Most people who are trying to lose weight prefer to eat salads as the snack options or even include it in their main meals. Eating salads have always been considered as a healthy idea to satisfy your appetite as well as adding nutrients to the daily diet.
Apart from eating salads for weight loss, many people love to have salads as the best way to maintain their overall health and keep them away from unhealthy food items. But, at the same time, it is also important to choose smart ingredients for salads because these ingredients play a great role in increasing or decreasing fat and calorie intake.
So, you must always get the ingredients that keep the calories in the salad low and high nutrition.
Tips to Improve Salad Nutrition
Before preparing the salad, you must have a look at the ingredients you have so that you can avoid common salad mistakes which usually end up with high-calorie intake.
- When you start making your salad, get loads of low-calorie leafy greens. It is so, because when you have a large number of greens in your plate or bowl, obviously you will have less space for ingredients containing high calories.
- Also, try to include darker greens instead of iceberg lettuce, as the darker greens such as spinach, kale, and others are packed with a high level of vitamins and minerals.
- After adding greens to your salad’s plate or bowl, make sure to add veggies that bring crunchiness, flavor, and color to your salad. There are several salad ingredients which are highly nutritious as well as low in fat and calories. So, you must be familiar with these most nutritious foods other than green and must always be the main ingredients of your salad.
- Some of these foods include tomatoes, sprouts, beets, peppers, beans, carrots, onions, peas, etc.
- In addition to the leafy greens and veggies, your salad can also include fruits. If you want to add sweetness to your salad, so instead of adding any kind of sugary item, it is best to add some fruits such as strawberries, apples, grapes, cranberries. These fruits not only work great in adding sweetness, but also improve the nutrition level in the salad.
Let’s move to another section where you will get to know about adding good protein options to the salad.
Add Good Protein Choices to your Salad
- When you have a salad as a main meal, you must try to make it more filling so that you do not urge to eat something soon after eating your salad. For this, you need to add protein that boosts metabolism.
- Some of the foods that contain good protein include hard-boiled eggs, grilled chicken, boiled shrimp, grilled salmon, egg whites, etc.
- Among them, salmon is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids which makes it one of the best foods to add to your salad to improve heart health.
- Not to worry at all, we have more protein choices if you do not like or eat meat or seafood. Some of the vegetarian foods packed with protein include tofu, lentils, black beans, walnuts, almonds, etc.
- No matter whether you choose meat, seafood or vegetarian foods to include protein level to the salad, you must watch the amount of these foods you are adding to the salad.
Healthy Salad Recipes
- Salmon Salad with Celery Recipe
- Chicken, Bacon and Apple Salad Recipe
- Shrimp, Pineapple and Avocado Salad Recipe
In addition to the above information on how to prepare healthy salads, it would be good to have some recipes as well.
Salmon Salad with Celery Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 can salmon (make sure to drain it properly)
- Half a cup of chopped onion
- 1 medium stalk celery
- 2-3 tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs
- 3-4 tablespoons of light mayonnaise
Method To Prepare:
- Pour salmon in a bowl and break it using a fork. Once it is done, add other ingredients and mix them well.
- Salmon has high nutritional value, so you can eat this salad in different ways like you can use this salad in a sandwich made with healthy grain bread. You can also choose to have it on the top of a green salad. More options to enjoy this delicious salad are, as the stuffing into tomato or avocado or as the filling in the lettuce wraps.
Chicken, Bacon and Apple Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
- Half cup of chopped chicken breast (cooked)
- 4 cups of chopped lettuce
- 1 chopped plum tomato
- 3-4 tablespoons of chopped green pepper
- 3-4 tablespoons of chopped apple (peeled or unpeeled as per your choice)
- Half peeled and chopped avocado
- 2 slices of bacon (cooked, crumbled or small pieces)
- 2 tablespoons of Italian dressing
Method To Prepare:
- Take a bowl and add all ingredients except Italian dressing and toss together. Now, add Italian dressing and mix it properly.
- This salad recipe will make one large serving which you can eat as your one-time meal. If you want something to eat for snack time or less filling, simply divide the ingredients accordingly.
Shrimp, Pineapple and Avocado Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of boiled or steamed shrimps
- Half a cup of sliced pineapple
- 1 small finely sliced onion
- 1 small cucumber (sliced into half-moons)
- 1 sliced avocado
- 1 cups of watercress
- 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- Salt and powdered black pepper to taste
Method To Prepare:
- Take a large bowl, add all ingredients and toss to combine.
- If you are looking for a recipe for how to prepare healthy salad containing green, fruit and some seafood like shrimps, you must prepare this salad that can be eaten either as a snack or can be served as a side dish in lunch/dinner.
Conclusion
Now it is clear in your mind that every salad is not healthy, so this information and healthy salad recipes will help you to get the right ingredients to add nutrients to your diet.
Make smart choices and eat healthy salad to boost your health and wellness.
