Pour On the Dressing

The new steakhouses popping up around Southern California bring to mind the iceberg lettuce salads served in the ‘60s and ‘70s whenever you ordered a steak.

The salads were either a wedge of iceberg or iceberg torn and served with tomato wedges and radish slices. The dressings were pretty standard--French, blue cheese, Thousand Island and, usually, a creamy celery seed. They tasted great but were high in fat. I still have a picture of a waitress with three or four salads in hand drizzling a big ladle of dressing over each.

This quick low-fat salad dressing is the creamy celery seed type made with low-fat mayonnaise and buttermilk. Mustard and horseradish give it zip.

Try it the next time you crank up the grill. It’s an easy salad to serve and has a great crunch that you don’t get with the designer greens.

RETRO HONEY MUSTARD SALAD DRESSING

Serve over wedges of chilled lettuce, preferably iceberg.

1 cup low-fat mayonnaise

2 tablespoons buttermilk

2 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

1 tablespoon minced green onions

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon salt

Serve over wedges of chilled lettuce, preferably iceberg.

Combine mayonnaise and buttermilk in small bowl until blended. Stir in honey, mustard, horseradish, onions, garlic, celery seed, white pepper and salt. Cover and chill until ready to use.

1 1/3 cups. Each 1-tablespoon serving:

48 calories; 227 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 4 grams fat; 3 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0.02 gram fiber.