In Defense of Salads
So, it’s week two of social isolation, and I’m starting to feel a bit pudgy already. Last week, if I’m being honest, I didn’t do too much at all for my health. I made a half hearted attempt at exercising at home. I cooked a lot, but I ate a lot more than I needed to, not to mention I indulged in some extra snacks and treats. But it’s a new week now, and I need a more sustainable approach to this situation because it may last a while. I’m cutting out the snacking, reducing my portion sizes, getting serious about my home workouts and trying to make the meals a bit healthier.
How many of you out there eat salad? Or order salad from a restaurant? For the longest time, I never did. Salad was barely a thing in our house growing up. By which I mean, it was there but I certainly never partook. While the exact composition escapes me, I can remember that it never did anything to excite or entice me. Our dressing situation, however, stands out in my memory. I remember about 8000 different bottles of every dressing you could ever think of. We had them all! Well, all except the ones that a kid would want, though. No Creamy Caesar, no Ranch. But there were always half-full bottles of Catalina, French, Italian, Coleslaw, Russian, Something-Lemon-Herb, and Thousand-Island dressings. Why did we have so many? Why were they all only half-full? We never finished them as near as I could tell, but they always came out and littered the table like a weird salad-dressing Stonehenge any time the meal was deemed fancy enough to warrant a salad.
Like I said, I wasn’t much of a salad eater at home. And then, like many white, North American kids, I had my first exposure to a salad I liked at some restaurant somewhere; the mystical Caesar Salad, really a salad in name only, due to the copious amounts of cheese, croutons, bacon and thick, rich dressing the lettuce was drowned in. Now, don’t get it twisted, I like a well-made Caesar salad from time to time, but those are few and far between, ones where the dressing isn’t too thick and gloopy and actually has anchovies in it, where the cheese is finely grated and judiciously applied, where the croutons and bacon are of high-quality and proper quantity. That shit is delicious. But the other 99% of Caesars you find out there? They’re basically junk food, my dude.
What changed? What made me re-think my ways, turning 180 degrees into being a person that not only tolerates salads, but likes them? One who appreciates the health benefits and the pleasing array of colours, textures and flavours? One who will usually go out of their way to make one to accompany a meal, no matter what that meal is and no longer thinks of them as “rabbit food”?
First of all, the older I got and the deeper into cooking I dove, the more I loved vegetables and all the wonderful ways to eat them. I got excited about seasonal produce, which is a feeling I’m sure I don’t have to describe to most of you. But salads didn’t really click for me until recently when I got out of a job that I really didn’t enjoy, one that taxed me so mentally and spiritually I had really let my health fall by the wayside. I was up to 250lbs, which is a bad look on my barely 5’8” frame. I was depressed and looking at myself made me even more depressed. My clothes didn’t fit, I huffed and puffed on the stairs and trying to put on my socks was like trying to fold a fucking bowling ball in half.
I made the decision to get healthy. I went to the gym, got a membership and some personal training sessions and worked at it. But food is my vice. While I dropped some weight early, my trainer helped me see that by being in a calorie deficit, my weight could continue to drop while I could eat basically what I wanted, as long as I didn’t overshoot my calorie allotment for the day. At first, this was torture. I was cranky and always hungry. Which brings me to salads. You can have a giant salad everyday, so big it’s almost sarcastic, and as long as you build it properly, you can eat until you’re full, hell until you’re WELL PAST full, and never overshoot your caloric goals. The catch: you gotta build it properly.
The composition of your salad should look like this, by percentage.
- Greens and vegetables at 85%. Here we’re talking lettuces, baby spinach, and whatever beautiful produce you can get your hands on. The more veggies, the better.
- Healthy protein at 5%. Leftover roast chicken/turkey/pork/beef is great in salads. So are high quality smoked salmon and canned tuna.
- Other add ins at 3-4%. Here’s where you get to add whatever: toasted nuts, dried fruits, deli meats, cold pasta, cheese. Go crazy with choice, just don’t overdo the amount.
- Dressing at 1-2%. Gotta leave room for the dressing, which I hope I can convince you to make yourself.
With this ratio, you can’t lose. You’ll be well full, but of mostly good, healthy, low-calorie stuff that’ll fuel you for a lot longer than you think it will. Like I said in an earlier post, you can make your salad while the rest of your meal cooks, or if the salad IS your meal, just make it as rustic as you like, no need to get too fancy. Slice your veggies, toss them in a big-ass bowl with your greens, protein and add-ins. Season everything with salt and pepper, and give it a toss to shake the seasoning around. Then just drizzle the salad with some nice extra-virgin olive oil and toss again. The oil will carry the seasoning and help protect the delicate leaves from the acidity of the vinegar that comes next. I like red wine vinegar usually, but feel free to experiment. Shake a few sprinkles of vinegar onto the salad, toss one last time and taste. Does it need more of something? Fix it up and eat to your hearts (healthy) content!
A few caveats: Pasta salad, potato salad, neon-green coleslaw and tuna/egg/chicken salads are not real salads. Fruit salad is a dessert. A caprese salad CAN be a salad, but only if it’s not 99% cheese to a paper-thin slice of tomato and a few stands of chiffounade basil.
So, that’s my take on salads, why I eat them and why I hope you’ll start with hopefully one a day. It’s especially important when we’re all cooped up to take care of ourselves, and I care about all of you. So, tell me what you think. Do you guys make salads at home? What’s your go to? Would you like to see a few sample salad builds or vinaigrettes or the like? Leave a comment or shoot me an email and maybe we’ll see more content like this in the future.
