Satisfying Salads

Anyone have any good salad recipes? I feel like salad is a punshiment sometimes and then splurge by putting on a high-fat dressing like thousand island or bleu cheese. I might as well eat a cheeseburger for all the calories and fat in salad dressing! Any good ideas for low-cal, tasty salads?

Tue. Feb 28, 10:50am

Good Seasons makes an Asian Sesame dressing that I adore. It's not low cal per say but a little goes a long way. I like it with spinach, big cucumber pieces, and a few mandarin oranges.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 11:07 AM

Annie's Naturals (?) has a lot of natural dressings.
I love the red pepper vinagrette (it's sweet peppers, not hot). :-)
Plus, they are mostly organic as well.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 11:49 AM

I get a large garden salad from Burger king and add one packet of lemon pepper tuna with cheese and garlic dressing (I think it's Fantastico brand?) I can barely finish the salad b/c it's so filling and I'm getting protein and lots of veggies and a little cheese.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 11:57 AM

You'll be hard pressed to put in more than 200 calories worth of lettuce, spinach, tomato, cucumber, mushroom, peppers, carrots, etc. to start with.

- put salad and dressing in a container with a lid and shake it well. 2 TBSP will coat everything and that could be 15-200 calories more.

- Paul Newman's dressings are fab and he makes many light versions.

- try "non-salad" veggies: asparagus, green beans, sugar snap peas.

- add fresh dill, basil or chives (no calories, tons of flavor)

- add a pinch of nuts, raisins, pears or apples for a sweet treat

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 12:17 PM

McDonald's Cobb Salad with grilled chicken. So so good, cheap, not too bad for you. The crispy chicken is also very yummy, wonder how many more calories that is...

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 12:21 PM

My roommate and I, in college, used to go to the salad bar and not touch the lettuce. We'd fill our bowls with everything else there, the yummy veggies, baby corn, beans, etc. So yummy!

Now, my favorite salad is spinach leaves with chick peas, black beans, feta cheese, mushrooms, black olives, and walnuts, with light raspberry vinaigrette on the side. I get it at just about every "make your own salad" place. Sometimes I add chopped hardboiled egg too. I order my salads "chopped," so everything is bite-sized and mixed together, but get the dressing on the side so I can control how much of it I eat.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 3:26 PM

i roast some cubed buttternut squash in the oven at 400degrees till tender
(sprinkle a little cinnamon and pepper on top before cooking and spray cookie sheet w/ a nonstick spray or use some olive oil)
then i toss a few walnuts, apple pieces and craisins or raisins on top of a bed of my favorite greens (i like arugula or red leaf lettuce!) and throw a couple of tablespoons of the butternut squash on too. for dressing i just whisk some olive oil and balsamic vinegar w/ salt and pepper or herbs together. sure this all takes a little time, but i sit down w/ a salad that is healthy, tasty, filling AND satisfying!

andrea q

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 3:57 PM

OP here -- the problem is that my salad bar at work is severely lacking. Not only that, the veggies aren't even that good... I hate when they blanch the broccoli!

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 4:20 PM

Could you speak with the manager of the cafeteria or wherever it is you work at about making changes to the salad bar content? Maybe find someone else who has similar complaints. This is a business so in theory they should care what their customers think.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 4:43 PM

add more veggies to your saladI. I'll occasionally make a shredded salad- shredded brocolli stalks, shredded carrot, shredded turnip, little shredded red cabbage, shredded kohlrabi, and tomatoes cuz I add tomatoes to everything... so healthy. But just add different veggies. Sweet peppers, turnip or rutabaga, radishes, spinach, collards, red onion, kale, variety makes it feel less like punihsment.

I never eat salad without a serving of protein though. And I usually make my own dressings. You can add olive oil or almond oil, and a little lemon juice. Then add whatever seasonings you want- roasted red peppers, green peppers, sundried tomato, or raspberries, sesame seeds, almonds, basil oregano, turmeric- soooo many different options. Throw what you want in a blender and ta-da. Preservative free. Don't forget, if using canola, almond or olive oil, the fat is waaaay different than the fat in a cheeseburger. Not all fats, and not all calories are created equal.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 4:58 PM

satisfying salads

I always add avocado, chickpeas and bacon bits to my salads. I swear by this, I always feel full for a while and I never get tired.

Monday, September 10, 2007, 2:38 PM

I like romaine lettuce with some kind of protien, deli meat sliced up. Weigh it first or buy certain amounts. It can be deceiving how little you get for the cal amount. Then I add what ever veggies I like and for a dressing I love the new salad spritzers. I like all of them but use the cesear one the most. So I spritz it with the ceasar salad spritzer. So I have flavor everywhere in the salad. Then I take 1 Tablespoon classic cesear dressing and 1 Tablespoon or a bit more of Fat free sour cream. Only tillamook and naturally yours taste good in my opinion. Then I add 1 tespoon or so of lemon juice and stir or shake it up. I dip my fork into that for the salad. That way it is tons of flavor but the creaminess that I feel deprived of if I don't get it. The dressing is only about 65 cal and it's 2-3 tablespoons worth.

I also like the seeds of change brand tomato vinagrette. It may sound strange but it is really good with sour kraut in your salad too. I usually don't shake it so I can dump out some of the oil. I am not into an oily type dressing. This one a little goes a long way since it is wet.
Good luck

Tuesday, September 11, 2007, 12:33 AM

I also swear by chickpeas or any other red or black bean to beef up a salad. It really makes it satisfying. I need some kind of protein at lunch to get me thru so any leftover meat if I don't have the beans. Fish or seafood too. I use salsa a lot for dressing. Virtually no calories. Salads are my staple of the day!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007, 10:33 AM

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