Seven secrets to super salads

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Or in my words…Give a person a salad recipe and you feed him today. Teach a person to make delicious salads and you feed him for a lifetime! It is in that spirit that I present you with my secrets to salad success.

1. Start with greens (and get creative)
Greens form the basis of your salad, but don’t rely on lettuce alone. Raw chard, kale, spinach, arugula, beet greens, bok choy, cabbage, watercress, and others have a delicious flavor. They are also packed with micronutrients. Did you know that bok choy has 1,055mg of calcium per 100 calories, while milk only has 194mg? Wow! Spinach is 51% protein! (How do you think that Popeye got so big and strong?) So, pick some greens and include a variety of them, if possible.

2. Add color
The more colorful your food, the more excited you’re going to be to eat it. Stock your fridge with a rainbow of veggies. Then, when you’re ready to make your salad, pick a few different colors and you’re good to go! Here are some of my favorites:

White
Bamboo shoots
Jicama
Mushrooms
Water chestnuts
Bean sprouts
cauliflower

Red
Tomatoes
Radishes
Red bell peppers
Beets (cooked)
Red onions

Orange/yellow
Orange & yellow bell peppers
Carrots
Corn
Butternut squash (cooked)
Pumpkin (cooked)
Sweet potatoes (cooked)
Yellow beets (cooked)
Yellow summer squash
Yellow tomatoes

Green
Green bell peppers
Broccoli
Artichoke hearts
Asparagus
Avocado (not a veggie, but still good for you)
Celery
Cucumber
Green beans
Zucchini (it’s delicious raw)
Broccoflower
Broccoli rabe
Cucumbers
Endive
Green onion
Peas

Blue/purple
Red cabbage
Purple endive
Purple carrots
Purple peppers

3. Don’t forget the fruit!
Fruit can be a delicious addition to salads. Often times, the sweetness of the fruit makes the need for dressing obsolete. Great salad fruits include: melon, grapes, pears, kiwi, oranges, cherries, grapefruit, berries, strawberries, apricots, mangoes, nectarines, peaches, pineapple, figs, currants, raisins, and pomegranates. Fruit is one of those things that benefits from a simple treatment though. I like to use a bed of greens, a fruit, a sprinkling of nuts, and a light dressing. More and the fruit gets overwhelmed.

4. Beans!
Beans in all forms are the most perfect food. Besides the fact that they taste great, they stabilize blood sugar, blunt your desire for sweets, and prevent mid-afternoon cravings. The key is in the fiber – a vital nutrient, essential to human health. The fiber in beans slows down glucose absorption and controls the rate of digestion. That helps fill you up and curb abnormal physiological cravings and hormonal imbalances. High fiber foods also help prevent colon cancer and reduce heart disease. So, if you’re not having fruit in your salad, I recommend at least a ½ cup of beans in your salad.

Choices for beans include chickpeas (aka garbanzos), black-eyed peas, black beans, cowpeas, black beans, green peas, lima beans, pinto beans, lentils, red kidney beans, soy beans (edamame), cannellini beans, pigeon peas, and white beans. Yum!

5. Raw nuts & seeds
Eating small amounts of nuts and seeds each day adds valuable nutrients and healthy, unprocessed fats to your diet. They can be sprinkled on the salad or blended with an orange and spices or vegetable juice for a delicious, oil-free salad dressing. Always eat your nuts raw, though, because the roasting process alters their beneficial fats. Commercially packaged nuts and seeds are often cooked in hydrogenated oils, as well, adding trans fats and unnecessary sodium to your diet. If you absolutely must have roasted nuts, lightly toast them at home.

There are lots of choices: almonds, cashews, walnuts, black walnuts, filberts, brazil nuts, hickory nuts, macadamias, pignolis (pine nuts), pistachios, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and flax seeds.

6. Think BIG!
Raw vegetables don’t have many calories, so it will take a lot of them to provide adequate calories, assuming you aren’t drowning your salad in fat-based dressings. They also have a negative caloric effect: the more you eat the more weight you can lose. Finally, raw foods have a faster transit time through the digestive tract and result in a lower glucose response than cooked veggies. That lower glucose response (again) encourages more weight loss.

7. KISS
It’s really fun to pack a salad with all sorts of veggies, beans and nuts. I love doing that. But sometimes the simplest salad – thinly sliced fennel, celery, and parmesan with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice – can be divine. If you only have a few ingredients laying around…heck, even if you only have a head of iceburg lettuce in the fridge…don’t let that stop you from eating a salad. The nutritional benefits of eating a salad every day cannot be understated.

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