What can I put in salads that will make me feel more full?

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I was going to post this in weightloss but actually it's not about weightloss but about eating to be healthy, even though I would like to see an effect on my weight.

I've been reading lots of books which basically advocate a daily diet of something like: avocado on toast, eggs, green salad with feta, nuts and grains, lots of almonds/walnuts/cashews in between meals, as much fruit and veg as possible, chicken/fish salads.

Every time I eat a salad for a meal it feels like a snack. I feel like it is my pre-meal snack! I don't know if this is a habit I've got into or whether people who genuinely eat like this feel hungry still after a salad?

This evening I had rocket, feta, avocado, walnut, tomato and olives with plenty of olive oil. A big portion. But I did not feel full. I've just had to eat three pieces of toast before bed to even feel like my stomach is full...

What can I put in salads that would make me feel more full?

Very well timed post - be been looking to jazz up my salads!

Op you need a lot more protein and fats / oils if you want to feel fuller. So meat / cheese / fish / chicken, plenty of oily dressing.

I live in France and the main course salads that the restaurants here serve are ginormous - often served in a fruit-bowl sized bowl. So don’t skimp on the leaves!

lots of good ideas, but what's wrong with feeling a bit hungry sometimes?? just wait until your next meal to eat something

Do you need to feel full though? Maybe you just need to eat until you stop feeling hungry (unless that's what you mean)?

Canellini beans or borlotti beans.
They're softer and tastier than chickpeas. You don’t need too many of them either to fill you up.

I do cous cous mixed with chickpeas, cucumber, garlic, fresh coriander, half tomatoes, beetroot, chunks of tomato and plenty of olive oil, with chicken.

Or cucumber, tiny tomatoes, red pepper, yellow pepper, rocket, mango, watermelon, kiwi, feta, and French dressing served with chicken. Sometimes add strawberries in summer and switch to balsamic dressing.

Cooked salmon/mackerel/trout with avocado, spinach, rocket, vine tomatoes, cucumber and new potatoes with creme fraiche, lemon wedge/zest and whole grain mustard.

Apple coleslaw (apple, carrot, cabbage and onions in half creme fraiche, half mayo) with celery, leaves, hard boiled egg and meat of choice (pulled ham hock or bacon usually).

A pie

Lots of different textures help you feel fuller. So try adding some roast butternut or beetroot, apple chunks, walnuts, seeds, feta with tomato, olives and cucumber along with the leaves peppers etc. Maybe some quinoa, brown rice or couscous, tossed with spices or herbs and chunks of roasted veg.If you're not trying to lose weight, add a honey and oil dressing or a creamy dressing.

Agree that you need to stop chasing that full feeling. You didn't need three pieces of toast to stop feeling hungry, you needed them to feel stuffed. Get used to differentiating between 'not hungry' and 'full' and don't be afraid to feel hungry either, nothing bad is going to happen if you do.

Chips

I usually have this: ham slices, lettuce, tomato cucumber, a little bit of rice, a boiled egg and some beetroot. Does the trick! Sometimes I chuck in some sweet corn as well.

Agree that you need to stop chasing that full feeling. You didn't need three pieces of toast to stop feeling hungry, you needed them to feel stuffed. Get used to differentiating between 'not hungry' and 'full' and don't be afraid to feel hungry either, nothing bad is going to happen if you do.
This is good advice (that I need to listen to.) That said, I love salad as I never feel hungry after it, whereas bread makes me ravenous after a couple of hours.

I'm not sure that nothing bad happens if you go to bed hungry. For a start, you won't be able to sleep with a rumbly tummy and secondly you're likely to pig out the next day to make up for it.

Beans ! Or new potatoes
Eggs or tuna

Shelled broad beans, peas, french beans, New potatoes.

For salad to.be a meal, I need brown rice or bulgur wheat or new potatoes in it , ie carbs

Or have two brown pittas with it, or a baked potato

Love salad, but need my carbs too

I make a lovely warm salad with cubed sweet potato, sliced mushrooms and halloumi cooked in a big frying pan with a little olive oil. I cooked them so that they’re very slightly charred on the outside. We then have this with a big green leaf salad including avocado, mange tout, peppers etc. I make a dressing with balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil. It is properly lush and fills you right up.

I agree with the poster above. Having something warm in there makes it feel more meal like.
Roasted beetroot, chicken, halloumi, even just cut up toast (my version of croutons.)

You need more protein! Boiled eggs, fish, meat, quorn pieces, tofu etc. I like to cook veggie meatballs in tinned tomatoes and pour over a salad, or add quorn pieces sprinkled with fajita seasoning and fried in that one calorie spray oil. A couple of boiled eggs really bulk out a salad and add protein for 140 calories. Also things like chickpeas and other beans are a healthy carbohydrate which will fill you up.

Roast red peppers , squash , sweet potato and some herbs , salt and pepper with one cal spray and put them in cold.
Bacon , chicken breast , prawns , tuna
Boiled new potatoes
Grated carrot and raisins and a few crushed almonds mixed together. Tiny squeeze of lemon juice.
Chick peas and other beans.

You still need carbohydrates in your salad for it to be a balanced meal and you didn't have any, hence why you needed toast later. I would be having some rice, pasta, bread, quinoa, bulgarwheat, chickpeas, bread or potatoes with the salad.

You know Op if you'd had just one piece of bread with the salad it it probably would have felt more filling and you wouldn't have eaten three pieces of toast later on .

I love salad but as a main meal I need something more substantial than just salad veg OR I'd eat a banana or some Greek yogurt with berries afterwards. For a main meal I'd have some of the following with two thirds of the plate being salad:

Frittata/Spanish omelette - can be made one day then eaten over a couple of days.
Baked falafel with a spoonful of hummus, reduced fat if you want.
Grilled/poached salmon
Tinned tuna
Stuffed peppers or mushrooms
Veggie burger (no bun )

I roast up cubes of veg such as butternut squash, courgette, sweet potato, aubergine, even parsnips, carrots, broccoli (whatever's handy really!) and chuck - decent amount on salad leaves/spinach
Also:
Toasted seeds and nuts
Humous
Eggs
Chicken

Salads are only diet food as long as you don't add anything that makes them tasty or filling. So that's no olive oil, cheese or nuts. (I think nuts have an absolutely humongous calorie density?)

I think eggs, tuna or chicken would be better options than oil, cheese or nuts.

(Just googled, chicken 151 calories per 100g, cashew nuts over 581.)

True to an extent Firesuit I suppose it depends on how much of the higher calorie foods you add. I often notice that some people think salad must be as low in calories and fat as they can possibly get it which kind of makes for a disappointing meal and often (as in Ops case) eating more afterwards because they're still hungry or sometimes because they feel they deserve it after being so good.

Op does say she's trying to be healthy rather than just weight loss so lots of the suggestions here would make a filling meal and are more nutritionally dense. I think if adding a little dressing or cheese means someone eats a big plate of salad veg then that's fine and they're much less likely to need a snack a couple of hours later.

I have a smoked mackerel fillet, some chicken or tuna/salmon. It seems to work for me - but I only have salads for lunch, not evening meal.