Catalina Dressing

Italian dressing was completely out of my sodium range — the bottled kind runs about 350mg in 2 tablespoons, so a real pour costs half my day (my limit is 1,500mg) before the salad even starts. And oil and vinegar is fine, but every salad, every night? I just wanted something else on a salad again.

Catalina was the answer — sweet, tangy, actually a dressing. But Kraft's bottled Catalina runs 320mg of sodium in 2 tablespoons. A real pour — a quarter cup — is 640mg, nearly half my whole day, and that is on a salad.

So I make it. Mine runs about 6mg a serving, and it takes five minutes in a blender.

The swap is one ingredient: Heinz No Salt Added ketchup (5mg a tablespoon on the label) instead of regular ketchup. Everything else is pantry — red wine vinegar, a little honey, paprika, onion powder, celery seed, a whisper of lower-sodium Worcestershire, and oil drizzled in last. It keeps two weeks in the fridge.

One honest note: that ketchup is made with potassium chloride. If you restrict potassium, check with your doctor before using it. We're cooks, not doctors!

The ketchup is on my No-Salt Pantry List too, with the rest of the finds.

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