To think my salads are shit?

[Acunningruse]

Or at the very least, trapped in the 80s?!

We go on holiday in 30 days and I want to lose a ton bit of weight before we go so am planning on salad for lunch every day. Today I have ham, egg, lettuce, tomato cucumber and a bit of mayo. I think it'll be nice, but also like being transported back to my 80s childhood?!

The shops are full of exotic and tempting looking salads but I seem incapable of recreating anything similar at home. I tried one with chickpeas the other day and it was just chickpeas floating round my plate with a bit of onion and tomato.

What are your top homemade salads? Disclaimer I live in a very non exotic small town and do not have access to fancy delis etc.

Thanks!

Op, you’re trying to lose weight so I’d go with a basic base of mixed lettuce, tomato, cucumber, capsicums, spring onions, beetroot and grated carrot. Then I’d add about 130 - 150 gems of lean protein before finishing off with a homemade French dressing. You can also add cheese or eggs instead of the protein. Even chick peas. This is what I have every lunch time and I’m losing weight nicely. Granted adding nuts and croutons etc will make it even more delicious but it will increase the calorific value of your meal and you won’t lose weight.

one of my favorites is a salad such as above with a grilled pineapple ring chopped up and added to it.

If you are serious about this, you can sprout your own beans, peas and seeds and really get some benefit of plant nutrients.

I sprout mung beans, lentils (green, brown, puy and beluga) peas, chick peas, red clover, alfalfa, adzuki beans, mizuna, broccoli, parsley, cress, beetroot and radish.

Sprouts and microgreens are easy to grow all year round and the nutrient levels are off the scale.

Yeah, my favourite salad is a beef, Thai style salad. It's delicious, but always seems to involve an awful lot of chopping and fiddling. It's also relatively low calorie and very low fat so a good one.

Hardly ever do it anymore though. Maybe I'll put it on the meal plan for next week....

Dressing: juice 2 lemons, add 4-5 really good anchovy fillets, 2 cloves of garlic, neutral oil (I like standard olive oil, not evoo) and dried crushed chilies to taste. Blend with stick blender (or in regular blender).

Imo salads should have: 1) something crunchy (roasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds, crumbled toast, chopped nuts); 2) something creamy (Greek yogurt, cheese, egg, avocado); 3) something salty/savoury (bacon, chicken, tomato, olives); 4) something green that isn't lettuce (I like steamed broccoli or French beans) and 5) really good lettuce (I like sliced baby cos and butter lettuce but whatever you enjoy).

I wash and slice the lettuce, roll it in tea towels and leave in a plastic bag in the fridge so it's dry. Meat and veg are usually left over from other meals. Assemble salad with whatever's at hand, add dressing, toast a slice of bread (or seeds or whatever) and add, eat.

Firstly drop the ham (and all processed meats), so bad for you. You need much more variety of veg, seeds, dried fruit, other unprocessed protein sources. And home made vinegarette instead of mayo.

Just buy the little bags (there are different ones) and mix it yourself.

My favourite is a quinoa salad.

so 80g quinoa, cook as per packet. Allow to cool
drizzle in some fresh lemon juice and a bit of olive oil.
throw in a pomegranate seeds
chop up a pepper and throw that in
maybe some cucumber too
chop up a load of mint and add that.
cook 2 chicken breasts with whatever spices/seasonings you want, chop them up and add to everything.

enough salad for two people.

My top home made salads are:

chopped tomato/ onion/ cucumber/ feta (can add olives if you like them)
cabbage/ orange/ rocket (or any other leaves) (try it before you dismiss it ;) )
celery/ apple or pear/ walnuts/ lettuce

My best tip - add fresh herbs to any salad to improve it.

There’s a lady on TikTok called ‘salads that will change your life’ sounds a bit over the top but I’ve made a couple and they are very nice. As someone else said it’s about the dressing . Enjoy x

No point in not having anything filling in it then reaching for the biscuit tin in the afternoon.

Another one I love is

grate up a good chunk of red cabbage
grate up a carrot or two
chop up some cucumber and add that.

make a dressing with about half a cup of almond butter, a good tablespoon of honey, soy sauce, slightly less white wine vinegar or rice vinegar. Chuck some dried oregano into the dressing.

Chuck over the veg. Add a cooked chicken breast chopped up.

Yeah admittedly that's absolutely pathetic 😂😂

You just need to use your imagination, I chop everything up small for my salads so you get lots of variety in every bite. Also, make your own salad dressings. They're so easy and taste 100x better without any additives or preservatives. A really easy one is

EVOO
Honey (or agave)
Mustard
White wine vinegar

Then mix it with any mixture of the following, all chopped small:
Cucumber
Tomato
Pepper
Sugar snap peas
Sweetcorn
Romaine lettuce (iceberg is shit)
Sweety drop peppers (they do them in a jar in Tesco)
Red onion
Spring onions
Radish
Grated carrot
Boiled egg
White cabbage
Avocado
Chickpeas (or any sort of bean, fantastic for adding protein)
Feta / mozzarella
LOTS of herbs eg coriander / mint / parsley / chives

Then a protein of choice. Ham is naff, if you're in a rush get pre cooked chicken or salmon.

