Salad Noob

Crush three cloves of garlic, salt, one teaspoon of olive oil with a mortar and pestle. Add juice of one lemon. For salad 200gr purple cabbage 200gr of tomatoes 100gr bell pepper and 100gr red onion. Put the lemon mixture on the salad add 1 or 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. I eat this everyday for dinner its great. Sometimes I add 50gr of feta.

While I'm sure I'll probably get laughed out of the forum for this I must ask. Those of you who eat salads.....how do you do it? (With a fork! Heh.) I mean how did you come to like eating them. I've never liked salads really. The last time I ate something resembling a salad was 20 years ago and it had a piece of lettuce a carton of croutons and I drenched it in Catalina dressing. I was grocery shopping and saw a pre-packaged Chicken Ceasar salad and I actually thought it looked pretty good. I decided against getting it at the time, but I keep thinking I might grab it next time I'm at the store. If anyone can see past my crazy and help me figure out how to like salads enough to make them a regular part of my diet I'd be forever grateful.

Think outside the salad box. You don't always have to use lettuce as a base. You can make an avocado, corn and red pepper salad. Or maybe a miso edamame succotash salad. One of my faves is cabbage (any kind), cilantro, green onion and avo. I recently bought a book called the Salad Samurai. It has a hundred salads that I can't wait to sink my teeth into.

oh and be careful of salads at the shops or in restaurant.
some ceasar salads have more calories than a quarter pounder.
make your own so that you know what goes in there

I don't eat mine with a fork -- that makes me feel like I am eating a salad -- boring and difficult.

I open a bag of romaine, put some in a bowl, and eat with my figures. Some how doing that has become less like the torture it was in the beginning, and almost enjoyable.

I agree about the salad dressing. Sometimes I kind of use that as a dip.

I have always loved salads. there are more then the regular salads. I love broccoli salad, bean salad, noodle salad, cucumber salad, potato salads, the list goes on

I love to have something really strong flavoured to make all the leaves a lot more interesting - so bits of grapefruit, sauerkraut or a lime and chilli dressing - something that really gives your tastebuds a jolt. Also varying textures, so soft pulses with some crunchy vegetables, or sprinkling with toasted seeds. Lots of the little extras can be quite high fat or salt, but you really don't need a lot to make your salad more interesting.

You can also vary texture by chopping things differently. Chopping stuff up small can really improve the flavour, as you get more variety in each mouthful too.


I love this blog post too, as a basic intro to making salads that are meals: http://francesbavinnutrition.co.uk/?p=338

If you don't like salads, you don't have to eat them.

We eat salad mostly in the spring when we have home grown lettuce and in the summer, when we can get local lettuce (usually leaf or romaine). You can add any leftover cooked vegetables such as asparagus, sliced beets, etc. and anything fresh you like. Sliced pickled beets, kalamata olives, grated parmesan, etc. add a lot of flavor.

We actually prefer cooked vegetables most of the time and they are a healthy choice - salads are NOT mandatory for weight loss.

I am absolutely useless at making salads. They seem to taste awful when I make them myself (like cups of tea), but I love them when I eat out. My favourite Mexican restaurant does a lovely one with sprouted lentils, potato salad, apple, lettuce, carrot, red cabbage and beetroot. Nom, nom, nom, might have to go and get one next weekend now I think about it :laugh:

Honestly? I spent years trying to love salad. The only salads I would eat as a kid were always smothered in at least four servings of ranch dressing. No wonder I was a chunky kid, haha.

People on this site seem to, more often than not, shun absolutely every dressing with the exception of vinaigrettes and balsamic vinegar. Even now when I bring up salads, there's always someone who'll tell me, "Don't eat salad dressing at any cost, olive oil and lemon juice is all you need!"

You know how many times I've tried to choke down salad coated in olive oil and lemon juice? Too many times. The oil is bland and has no flavor and the lemon juice is just odd and makes all the leafy greens too soggy. Not to mention, the amount of calories in olive oil ends up being more than most dressings. Thought it was all about calories in and calories out, naysayers.

Really, you just gotta find that special dressing that speaks to you. If you truly enjoy vinaigrettes, good for you! But I'm not that kind of person. I guess I just like the creamy stuff.

I started using this dressing a few months ago and I swear to you, I'm never going back. It's called Annie's Naturals Goddess Dressing and I eat it every single day! 2 TBSP merits 120 calories, but I measure out only 1 TBSP and that's enough for two heaping cups of lettuce and other veggies.

Just find a dressing you like and measure it out. There's bound to be one out there

i buy bags of prepared salads (no dressing/meat/cheese or anything just a mix of cut up salad leaves) and i eat it with chicken + corn/pineapple. sometimes only pineapple if i had too much protein (occasionally i break 300g before my last meal).
For the dressing i use a balsamico dressing by knorr which is low in calories, an herb dressing without oil (0.1g of fat) or the jamie oliver low fat dressing (you can find it on youtube)

i went on a date to appleby's and ordered something that came with a salad. i ate my whole meal, but didn't touch the salad until the very end because i was still sooooo hungry. it was spinach with craisins and feta cheese, and a honey mustard dressing. it was outstanding.

i know a lot of people will load up their salad with about 12 different things, but i prefer to keep things simple. the greens, 2-3 toppings, and dressing.

and when i figured out you could add protein to a salad and still call it a salad MY ENTIRE WORLD CHANGED.

What flavors do you like? Try putting those in a salad form.
We usually do taco Tuesday for dinner so I frequently have a taco salad for lunch on Wednesday. Grilled taco shrimp or chicken, black beans, grilled onions and peppers, little bit of shared cheese, tomatoes top of chopped romaine lettuce. Then I mix a little bit of spicy ranch with some salsa and use that as dressing. Mixing them makes the ranch thinner so it goes further and coats everything.

I do this, but mix salsa with plain Greek yogurt as a dressing.