mimosa"

What's wrong with these supplements?

The ingredients in the store-bought product make it tasty, but high in calories. First of all, these are vegetable oils, often of mediocre quality. So, here are the main arguments in favor of abandoning the classic and familiar food additive:

• fat content (67% according to GOST). The higher this indicator, the brighter the taste and the more you want to eat it. In addition, fats, like cholesterol, overload the liver, lead to disorders of the digestive system, etc.;
• preservatives and other substances for stabilizing and preserving the product have a detrimental effect on the functioning of the pancreas;
• sugar and flavor enhancers stimulate appetite, resulting in overeating and all related problems;
• transgenic fats and vinegar not only poison the body, but also tend to accumulate in it, causing atherosclerotic pathologies and other diseases of the cardiovascular system;

the pronounced taste properties of seasonings dull the receptors, as a result - a person stops enjoying the properties of natural food and increasingly abuses sauces.

In addition, there are many other contraindications, and individual intolerance to the components (egg powder, mustard, etc.) should not be ruled out.

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It is worth noting that the contents of packages and jars on store shelves are indirectly related to the traditional mayonnaise recipe. The abundance of chemical additives - stabilizers, preservatives, emulsifiers and other substances of synthetic origin have made sauces a threat to human health.

Is it possible to eat mayonnaise every day?

Low-calorie buckwheat dishes
Yes, if it is homemade mayonnaise made with your own hands. But store-bought mayonnaise with a fat content of 67% or more is often not worth eating. Trans fats included in store-bought mayonnaise are especially harmful. It also contains saturated fat, which can affect cholesterol levels. Regular fats are needed by the body and are even beneficial for it. If manufacturers followed the classic composition of mayonnaise: egg, oil, vinegar and spices, then the product would certainly be high in calories. But without chemical additives and preservatives. True, the shelf life would be much shorter.

Below is a table of caloric content of the main components of mayonnaise substitutes. Please note that the calorie content of the finished product varies depending on the amount of oil and fat content of the base.

Table of fat content and calorie content of mayonnaise ingredients

Alternative for salad

If you are planning to get your body in shape, then you do not have to radically change your habits, depriving yourself of the spiciness and taste of your favorite dishes. There are many options for replacing mayonnaise in a salad if you have chosen a proper and healthy diet. The result is no less tasty and at the same time healthy and low-calorie dishes.

The most common alternative is sour cream. Despite the fact that it is often excluded from dietary products, it has significantly lower calorie content, and when combined with mustard you get a version of homemade mayonnaise. In addition, various oils can serve as a suitable replacement - flaxseed, sesame, olive and others.

Adherents of mayonnaise seasonings can independently mix a homemade version according to the classic recipe from natural ingredients, thereby reducing its energy value and being confident in the quality.

We will talk about other healthy substitutes and methods for preparing them below.

Unrefined vegetable oils

They contain fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals that the body needs. Vegetable oils are very healthy, but at the same time they are also very high in calories, they contain more kilocalories than mayonnaise, which is unloved by all followers of proper nutrition. 800-900 kcal in oil versus 600 in mayonnaise. This is the calorie content per 100 g of product. But at the same time, vegetable oil will really benefit the body. If we talk about norms, then everyone has their own. Let's take an ordinary woman who does not lead a very active lifestyle, whose caloric intake is 1800-2000 kcal per day. It is advisable for her to season her portion of salad (about 150 g) with 1-2 teaspoons of oil, no more.

Arugula, mint and a splash of olive oil. We prepare healthy salads Read more

Sauces and salad dressings instead of mayonnaise

Yogurt is considered an ideal alternative ingredient for a light salad. If you have a yogurt maker, it's easy to make at home. By adding seasonings, pepper, or herbs to it, you can get taste qualities close to mayonnaise. The recipe is described below:

• 200 gr. yogurt;
• 2 tsp mustard dressing;
• lemon juice;
• salt, herbs, pepper to taste.

To prepare a homogeneous mass, beat the ingredients with a blender or by hand. It will fit organically into salads with cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes and other vegetables.

To the herring and Olivier

It’s hard to imagine all New Year’s salads without a fatty dressing, but few people know that if you replace it with homemade sauce, the taste of the dishes will not suffer at all. Main ingredients:

• low-fat sour cream;
• mustard;
• boiled egg yolk;
• salt pepper.

