New salad ideas

[Ihateslugs]

I’m slowly losing weight ( need to lose a lot before knee replacement surgery) and have been doing quite well by fasting and eating mainly salads. I try to include a good mix of salad veggies, protein and carbs but would like more variety.

I am not a fan of lettuce but will eat it so tend to chop up tomatoes, radish, spring onion, peppers, beetroot as the base salad with either lettuce or watercress. I then add some extras like grapes, olives, crumbled blue cheese, dried bacon bits, tinned sweetcorn or home made croutons - not all at the same time! My main protein is chicken, eggs, tinned tuna, steak, cold salmon or cold sliced meats like ham or beef.

Occasionally I add a very small amount of blue cheese dressing - Mary Berry makes a very tasty one!

I would love to add more variety as I’m getting a bit bored so please can you suggest extra salad items and also easy options of protein to go with the salad. I think I need more carbs although I do sometimes have a slice of crusty bread with my meal.

I live alone and have mobility problems so cannot spend ages preparing food which often gets wasted as I cannot eat it up before it goes off - for example when I make potato salad. I do not like cold pasta, avocado or hummus. I am limited to online grocery deliveries so choices can be limited.

Or do you think I have a balanced salad with enough variety? I guess I’d like more ideas for the main protein food, I seem to have a lot of chicken and eggs!

Why not a niçoise? Unless you don’t like anchovies. Or marinate the chicken in something like a peri peri, then grill. Waldorf salad is easy to make or make smaller portions of potato salad with added extras like spring onions. I love little baby potatoes baked and stuffed with cheese and bacon as they’re nice hot or cold.

Roasted veg? I do courgettes, onion, peppers, sweet potato, butternut squash, tomatoes etc with some seasoning and it keeps fine in a sealed tub

All sorts of pickles… gherkins, onions, mini peppers, sometimes a dollop of Branston.

Oh cottage cheese works too, plus adds some protein

Have you ever made your own coleslaws? I make a huge tub and it lasts a week. It’s nothing like what you get from a shop. I use half a red onion, 2 carrots, half a small red cabbage, half a small white cabbage, 1 stick celery and then I use an online recipe for the sauce. I usually also throw in a big handful of fresh coriander and/or parsley.

You do need some way of slicing everything easily though as the chopping by hand take hours!

Then I eat it alongside all sorts - eg hard boiled eggs, a tin of mackeral, cheddar cheese.

I also am not a huge fan of lettuce but I do love raw Chinese leaf and I love raw spinach.

How about adding fish like salmon to your salads
Or instead of salad roast veg and couscous?

Different dressings can mix things up a lot, and don't need to add too many extra calories eg soy and ginger, fresh mint and balsamic vinegar, low fat mayo and greek yogurt with lemon zest and juice.

Healthy salad formula

• Two parts vegetables: eg leafy greens; chopped peppers, cucumbers, or tomatoes or asparagus or mushrooms (marinated and baked mushrooms are yummy); or roasted vegetables
• One part carbs: eg quinoa, brown rice, sweet potatoes, butternut squash or (wholewheat) couscous / (brown) rice / buckwheat
• Protein: eg* hard boiled *eggs, beans, pulses, fish or tofu. Obviously meat too but sparingly if you're trying to lose weight. Tofu is especially good as it is very low in calories, high in protein and can taste wildly different depending on your marinade. You can bake instead of frying it. Two steps not to miss: freeze it first - it massively improves the texture and make sure you press it to get the excess liquid out before marinating.
• Fat: Plant-based sources of fat such as olives, or an oil-based dressing are best (avocados too but you don't like those!). Tahini and yoghurt are also good options. Cheese works well for some salads (think beets and goat cheese or a Greek salad with feta) but don't overdo it if you want the end result to stay this side of healthy!
• Crunchy bits: Nuts, seeds, or crunched-up whole-grain crisps or crackers. Chopped radishes and / or celery works too. Croutons if you must but sparingly as they are not very healthy. I dry fry pumpkin seeds a lot for my salads. I also dry fry sunflower seeds until toasted, remove from heat and add a teaspoon of both lemon juice and soy sauce. Mix well and leave to cool. Pomegranate seeds are good too as are crunch apple slices.
• Extra flavoring: Fresh herbs. Even just a bit of parsley can make all the difference.* *Spring onions. Chili crisp. Something pickled (jalapenos / cauliflower / carrots etc) Sundried tomatoes. Anchovies.

Try varying your dressings - it can make a huge difference and think about adding something warm / hot to create contrast with the cold items.

Dressing formula:

• a really good fat (oil, egg yolk, sesame oil, nut oils etc)
• a really good sour (vinegar (try raspberry or sherry), citrus, gherkins, capers, preserved lemons, pickling brine, etc)

There are no hard or fast rules regarding ratios but start with 3 (oil) to 1 (sour) and experiment from there. if you want to avoid adding something sweet you might want to dial down the sour a bit.

