How To Makeover Your Salad

Greens are a necessary part of a healthy diet and salads are the way many of us end up eating them. Thinking about the connotation that the word “salad” has (are you grimacing?)—eating them this way is probably more out of convenience than out of want. When I started changing the way I ate a few years ago I thought that a salad was nothing more than some soggy green lettuce with a small diced vegetable, some sort of protein, and a bottle “light” dressing. If you are grimacing right now chances are that salads are the same in your mind, but over the years I’ve learned that that is only the tip of the iceberg (get it?) and salad have so much more to offer than just being something we eat because we “have to.”

via bobbi bowers on flickr

Build It Yourself

If you are used to buying your salads pre-made from a store and not digging them all that much, it doesn’t mean you “hate” salad—you might just not like how that store makes their salads. I do realize this sounds so obvious but sometimes when we’re just going through the motions stopping to analyze how we’re feeling about our meal isn’t something that is going to happen (especially if you’re eating at your desk). Buying ingredients that you already know you like and making your own salad might be all you need to do to get yourself out of the salad funk.

Experiment

There are so many different things that salads can be, and yet many times we just stick with the same combinations day after day. If you’re making your own salad, try switching out the lettuce. Romaine is one of the most common types used (and is very good for you) but maybe you just don’t like it? Try replacing it with some massaged kale, or a combination of green and red leaf lettuces. The same can be done with the toppings—do you use carrots everyday? Try replacing them with corn, diced cucumbers, or chopped tomatoes. Don’t be scared to play around with anything that comes to mind, the worst that can happen is you don’t like it. And you’re already bored with your current salad, so is that really so different?

via jessica merchant

Take Inspiration From Everywhere

A shortcut to getting creative in the kitchen is to take a dish you love and see if you can prepare it different ways. For instance, this is one of my favorite chicken chili recipes, which is obviously great as is but these flavors can easily be translated to a salad. Romaine lettuce, shredded chicken, corn, black beans, chopped tomatoes, diced jalapeno if you like heat, a quick homemade dressing with oil, vinegar, and taco seasonings, and top it with cilantro. We’ve just made a salad from a chili recipe! This can be done with just about any dish and then you can have your salads tasting like a hamburger (almost).

They Don’t Need Lettuce (What?!)

Yes, most of the time when we think of “salad” we’re envisioning a bunch of chopped ingredients piled on lettuce but by definition salads are can be any sort of food mixed together, covered in a dressing or sauce. Before we start chopping up cookies, brownies, and chocolate, pouring a glaze over them and eating it for lunch (if you think I haven’t thought about this…) what this really means is that you can make a healthy salad from just purely chopped vegetables if you’d like. Or just beans. Or you can mix the two! Just know that you don’t need lettuce, so if you aren’t a big fan, there’s still hope here. I love eating this sans romaine, this quinoa salad gets made monthly in my house, and I swear that there is nothing better than a corn salad.

via jessica spengler on flickr

Homemade Dressings

I’ve found that dressings tend to be the afterthought in salads. We pick out the base we want, add the toppings, and then by the time we get to dressing it we just grab the nearest bottle—hoping that it’s actually a dressing and not some of other condiment (not that I’ve pour straight Worcestershire sauce on my salad or anything)—sprinkle some on and dig in. This is the path of least resistance, so I get it, but when a delicious dressing can make or break a salad it’s a shame. Making dressings at home is so simple, completely customizable, and sans all the weird additives in bottled dressings that none of us can pronounce. If I need a dressing, I find myself visiting this link a lot—it’s a great resource with delicious and multipurpose dressings.

What is your favorite kind of salad? Let me know in the comments below.