There is no need to guess what to dress the salad with instead of mayonnaise - mix the indicated ingredients in a blender and add to herring under a fur coat or other mayonnaise salad. Once you try this recipe, you will never want to go back to store-bought preservatives.

Spicy seasoning for Caesar

For this sauce you will need:

• 1 egg;
• 2 tablespoons olive oil;
• 1 tsp mustard dressing;
• 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar;
• anchovies – 2 pcs;
• salt.

To obtain the correct consistency of the product, the egg must be boiled for no more than 1 minute. Take the yolk, mix it with mustard and spices in a blender, gradually adding oil. Next, add the anchovy and beat the mixture again.

Comment from the clinic's nutritionist:

Don't be afraid to experiment with recipes to find the perfect flavor combination. Try all the homemade diet seasoning options for a variety of dishes. Sticking to healthy eating habits over the long term becomes easier when eating is enjoyable.

Low-calorie gas stations

There are many options for healthier and no less tasty substitutes for mayonnaise. As already mentioned, to prepare delicious dressings, fans of proper nutrition use fermented milk products, mustard, citrus juice, and various spices. Horseradish, garlic, pickled cucumbers, soy sauce, and different types of vinegar will help make the taste more intense. Sauces are also supplemented with fruits (apples, avocados), cheeses, quail eggs, olives, and fresh vegetables (for example, cucumbers, bell peppers).

With yogurt and lemon juice

A light yogurt-based sauce will perfectly replace mayonnaise in spring salads with young radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers or cabbage. It takes only 5 minutes to prepare.

Cooking process:

1. Mix 200 ml yogurt with 1 tbsp. l. lemon juice, beat for no longer than 1 minute.
2. Chop 1 clove of garlic and add to the base.
3. Add salt and black pepper to the mixture.

Cool the finished dressing before serving. If desired, you can supplement it with chopped parsley, use mustard instead of garlic, replace lemon with lime, and replace salt with soy sauce.

Dressing sauce with lemon juice

This dressing has a creamy consistency and adds a piquant sourness, slight sweetness, and spiciness to dishes. It can replace mayonnaise when preparing fish and vegetable salads. It takes no longer than 7 minutes to prepare.

Step by step process:

1. Stir 100 ml vegetable oil, 1 tbsp. l. low-calorie cream (10%), ½ tsp. sugar, a pinch of salt. Beat all ingredients with a blender for 45 seconds.
2. Add 100 ml of lemon juice and beat again for 15-20 minutes.
3. Chop a bunch of any greens and add to the sauce.

Spicy sauce with yoghurt and apple

This recipe uses curry powder, which has a unique flavor due to the combination of savory and sweet spices. Yogurt adds a delicate creamy taste, and apple adds a slight sourness. This delicious sauce will perfectly replace mayonnaise in poultry dishes. It takes 7 minutes to prepare.

Cooking steps:

1. Cut the peel from the apple (sweet and sour variety, for example, Simirenko), cut out the core with seeds. Grind the fruit using a fine grater.
2. Mix 250 g of natural yoghurt with applesauce.
3. Add 1 tsp. ground curry, stir.

Serve chilled.

The recipe uses 3.2% fat yogurt as it is thick and holds its shape well.

Delicious and healthy yogurt can be prepared at home. To do this you will need a starter, as well as fresh milk. First you need to dissolve 1 stick of starter (3 g) in 1 liter of warm milk and mix thoroughly. The thermos yogurt maker is filled with hot water to the mark, a glass of milk and starter is placed inside, closed with a lid and left for 6-8 hours. Then the yogurt is put in the refrigerator to thicken.

The sauce is made from the finished yogurt according to the recipe described above.

With avocado

Fans of a healthy lifestyle will appreciate the avocado and kefir sauce. This fruit is rich in healthy fats and also has a unique taste. The pulp of a ripe fruit resembles a mixture of butter and herb puree with a slight nutty flavor. It has an oily, almost creamy consistency.

Avocado goes well with kefir and other fermented milk products. A sauce based on these components is suitable for egg salads, dishes with fish, seafood, fresh or baked vegetables.

Cooking process:

1. Peel the fruit and remove the pit.
2. Grind the pulp with a fork or blender to make a puree.
3. Add 300 ml kefir, 4 tbsp. l. olive oil, 2 tbsp. l. lime or lemon juice, ½ tsp. sugar, a pinch of salt, beat again.

The dressing can be refrigerated before serving. If desired, it can be supplemented with 2 drops of green Tabasco sauce.

