Salad 101: Why Your Salad Tastes Boring

Salads are almost always considered as the most boring of diet foods while in reality, this is a lot farther from the truth. In fact, having the right salads can provide you with a lot of food volume which, while dieting, is one of the most important factors to consider while creating a sustainable meal plan. That said, not every salad is equal. Some could make you feel like eating healthy is the easiest thing ever while some could literally taste like eating water. If you wish to make sure that your salads fall in the first category, make sure you aren’t making the mistakes mentioned below.

Why eat salads?

You don’t “have” to eat salads to get the results you desire. You can do just as well without them as long as you hit your macro and micronutrient needs in some or the other way. So why would anyone go through the hassle of prepping and eating salads? Here are a few reasons why.

1. Probably the simplest meal to prep.

Not everyone has the time or the ability to prep their meals. But everyone can put together a simple salad. Thus, if the lack of time or cooking ability is holding you back from reaching your fitness goals, a salad can be your savior.

2. One of the simplest meals to carry.

If you are planning on getting serious with your fitness goals, you will have to pre-plan and carry your meals around more often than you can imagine. If this is the case, it can get annoying to carry things that leak or occupy a lot of space in your bag faster than you think. A salad, on the other hand, can all be fit in one container and can be carried with ease. Not only carrying it around but also consuming it is fairly simple when compared to other meals.

The 3 mistakes you shouldn’t make

1. No dressing

This is probably the biggest mistake you can make while creating a tasty salad. A good dressing significantly impacts the end product and can make your salad go from zero to a hundred real quick. A salad dressing doesn’t always have to be complicated and sometimes can be as simple as squeezing a lemon. On the other hand, you can go crazy and experiment with your dressings till you find something you absolutely love. The type of dressing you use will affect the caloric density of the salad so be wise and select the option which gives you the best tradeoff between taste and increase in calories.

2. No variety

Let’s be real, no one would want to eat a salad made of predominantly iceberg lettuce and tomatoes if it was going be something they had to eat consistently for a long period of time. The fix to this is quite simple. Add in more variety to your salads. The possibilities are infinite. You could simply start off by changing the base of your salad or the source of protein used. Maybe throw in some nuts and seeds to give it a different texture? Chopped up fruits do great in adding flavor to a relatively ‘boring’ salad. As a matter of fact, if I had to choose between adding in a dressing or adding in more variety into my salads, I would choose the latter as it makes the salad a lot more interesting, especially if the plan is dieting for a longer period of time.

3. Not mixed properly

A salad horror story. A perfect salad with tons of variety and a great dressing. The only problem? It’s not mixed. Arghhh!

Now I know this point sounds very exaggerated but trust me, the last thing you’d want to eat is a salad that isn’t mixed properly. You know what I’m talking about! While layering your greens with tomatoes, bell peppers, and shredded carrots in a see-through jar makes for a great Instagram picture, it does very poorly in the taste department. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to end my meal with a bite of soggy lettuce.

The fix here is to use a big bowl to mix the ingredients of your salad together before you transfer them into a container. If you plan on eating the salad at some other time, you can throw in the dressing then. This simple tip of mixing your salad well can help you experience salads in a completely different way.

How to put together your first salad?

To create a salad that can actually replace your meal, it’s a good idea to sort out the different macronutrient sources you’ll be using.

Here’s how I breakdown my salad:

1. Salad Base

2. Protein Source

3. Fat Source

4. Carb Source

5. Dressing

I start off by deciding the base of my salad and the vegetables and fruits I will be using.

Then I select the protein source I will be using. The reason why I select the protein source before the fats or carbs is simply because hitting my protein target holds more priority to me when compared to my fat or carb target.

I follow it up with a fat source, especially if I’m using a protein source high in carbs like lentils or beans. On the other hand, if I’m using a protein source high in fat, I will add in additional carbs.

To finish it up, I will select a dressing of choice.

As you know, just eating a salad isn’t going to get you ripped. The principles of energy balance still apply so while I break down the ingredients which I will use in my salad, I simultaneously enter them into a calorie tracking app like MyFitnessPal to get an idea of how many calories the salad comes up to and its macro breakdown.

Now that you know the important points to keep in mind while making a salad, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and start creating. Make your first salad and evolve it along the way. Be open to trying out new ingredients and flavors. Once you get hooked to salads, you’ll realize that dieting down is a lot easier than it seems thanks to food volume and the versatile taste of fruits and vegetables.