I am starting to love eating a chopped salad everyday, itās filling and also I love eating a lot of greens and veggies and this is a way I enjoy doing that. This is my creation today, but looking for other ideas!
I made a homemade French Dijon vinaigrette dressing, which is a huge bulk of the calories of this salad which I donāt love. But idk how to make a low cal dressing bc they all involve olive oil. I added in a slice of Swiss cheese to the salad, deli ham and turkey pepperoni.
by Fanoffit
5 Comments
Ok I know exactly what you mean by a chopped salad, also love. Some of these suggestions might not fit into that definition of a salad but might help you out overall with salad enjoyment š
Subbing in salsas for part or all of salad dressing works great for me.
If you have any cooked veggies or stewed meats or beans to heat up a bit and add, those often add some tasty liquid and softness that dresses things up beyond just raw veggies.
Any sort of kraut, kimchi, slaw (ideally vinegar or yogurt based), even a pasta salad or chicken or tuna salad type thing (again lighter dressed ideally) will give your salad the moisture and flavor of a dressing without adding a separate vinaigrette on top of other cals.
Iāve tried to open up my interpretation of what belongs in a salad and it honestly is a game changer. Like obviously going to a Whole Foods salad bar type place is gonna make it hard to track calories (though they do have their recipes online I think?) but doing the following really got me out of my āgreens, cucumbers, tomatoes, dressingā rut, or my āgreens, nuts, cheese, fruit, dressing holy shit itās suddenly 600 calsā rut. At a high quality salad bar if you load up the bottom of a box with a ton of greens, then layer other low cal raw whole veggies, THEN top off with a small amount of a couple of either their composed salad type items or even some of the hot bar food (stewed chicken breast etc) youāve absolutely got a filling, not-dry, super flavorful salad going without having to even touch the dressings.
Itās a little tougher at home since we probably donāt all have ācabbage crunch saladā and āsuper food saladā sitting around waiting for us, but any prepped food item youāve already got can really round out a salad!
I love creamy dressing! I mix some low-fat cream (typically 4% fat) with either balsamic vinegar, lemon juice or mustard. Some salt and pepper and, if Iām feeling fancy, parsley or dried mint.
Goes well with most salads in my opinion and for waaay less calories than an oil-based dressing.
Iām eating only arugula, cherry tomatoes and grana these days. A tablespoon of olive oil, balsamic glaze, salt and pepper. Itās do die for. Add some lightly seasoned chicken for extra proteins if you want, itās even better. Trust me, Iām Italian hahahah š®š¹
Someone posted [this recipe](https://www.maritimeglutton.com/sweet-onion-sauce-recipe/#recipe) in the r/Volumeeating subreddit a while ago and mentioned replacing the sugar with erythritol and the cornstarch with xanthan gum….I’ve been making it weekly with just the sugar substitute (my body doesn’t love a ton of xanthan gum). Comes out to about 47 calories per 100g when I make it! I only use about 50g on a REALLY big salad (4 oz spinach and 4 oz lettuce) at lunch (plus some banana pepper juice) and it tastes fantastic! I add banana peppers, grilled chicken, grape tomatoes, red onion, and low fat cheese for a really filling salad under 400 calories.
I’m a new convert to salads, I’ve been convinced they sucked my whole life but turns out I was just bad at making them. Im getting better and loving them so much more!
I usually leave off the meat and cheese (partially not my jam and partially so I can enjoy dressing and avocados). But other things I enjoy mixing in that don’t go bad immediately:
Cabbage, stays good for a long time and adds crunch and bulk.
Pistachios (great with greens, goat cheese, berries and basalmic)
Olives
Chickpeas, raw or baked
Quinoa
Pickled red onions