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For snacks

When you come across descriptions of mayonnaise dishes, do not rush to put them aside - try to come up with a suitable seasoning based on our tips. For example, a dressing made from the following ingredients is suitable for homemade sandwiches, hamburgers or pizza:

• cottage cheese – 100 g;
• yogurt without flavors – 100 ml;
• tomato paste – 1 tbsp.

Add spices to the resulting mass to taste and mix in a convenient way - using a blender or manually. By changing the proportions of thick and liquid products in the composition, you can adjust the consistency to the required one.

How to marinate meat

A healthy and aromatic marinade for adherents of a healthy diet can easily be made using kefir. The lactic acid in its composition will make chicken, beef or other types of meat cuts tender and juicy. To prepare you will need:

• kefir 1% fat content or less – 200ml;
• soft cheese – 100g;
• mustard – 1 tbsp. l.;
• honey – 1 tsp;
• seasonings to taste.

Meat left in this marinade for 3 hours is baked in the oven, grilled, in a slow cooker, or cooked in another conventional way. In addition, fish is also marinated in it.

Adjika is another version of diet sauce instead of mayonnaise. It's better if it's homemade. When buying ready-made, pay attention to the composition and the presence of chemical components in it.

Comment from the clinic's nutritionist

To diversify your diet menu, consider the composition of your usual dishes. Find lower-calorie alternatives for unwanted ingredients. For example, buy lean meat and dairy products, prepare your own sauces, and avoid frying in oil in favor of baking in the oven. It is quite possible that your favorite food will become available again, and the process of losing weight will become enjoyable.

Bechamel sauce

The recipe for bechamel sauce comes from French cuisine. To make your own liquid seasoning, you will need:

• 500 ml cow's milk;
• 100 g butter;
• 50 g flour;
• A little nutmeg;
• A pinch of salt.

First of all, melt the butter. Add two tablespoons of flour and stir until smooth. Lightly fry. Add a little nutmeg and pour in half a liter of milk. The resulting sauce can be used to season various dishes that are baked in the oven.

Can avocado replace mayonnaise?

Experiments with the search for new flavors have shown that this exotic fruit can also be a worthy alternative to harmful dressings. Despite the fact that avocados are considered fatty, they contain polyunsaturated fats that have a beneficial effect on metabolic processes in the body. When on a diet, it is recommended to consume this sauce in moderation.

To prepare the norm for the week, take 1 ripe avocado, peel it and remove the pit. Chop 1 clove of garlic, add 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and ½ cup of olive oil. The mass must be mixed and spices added. The resulting structure resembles a cream in consistency and is widely used in Mexican cuisine. Served with fish, meat and vegetable dishes, and used in sandwiches.

Gourmet Recipes

For lovers of spicy flavors, we have compiled several recommendations for creating special dressings.

Cucumber Tzatziki sauce instead of mayonnaise

This idea came into the field of dietary nutrition from traditional Greek cuisine, where any dish is seasoned in this way - meat, fish, vegetables, etc. To create it you will need 1 grated cucumber, 200 grams of yogurt, garlic, olive oil, dill or parsley and salt.

Flax-seed

Flax seeds are rich in fiber, Omega-3, 6 and 9 fatty acids, as well as other beneficial microelements, have a beneficial effect on almost all body systems and are actively used in dietary nutrition as a source of vital substances.

To prepare the additive, you will need 2 tbsp. l. seeds (pre-soak them in clean water), 2 tbsp. l. balsamic vinegar and salt. The ingredients are mixed in a blender and added to salads and meat in small quantities.

Delicious diet

Mayonnaise is strictly prohibited with a proper and healthy diet. What can you replace it with when you want to eat a salad, but other than dressing with olive oil, nothing comes to mind?

Take advantage of our tips that can be applied even to the New Year's diet table.

Yogurt sauce

Ingredients:

• 250 ml natural yoghurt;
• 50 ml lemon juice;
• a bunch of dill;
• spices, salt.

Cooking method:

1. Finely chop the greens.
2. Mix all ingredients in a separate container.
3. Add salt and seasonings.

Refrigerate before use.

Curd dressing

If you are a fan of fermented milk products, try replacing mayonnaise with a delicious dressing with cottage cheese.

For this you will need:

• 200 g low-fat cottage cheese;
• 200 ml yogurt;
• ½ bunch of parsley, dill, cilantro;
• sugar, pepper, salt.

