As a registered dietitian, one of the main things I hear from my clients is that salads are boring, and not filling or satisfying enough. And I get it: Eating a boring green salad for lunch can leave you starving all afternoon if you're not smart about what ingredients you choose. But with almost 80 percent of us not getting enough fruit and vegetables on a daily basis, clearly we need to make more of an effort to get our greens, which means learning how to build a salad that's actually satisfying.
I don’t want to brag or anything, but I’ve always been the Salad Queen (inherited from my dad, who was the best salad maker ever). I'm going to teach you how to make a delicious, filling, protein-rich salad that you’re going to love. I've honestly been eating the same salad for lunch for years, and I'm still not sick of it. Here are my tips for making a salad that’s definitely not boring.
1. Use hefty greens as your base.
Iceberg lettuce is still a vegetable, but darker greens like arugula, spinach, and kale contain far more antioxidants, fiber, and minerals like iron. They’re also going to fill you up a lot more because they have a heartier texture. (Here are some tips on how make a kale salad taste better.) Make a mix or just choose one green, and don’t be afraid to use a lot. The salads I make at home each contain one entire 5-ounce container of greens.
2. Include a variety of fruits and vegetables as mix-ins.
By adding a few different fruits and/or vegetables every time you make a salad, you're getting a variety of textures and flavors, not to mention vitamins and nutrients. Plus, adding vitamin C-rich ingredients like bell peppers, broccoli, strawberries, or orange sections will ensure that you better absorb the iron in your greens
3. Choose a lean protein source with a lot of flavor.
Having enough protein in your salad is essential for satiety, but you need to be smart about your protein source. For example, nuts and cheese contain protein, but they're are also super high in fat. In order to get the 20 to 25 grams of protein that I recommend for each meal, you’d have to eat several servings of nuts and/or cheese, which would add up to several hundred extra calories and lots of fat. Calories aren't inherently bad, and it's important to add some fat to your salad (more on that below), but if the goal is to make a salad that's balanced and energizing, you shouldn't use these high-fat ingredients as your major source of protein.
Instead, choose a high-quality, tasty protein like marinated tofu, black beans or lentils, crisped chickpeas (just quickly panfry them in a bit of oil and seasonings), chicken, or steak. One of my favorite easy protein sources for salads is Italian tuna. (I’m sorry, but white tuna has to go—it's like dry, tasteless styrofoam.) I buy Italian-style tuna in olive oil, which is richer than the white stuff but 100 times more flavorful. Once you drain it, it's not full of oil, either.
Whichever protein source you choose, 3 to 4 ounces of one of these high-quality options should give you all the protein you need for a filling meal.
4. Add some fat. It’s a must!
Thankfully the low-fat diet craze is over, but there are still some people who try to avoid fat. Don’t! While it’s true that you shouldn’t overeat fat (just like you shouldn’t overeat in general), I advise that people eat at least 2 teaspoons-worth of fat at a meal (about 10 grams) to increase satiety. Fat also assists with the absorption of all those great fat-soluble vitamins in the salad vegetables, namely vitamins A, D, E, and K.
