The Salad Flavor Hypothesis

One often given piece of advice when dieting is to eat salads. Vegetables, after all, are low in calories and fats, right?

Well, some of them. Others not so much. But the problem is that salads tend to end up being lettuce, a few other things like cucumber and tomato slices, and lots of high-fat, high-calories dressing. If you use a low-fat, low-cal dressing, results are less than appetizing. Using less dressing is also unsatisfactory. I've tried a number of low-cal dressings, I've made my own, too, and nothing really works.

Until now. <pause for drama>

I haven't found an adequate dressing, but I've removed lettuce entirely. A restaurant next door to my office offers a really good salad made up of: alfalfa sprouts, thinly sliced roasted carrots and squash, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, one strip of bacon cut into bits, and dressing on the side. I don't like squash, so I order it with more carrot instead. And it works well. I've never used more than a teaspoon and a half of dressing.

The trick is getting rid of the lettuce. Lettuce is a horrible vegetable. It's pretty much flavorless, ergo the gobs of dressing to make it palatable. If instead you toss some vegetables with nice, rich flavor like carrots, bell peppers and mushrooms (yes, I know the latter are fungi), you don't need much dressing.

Lettuce is okay in sandwiches, burgers, tostadas and such, as it adds a crispy crunch to a flavorful dish, but as a base for salad it just doesn't work.

Another nearby restaurant serve a salad made of spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms and onions, sprinkled with roasted sesame, and the honey mustard dressing on the side. That works, too, as long as they replace the tomatoes with something else (I love tomatoes processed in some way, not raw), usually more mushrooms.

Agreed. Lettuce sucks. Especially iceberg lettuce. (Romaine and other kinds can be okay sometimes). The best salads are made with a base like spinach, or without any leafy greens at all. One of my favorite salads is just a simple Israeli-style tomato and cucumber with a light marinade.

By the way, Fitzgerald's salad bar in Vegas has the best marinated raw tomatoes I've ever had. Moreso suprised to find it there, of all places.

Salad by-and-large sucks as a food. I would never eat it as a meal in itself. It's meant as an side dish. In fact, I usually prefer to eat it after a meal. (This is how I approach a buffet).

I always use spinach as the base veggie, then add peppers, red onion, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, a little shredded cheese, and some turkey cubes. Throw in a small amount of croutons for extra crunch, and drizzle some low-fat sesame ginger or honey-mustard dressing on it all.

One other trick I learned is to dip the tines of your fork into the dressing before stabbing the salad & eating it. You only get a small amount of dressing, but you taste it every bite, so it seems like you are using more dressing than you actually are.

Quote: teddys

One of my favorite salads is just a simple Israeli-style tomato and cucumber with a light marinade.

Oh, dear. You just stirred up some bad memories of trying to make a meal out of the meager offerings at the cafeteria line at the kibbutz...

Quote:

Salad by-and-large sucks as a food. I would never eat it as a meal in itself. It's meant as an side dish. In fact, I usually prefer to eat it after a meal. (This is how I approach a buffet).

I like salads as an appetizer or main course, provided they're big enough and tasty enough. For a side dish I prefer things like rice, beans, pasta, etc.

Quote: Nareed

But the problem is that salads tend to end up being lettuce, a few other things like cucumber and tomato slices, and lots of high-fat, high-calories dressing.

Maybe pre-made salads in your garden variety restaurant (pun intended), but buffets here in LV you can pick and choose. I eat a couple buffets a week just to get the feeling that I'm doing my body good with the raw veggie selection, a wide variety in tiny portions is like a vitamin infusion of wholesomeness. For dessert, I fill a plate with watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple and figure that makes up for any chicken wings I eat the rest of week.

Quote: Nareed

The trick is getting rid of the lettuce. Lettuce is a horrible vegetable. It's pretty much flavorless, ergo the gobs of dressing to make it palatable.

What heck you talkin' 'bout here? Mix the spicy tang of baby arugula and cilantro with the crunch of iceberg, add the vitamins of leafy greens, and that's a little treat you're giving your body you'll feel all through the next day.