How to cook:

1. Wash the greens, dry and finely chop.
2. Mash the fermented milk product thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
3. Add yogurt, spices, and herbs to the mixture.
4. Beat with a mixer until smooth.

Add avocado

Ingredients:

• avocado;
• 1 green chili;
• small onion;
• 2 tbsp. l. lemon juice;
• 3 tbsp. l. olive oil;
• 200 ml water;
• herbs, spices, salt.

Cooking steps:

1. Peel the avocado and remove the pit.
2. Grind the fruit and put it in a blender.
3. Cut the onion into small cubes and place in the bowl of a food processor.
4. Wash the pepper, remove the tail, cut lengthwise into two halves, remove the seeds.
5. Next, add 100 ml of water, lemon juice, and oil to the sauce mixture.
6. Chop the greens with a knife and place in a blender.
7. Beat on turbo mode.
8. If the avocado mixture is too thick, add a little water.

This sauce can replace fatty mayonnaise for pancreatitis, gastritis, diabetes, and even during fasting.

Classic homemade mayonnaise recipes

Connoisseurs of the usual taste can try to make the most similar dressing at home themselves, but without preservatives and other harmful additives. Compound:

• 2 egg yolks;
• 1 glass of oil;
• 2 tsp vinegar, 3%;
• 1 tsp mustard;
• 1 tsp Sahara;
• salt.

There are small nuances in preparation. First of all, you need to beat the yolks with sugar and mustard until foamy. Then gradually add the oil and the remaining ingredients, stirring until the mixture turns white.

This mixture is stored in the refrigerator for only 2-3 days, but its beneficial qualities are not comparable to a store-bought product.

Curd version of the classic

A sauce made from cottage cheese and yogurt instead of mayonnaise also has the usual taste, but contains significantly less fat and calories and is completely devoid of flavor enhancers and stabilizers. Combine 4 tbsp in a container. spoons of grainy curd and 100 g of yogurt without flavorings, add the yolk, a spoonful of lemon juice and mustard.

Caution should be exercised when using raw eggs in dressings - there is a risk of salmonellosis. As a precautionary measure, experts recommend purchasing them from trusted manufacturers and thoroughly cleaning them with soap before use.

Comment from the clinic's nutritionist:

In the fight against excess weight, excluding mayonnaise products from the diet is not a panacea. In order to put your figure in order, you need to take a comprehensive approach to this topic. The best solution would be to consult with a specialist. At Elena Morozova’s clinic, we develop an individual nutrition program and select optimal physical activity based on the characteristics of your lifestyle and health. We help you cope with psychological problems that provoke overeating and other bad habits. The joint work of our professionals is aimed at creating healthy habits in the daily life of each client and understanding the principles of a healthy lifestyle.

How to make mayonnaise less harmful

If you can't completely give up store-bought sauce, try reducing your consumption with a little trick to start. Before use, dilute it with sour cream or yogurt in a 1:1 ratio. This technique will not eliminate unhealthy substances, but will significantly reduce their amount in the bulk of the dish.

Pepper, mustard, garlic and herbs can enhance the aroma and add piquancy to the dressing.

Sour cream sauce with horseradish

This liquid dressing has a spicy taste. To prepare, mix natural sour cream, ground black pepper and a small amount of garlic powder. The finished sauce is excellent for meat dishes. Please note that the dressing does not last long. If you have prepared too much sauce, pour it into small containers and refrigerate.

How to choose a quality gas station in the store

We have already mentioned that finding a product that meets the criteria for a healthy diet on the shelves is almost impossible. However, here is the order of quality assessment for those who are ready to search:

• read the ingredients: oil, yolk, vinegar, sugar and mustard should be listed in the first positions;
• make sure there are no flavorings, thickeners, flavor enhancers, etc.;
• evaluate the expiration date: not only freshness is important here, but also the absence of preservatives. The shelf life of natural dietary products is 2-3 months;
• check at home: place a drop of mayonnaise on a hot frying pan - a high-quality sauce will melt, a chemical sauce will foam and burn to the surface.

Manufacturers' advertising campaigns convince consumers of the beneficial properties of quail egg products. To dispel this myth, we note that their composition is almost identical to chicken. They are only indicated for people prone to allergic reactions.

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In this article, we looked at many ways to prepare dressings instead of mayonnaise based on yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, cucumber and other dietary ingredients. We hope that our review was useful and will help diversify the table of a losing weight person with proper, healthy and tasty dishes.