It is filling.

Has anyone mentioned adding capers, olives or finely sliced fennel to a salad?

I add olives some days but I’m not keen on fennel and I prefer jalapeño to capers unless they’re in a pasta dish.

Some of these recipes sound really yummy!

My favourite, Italian style salad mix (it's got rocket in it, I love rocket,) red pepper, baby plum tomatoes, cucumber, baby beetroot (you can buy it ready to eat) strawberries, goats cheese or mozzarella, and I make a dressing out of red wine vinegar, lime juice, soya sauce, sweet chilli sauce and rapeseed oil. A strange mixture, but the flavours work together really well.

I had a similar in Spain once, walnuts, feta,watercress and balsamic vinegar.

I like the thought of adding pear though.

I also do a lovely originally ottolenghi salad which is cous cous, lots of chopped parsley and mint, toasted almonds, slightly charred little tomatoes and slowly fried white onions. Finish with lemon juice.

OP unless you are an actual blue whale, I would strongly discourage losing a ton of weight, because you will disappear! ( sorry I can't help myself, the bad jokes just have to said)

I have been an avid hater of most salads for many years... dismissing them as rabbit food. but a few tricks have changed my game.

1. ensure all ingredients are dry. use a salad spinner. I personally wash and then wrap my salad leaves in towel until thoroughly dry.

1. don't use precut salad bags. whole, fresh veggies and leaves all the way. a bit more work, but oh so worth it.

1. swap yoghurt+lemon juice for mayo to reduce calories. and leave out ham or any other processed ingredients. pair with a good bit of protein to be filling eg. a bit of chicken/fish etc.

1. Balance the dressing... salt/sweet/sour/peppery notes

1. invest in some good cold pressed rapeseed oil (I use mellow yellow) and olive oil

1. experiment with warm salads... cooked lentils/cooked veg/grilled peaches/grilled cheese ... and quirky ingredients - dried fruits, nuts, toasted seeds

1. surprisingly amazon has some great niche ingredients if you need

my current fav dressing is dijon mustard, lemon juice, a little sugar, salt and cold pressed rapeseed oil. brings anything to life. and I am loving romaine lettuce and green apples as well.

try www.justonecookbook.com for Japanese salad ideas... for something a bit different (the recipes are very user friendly)
BBC good food also has plenty of ideas and I love nigel slaters salad recipes

My really can’t be arsed today salad is grated carrot and a vinaigrette dressing.

That does sound quite boring.

my go to;

romana lettuce
cucumber
green pepper
onion
chicken
(I like everything chopped up tiny like on of those viral “chopped salads”
way too much feta 🤣

dressing; olive oil, chilli flakes, oregano, lemon and sometimes Himalayan salt - but not too much because the feta is salty.

thanks for deciding what I’m having for lunch.

For a main meal I need quite a few components to add interest.

Start with a leafy base.

Add veg bulk, tomatoes, spring onion, pepper, cucumber, avocado celery grated carrot etc etc. If you have leftover roast veg, add those. I just used up some squash I found in the freezer.

Add protein, hard boiled egg, ham, feta, mozzarella, chicken, chickpeas - toss in oil and spices a roast.

Add crunch! Toasted seeds or nuts. Toast up stale bread for croutons. The crunch makes things so much more satisfying.

Add herbs for flavour: bit of parsley or basil is good.

Find some good dressing recipes to mix things up. Adding a bit of yogurt to a dressing makes it creamy but different. Herbs and garlic again.

boring?????

Then I won’t share my stale bread and tomato salad recipe with you then!!!!

Google hungry girl salads

Sorry, I missed the bit about lean protein first.

I had oil and seeds/nuts on my food though even when I was doing Very Fast 800 - it doesn't necessarily make the meal too calorific to lose weight, you just have to be careful with the more high fat/calorie element. And if you are eating less food, you need to be even more careful you get a nutritional balance as it's so easy not to eat enough fibre (particularly if you cut starchy carbs).

I don't particularly recommend VF 800 - it only works while you are eating so little, IME, though I think the nutritional balance in the meals in the books are quite sound. But just wanted to illustrate that nuts etc don't have to be avoided.

Ditch the mayo. It's just fat.

I like chicken and egg... But I make soft boiled egg so the yolk works as dressing.

I like peppery stuff so radish and red onions in with shredded lettuce, carrots, cabbage spring onions. And a sprinkle of mixed herbs.