Make Salads Fun

There are so many ways to cook healthy, but there’s one way that’s super easy and convenient, and that of course is everyone’s favorite first course – the salad!

Alright, maybe salad is not your favorite but it sure is healthier than fried calamari or french fries! And listen – salads aren’t just piles of boring green leaves; they can be so much more. They’re refreshing, packed with all kinds of ingredients, and can be easily customized to your liking. All you need is to add some variety and you can make salads fun and interesting again.

1. Get Creative with Your Salad

Salads are a great way to add more vegetables into your day. If you choose the right salad recipe, it will bring delight to your taste buds and leave you satisfied instead of still hungry.

Forget about the typical “house salad” of iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes. Think instead of a kale salad topped with parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and a lemon yogurt dressing. Or how about roasted butternut squash, apples, walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette over a bed of baby spinach?

There are so many different ways to enjoy salads, since each component is customizable – the leafy greens, the nuts and fruits, the vegetables, the dressings, etc. You only need to switch one thing and the whole salad can transform before your eyes.

Our infographic below provides 5 homemade salad dressing recipes and 50 salad combos to keep your salads creative and fun to eat. Bonus: there are salad variations for every season so that you can make them any time of the year (and not get bored)!

2. Start with Those Greens

Now that you’ve picked out your salad recipes for the week, begin incorporating them into your mealtimes – or rather, the start of your mealtimes. And yes, that includes breakfast!

A salad for breakfast? We know it may seem weird. But hear us out! It’s a great way to fuel up on high-fiber, low-glycemic ingredients that will help you feel satiated for longer and energetically power through to lunch. Plus, a lot of great breakfast foods make great salad ingredients like eggs and meat.

Give our favorite breakfast salad recipe a try here, and you’ll have one new breakfast option from now on!

Even if you can’t begin your day with a salad (perhaps you need portable, make-ahead breakfasts instead), try to begin lunch or dinner with some refreshing green goodness – even if it’s a small side salad – to ease you into the main part of your meal. Satiate your hunger with a salad first, and then you’ll feel full sooner and won’t refill your plate with seconds (or thirds!) of your main course.

For more pointers on why it’s good to start your day or meal with a salad, check out this video:

The great thing about salads is that you don’t have to take a bucket of leafy greens, a cutting board and knife, and a bag of veggies to work just to build your own salad. By preparing mason jar salads the night before, you can have ready-to-go salads to take with you to work or school, or even to have in the fridge for dinner on busy weeknights.

With this simple formula for making a mason jar salad, you’ll be able to customize on-the-go salads to your health’s content!

3. Make Your Own Easy Salad Dressing

Because salads are so low-cal, you’ll have some extra calorie leeway to indulge in a creamy, homemade dressing. Homemade dressings let you control ingredients (say goodbye to preservatives!) and your calorie intake.

Now making your own salad dressing may sound like a hassle, but it is actually really fun and empowering! It not only frees you from worrying about expiration dates and strange ingredients that you can’t pronounce, it also prevents bottles from cluttering your precious fridge space.

If you can start building a collection of vinegars (like balsamic, red wine, apple cider, and rice) that don’t need refrigeration, you will be set to make a variety of homemade vinaigrettes. You can even get creative once you learn the basic cooking formula for making a simple vinaigrette (with the help of our video and infographic below).

Just remember to taste, taste, taste until you get the mix of flavors that brings a smile to your face as your salad comes to life!