Salads don't have to be just lettuce and dressing. And it doesn't have to fatty dressing. Cubing up raw ahi and marinating in teriyaki, ginger and sriracha, then add your lettuce... fantastic. How about slicing cukes, add scallions and drizzling on sesame oil?

Mushrooms may be lo-cal and fatfree, but have zero nutritional value for the most part compared to their colleagues in the salad bar. When I lived in Washington I used hike up in the forests and collect chanterelles, buttons, lepiotas, helvellas, Princes, morels, oyster mushrooms and love 'em all, but their subtle flavor doesn't make up for their lack of nutrition, plus if you grab the wrong one, you could die. So there's that. You won't die from lettuce.

Sorry but soups and salads are for broads. I'm a male. I eat meat and potatoes. I don't eat salads or quiche or mung bean sprouts. I'm told lettuce is eighty percent water anyway. That seems a bit high to me but either way, its still a silly girl's thing to go to a restaurant and share a grape served on a lettuce leaf and call it dieting rather than utter nonsense.

I believe it was in To Sir, With Love wherein Sidney Poitier in teaching the kids in London's East End tossed lettuce and mayonaise into the trash can and called the typical English salad inedible. You might want to review that clip ... and cheer! Then go to a restaurant and have a real meal.

Quote: FleaStiff

Sorry but soups and salads are for broads.

I wonder if Nareed has reached a sort of evolution where to be considered a female is to be desired, but to be called a 'broad' is insulting? [I'm not saying FleaStiff directed that at Nareed]

Quote: Toes14

One other trick I learned is to dip the tines of your fork into the dressing before stabbing the salad & eating it. You only get a small amount of dressing, but you taste it every bite, so it seems like you are using more dressing than you actually are.

That sounds like a relly good idea. I'll try it next time.

Quote: zippyboy

Maybe pre-made salads in your garden variety restaurant (pun intended), but buffets here in LV you can pick and choose.

Yes. And many restaurants ahve salad bars. And typically they have huge bowls of lettuce and small plates or bowls of everything else. Plus the large tubs of dressing.

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Mushrooms may be lo-cal and fatfree, but have zero nutritional value for the most part compared to their colleagues in the salad bar.

That's why they're great for dieting. They add bulk to your intake and not much else, so you feel more full without adding calories, sugars or fat.

Lettuce is good for making you feel full since it's so full of water. It makes a good base to support all the other stuff. I just hate when the restaurant pours the dressing on the salad instead of putting it on the side. My oldest will eat his salad like it's Ranch Soup with bits of floating lettuce and cucumber but I actually like the taste of the vegetables and don't need to drown them.

I also like to use long leaves of Romaine in place of a tortilla to make a sandwich--sort of like a lettuce wrap.

Salads ... this is something I'm passionate about ...

I've been eating "big" salads for years. I almost never have lettuce in my salads. I'm allergic to alpha (or alfalfa ... whatever) sprouts (it's a Kansas thing). My dream salad has a base of raw spinach leaves ... flavorful, healthy, deep green spinach. It has firm tofu, carrot slices, brown rice, tomatoes, cucumber, artichoke hearts, cheese and maybe a few slices of raw zucchini. For dressing I use tamari and a light oil. I top it with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. I used to be a two salad a day type ... now it's about 3-5 salads a week. Salad for breakfast? I think not.

By the way, I'm the only person who eats a healthy diet in all of Kansas (outside of Lawrence, KS, that is).

--Dorothy

Quote: FarFromVegas

My oldest will eat his salad like it's Ranch Soup with bits of floating lettuce and cucumber but I actually like the taste of the vegetables and don't need to drown them.

That's what i tend to do to lettuce salads.

As I said, lettuce is devoid of flavor, at least that I can detect.

Quote: Toes14

One other trick I learned is to dip the tines of your fork into the dressing before stabbing the salad & eating it. You only get a small amount of dressing, but you taste it every bite, so it seems like you are using more dressing than you actually are.

I tried it. it works remarkably well. I think I use up less than a teaspoon of dressing per seating. Thanks for posting the idea.