Trust me, a salad is the last things most people want to eat. I mean, what sounds appealing about a bowl of limp, watery vegetables?
But here's the thing that I've learned over the years, especially on my journey to eating better; I've been eating salads wrong all this time. And so have you!
Salads, like many other dishes, can be blank canvases for creativity, taste and flavor. They don't have to be dry and bland to be healthy; you can incorporate some of your favorite foods and flavors into the dish and make it something enjoyable. Whatever vegetables, fruits, proteins, beans, dressing, nuts, etc. you want to have, you can have it. Just have it within reason - I think adding fried chicken tenders negates the purpose of the salad.
Here are some guidelines to building your best salad:
A Good Base: Lay the foundation for the salad. Usually people go straight for iceberg lettuce for their salads, but that leads to a limp, watery salad, owing to the fact that iceberg lettuce is mostly water. Instead, use some variety in your base. I use iceberg lettuce myself, but I also throw in some spinach for a little more taste and texture. You can use whatever green vegetable you want; kale, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, etc. Choose something you would actually want to eat.
Adding Greens: Once you have your base, don't be afraid to add a little bit more green in there. Green foods helps the overall body, but mainly helps build healthy cells in the body. So throw in some watercress, or a little avocado. Go green!
Pop of Color: Now we can have a little bit of fun and add some color and personality. Whenever you eat, you want to create a plate that's colorful, because we are visual people and we want to eat what looks good. So throw in some things that break up all that green. Toss some red in there (tomatoes), purple (onions), orange (carrots), yellow (corn or bell peppers), etc. Get a full rainbow on there!
Something Meaty: Now this is up to you, but you can add in some protein here. Most often, people think of chicken in their salads, but there are other options. You can include steak, shrimp, fish like salmon or tuna, or even tofu for that meaty taste without the actual meat. Or find plant-based protein options such as chickpeas, black beans, etc.
Top it Off and Dress it Up: Now is the time to add your final finishing touches. Here, you can add seeds, nuts, cheese, and don't forget your dressing. A little note about dressing: it can be tempting to douse the whole salad, but that is actually not necessary. A tablespoon will be enough to add the flavor and taste you need without adding any extra and unnecessary fat and calories. Or you can simply use oil and vinegar to add some flavor too.
These guidelines should help make salad-making a little bit easier. And a little more fun. The worse thing in the world is a disappointing lunch, especially when trying to eat better and a salad is usually the template for a boring, sad meal that makes you wanna pitch it out and go for that greasy burger and fries. But, by rethinking how to create a salad and actually adding in some of the very things that you enjoy, you might actually be willing to bring a salad into the office.
A couple of tips for storage though: because tomatoes are watery as well, don't add them to the salad until you are ready to eat. If you put it in the night before or the morning off, after an hour or so, that salad will be soggy. Also, put the dressing in a separate container until lunch for the same reason as the tomato; all that dressing will soak into the leaves prematurely and you won't be able to evenly distribute the flavor.
We about the love of salads ... so let's dig right in! (Get it? Dig...salad...garden...veggies...okay, never mind)
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