After that you can add optionals such as:

• something sweet (sparingly obvs! Try palm sugar or maple syrup. Or tamarind paste)
• fresh herbs (coriander, parsley, mint chives or tarragon are all really good)
• chili paste or oil (harissa and gochujang are my favourites - a little goes a long way)
• mustard

Good luck!

I would ditch the grapes - they are full of sugar. My dietician calls them sugar bombs. Also the blue cheese, croutons and dried bacon bits will be calorific.

What about adding king prawns and mackerel? The mackerel should have a use by date of about 3 weeks.

I'm also fasting - doing 18:6. Only started this week, so have yet to see results!!

I‘m not keen on lettuce so I use grated carrot as a substitute for the salad leaves and then add all the usual salady things on top

its fine if she’s having small amounts
you’re not likely to be having half a punnet of grapes in a salad

Yesterday I had a caprese salad, tomato, basil and mozzarella, drizzled with olive oil. And a watermelon, blue cheese and walnut, again drizzled with olive oil. Cucumber, red onion and mint, drizzled with balsamic.

All delicious.

Id ignore people saying to remove grapes, they are fruit. They are good for you!

one of my favourite salads is:

orso pasta
rocket
red grapes (halfed)
cubes of feta
pecan pieces

so good

edited to add, I’d have that with some other protein like a piece of fish or chicken

I like quinoa in a salad, it needs a tangy dressing to pep it up. Or a ton of chickpeas, drained, tossed in a little bit of oil and a pot of smoked Pathan roasted for about 15 minutes.

Are you aiming for low carb or low calorie or a bit of both?

I keto. My go tos are..

Spicy pakora salad.
Leaves, grated carrot, diced cucumber, finely grated strong cheddar (about 30-50g) roasted med veggies (onion, peppers, courgette and aubergine) topped with chicken pakora (sainos do low carb ones). Mayo and chilli sauce/sarracha.

Chicken and bacon ceasar salad. The dressing is surprisingly easy if you have the ingredients. Mayo, parmesan, vinegar, anchovies, garlic, oil, mustard, wostershire.

Everything but the bun burger salad.
All your favourite burger fillings with a meat patty of your choice and leafy garnish.
I do beef cheese burger, tomato salsa, red slaw, fried mushrooms onion.

Halloumi and hummus. Keep it light with a drizzle of lemon and oil or add sweet chilli sauce. I add roast peppers, yogurt, chopped tomatoes and cucumber.

Coronation chicken salad. I make my own low sugar version which is fried onion with mild chilli powder and garam masala, cooled then mixed with 50/50 mayo and natural yogurt.

Prawn cocktail salad. Up the prawns, keep the dressing light (shop bought way over does the sauce, scrape half of it off) add tomato, cucumber, grated carrot.

Roast sweet potato, goats cheese (the crumbly kind) grated carrot, cucumber, cherry tomato, seeds, tossed with balsamic and good quality olive oil.

Big American salad. The leaves are optional.
Slaw, boiled diced potato, bacon, cooked and cooled green beans, diced beet root. Ribboned carrot, roast veg (any, I like broccoli) chopped peppers, spring onions, cucumber etc etc.

Mexican style Salad! Black beans, kidney beans, sweetcorn, chopped coriander, diced tomatoes and diced red onion. With spicy chicken on top or even taco spiced mince.

Some lovely ideas here, so much to try!

Re the grapes, I usually have six which I cut in half mixed in with everything else.

A nice addition to a salad is halloumi, cut into cubes and fried in some olive oil. Once it is browned drizzle with a little bit of honey and cook for a minute. Delicious and not squeaky like halloumi can be. I would think tofu would work too, for a vegan version,

I usually keep a jar of grated carrot and beetroot in apple cider vinegar in the fridge, literally just peel and grate them and cover with vinegar so I can add to sides of things that need a little zing and in this instance, I'd add it to whatever salad is on the go. It is very good in potato salads as well. I also add onion and pepper, but saute them first and leave to cool before adding. Also, make up a batch of onion marmalade and keep it in a jar in the fridge that is great in salads. And never forgetting the secret ingredient to almost everything that needs a little something, chopped up sun dried tomatoes.

Just realised honey wouldn’t be vegan, maple syrup works too.

I like chopped kiwi in a green salad, works really well.

You could try falafel for protein, or roast chickpeas and sprinkle them on top.

This is not a salad but more of a veg side dish. Bake sliced courgettes in bit of oil in oven for 15 minutes then add chopped feta and sun dried tomatoes. You only need a bit of feta so I don't think it's that high in calories.

I love halloumi so am going to try this!