How Ways to Make Your Salads More Exciting
Salads are notoriously bland and unappealing. Placing a handful of lettuce leaves, cucumber slices, and tomatoes into a bowl is often not enough to get our taste buds going and it won’t leave us feeling satisfied after we’ve eaten.
While we agree that a traditional salad consisting of a few leaves and very little else is boring and bland, we are here to tell you that salad doesn’t have to be boring! In fact, salads can be exciting and appetizing.
Salads are highly versatile. There is a wide range of ingredients that you can include in your salad bowls to make them more colorful and delicious. You can create a delicious bowl of goodness full of nutrition and flavor.
Easy Ways to Make Your Salads More Exciting
If you’re not sure how to make your salads more fun and exciting to eat, we’re here to help! Below, we’ve listed some great ways to create salads that leave you wanting more.
1. Toss the Salad in a Delicious Dressing
There are several different dressings that taste great on top of salads. They add a bunch of flavor and color without adding too many calories to your dish.
You can buy a pre-made salad dressing from the grocery store or make your very own sauce at home. If you’re buying from the store, you might find the following common dressings:
- Blue cheese
- Caesar
- Honey mustard
- Ranch
- Sweet chili
- Siracha
- Soy sauce
- Vinaigrette
You might prefer to create these sauces yourself to make healthier versions of them. Or maybe you can’t find a shop-bought dressing that satisfies your carvings.
Luckily, there are lots of great recipes that you can follow to create delicious salad dressings and sauces. Whether you’re looking for a yummy Caesar salad dressing recipe or a traditional salad dressing recipe. Whatever your preferences, you’ll easily be able to find the perfect topping for your dish online.
2. Add Some Beans and Legumes
Beans and legumes can transform a bland, low-calorie salad into a colorful and nutritious bowl of goodness. There are many different kinds of beans and legumes, all of which taste great and contain a bunch of beneficial nutrients and calories that will make you feel fuller and more satisfied after your meal.
Consider adding one or two of the following beans and legumes to your salad dishes:
- Kidney beans
- Pinto beans
- White beans
- Edamame (soy) beans
- Black-eyed peas
- Chickpeas
- Lentils
- Peanuts (yes, peanuts are a legume and not a nut)!
Admittedly, some beans and legumes can be relatively flavorless on their own. If you really want to make your salads as tasty as possible, coat your ingredients with some homemade sauce. Combine multiple types of beans and legumes to maximize the nutrient content of your salad.
3. Add Some Chopped Fruit
Fruit is one of the easiest ways to spice up your salads without adding a lot of extra calories or fats. Although most fruits are high in sugar, the sugars that they contain are natural and beneficial for the body.
Some of the best fruits to add to salads are apples, oranges, cherries, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango, melon, and pomegranate. Of course, we can’t forget avocados, which are another amazing fruity addition to salads.
4. Toss Grains into Your Salad
It might sound unusual to add grains into your salads but most of you reading this have probably already tried salads that contain grains. Pasta salad is one of the most popular carb-containing salads but you can also include couscous, buckwheat, and quinoa in your dishes.
Stirring grains into your salads not only makes them more exciting but also adds extra calories. They are complex carbohydrates that are high in fiber. They will provide you with sustained energy for hours to come, making your salad more satiating.
Grains are also high in a range of micronutrients, including B vitamins, magnesium, iron, copper, and zinc. Each of these nutrients is vital to keeping your body healthy.
5. Sprinkle Spices into Your Bowl
For those of you who love a spicy kick to your dishes, head to your spice rack next time you’re making a salad at home! There are lots of great spices that taste great on salads and add plenty of vibrancy, including paprika, curry powder, chili powder, turmeric, and ginger.
If you’re making a homemade sauce, you can stir spices into the sauce to add extra flavor, even if the recipe doesn’t specify any spices.
