It seems salads at home are just not the same as the salads at a restaurant. Here are some different and delicious salads to add to your home meals.
Here are some tips to make salads at home more yummy and more healthy.
- Forget low fat and fat free dressings. Most just do not taste very good. Make and buy dressings with healthy fats like olive oil, canola oil, grape seed oil and flax oil.
- Read the ingredients in salad dressings very carefully. Avoid ingredients like partially hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup. Tip: Watch out for those salad sprays. They may be low in calories but filled with high fructose corn syrup.
- Invest in a salad spinner. It makes it easier to wash the lettuce, and washing lettuce in cool water makes the texture more crisp and fresh.
- Carefully measure salad dressings and cheeses. That is how to keep calories and fat under control. Coat the lettuce leaves with dressing before adding other ingredients like veggies, and cheeses. This helps distribute the dressings flavor, and because the lettuce is “sticky” this helps keep the other ingredients like cheese and veggies evenly distributed.
- Keep the salad ingredients chilled. It makes for a fresher, snappy salad. But do not refrigerate tomatoes too long. They will get mealy.
- Do not cut up the ingredients so they are so big that they need to be cut while eating the salad, and not so small that the juices and flavors are gone.
- Eat a salad every day. Like the old saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, salads will also keep the doctor away. The enzymes present in the raw vegetables are great for your body and digestion.
- Try vegetables that are not traditionally found in salads like raw zucchini, raw baby broccoli, raw green beans and raw peas. A lot of varieties are very tender and sweet raw.
- Lightly saute or grill vegetables like broccoli, zucchini, carrots, yellow squash, eggplant, green beans, snow pea pods, or asparagus and put them over a hearty leaf like kale or spinach and allow them to wilt a little. Drizzle a on a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.
- Do not forget the fruit. Fruit is a great addition to any salad.
- For a tangy and sweet salad toss spinach with Briana's Poppyseed dressing (found in most supermarkets), then add sliced strawberries and/or diced peaches and a tablespoon of blue cheese. Sliced London broil steak goes great with this salad.
- For an easy Caesar salad in a large bowl take two cups baby romaine and toss with a tablespoon or two of a favorite Caesar dressing and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Coat lettuce evenly. Add croûtons or sliced nitrate free turkey if desired.
- Make “squished bug” salad dressing. In a jar add a quarter cup balsamic vinegar, two tablespoons water, and half a cup olive oil. Then add Italian seasoning and pepper. Refrigerate for an hour or more to allow flavors to meld. The dressing looks a little like squished bugs on the leaves but tastes great.
The copyright of the article Eat More Salads in Balancing Meals is owned by Samantha Rufle. Permission to republish Eat More Salads must be granted by the author in writing.
