#23: How To Make The Perfect Salad, On The Cheap

Salads are often criticised for being the ‘standard go-to’ for healthy eating. As a result, they are often stigmatized for being cliché, tasteless and downright… standard. But it doesn’t have to be the case.

Any meal can be made into a ‘salad’ if you add enough vegetables. I mean, if you dice a ribeye and add it to a bed of greens, then it’s technically a salad.

Salads are as convenient as they get when it comes to meal prep. You can prepare two or three in a few minutes and save time over the next few days when the time to devour that bad boy comes.

To master the art of salad-making, it all begins with zoning in on a ‘traditional base’. Below, you can find my preferred one.

What Is A Default Salad Base?

My default salad base consists of:

1. 50g greens, such as lettuce (€1.30)

2. 50g onion (€0.07)

3. 50g cucumber (€0.20)

4. 50g carrots (€0.07)

5. 50g sun-dried tomatoes (€0.80)

6. 30g olives (€0.28)

7. 70g avocado (€0.75)

8. 100g lentils (€0.75)

All drizzled with 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil (€0.10), 1 tsp vinegar (€0.05), salt, pepper and mixed Italian herbs.

This ‘default base’ is already 585 calories, of which includes:

1. 20g protein

2. 46g carbohydrates

3. 31g fat

And all this for a measly €4.37.

Although one can’t help deny that the meal is complete as is, adding another protein source to the meal may be required. Especially if the individual is active. And what better foods to consider than the following:

1. 100g tofu, Lord Of Tofu - Natural (165 calories; 16g protein, 1g carbohydrate, 10g fat) at €1.58

2. 100g tempeh, Biona (151 calories; 17g protein, 11g carbohydrate, 8g fat) at €1.00

3. 100g cooked chick peas, Bonduelle (116 calories; 6g protein, 15g carbohydrate, 1g fat) at €0.59

4. 100g sheep or goat cheese, Feta (100 calories; 6g protein, 1g carbohydrate, 8g fat) at €0.70

5. 100g pasture-raised eggs or 2 eggs (143 calories; 13g protein, 1g carbohydrate, 10g fat) at €1.10

6. 100g salmon fillet (206 calories; 22g protein, 0g carbohydrate, 12g fat) at €2.35

7. 100g mackerel fillet (189 calories; 19g protein, 0g carbohydrate, 12g fat) at €0.78

8. 100g chicken breast (161 calories; 31g protein, 0g carbohydrate, 4g fat) at €0.50

9. 100g turkey breast (189 calories; 29g protein, 0g carbohydrate, 7g fat) at €1.10

10. 100g beef sirloin (244 calories; 27g protein, 0g carbohydrate, 14g fat) at €1.10

So with the above in mind, we’re looking at one healthy meal costing anywhere from €4.37 (chicken breast) to €6.72 (salmon). You can also opt for an entirely plant-based option that would cost €4.96.

And to think, a restaurant could serve less, in terms of quantity and charge anywhere from €11.00 to €15.00 depending on what you order, and from where.

The salad base doesn’t take more than a few minutes to prepare, especially since it only involves cutting, dicing and mixing raw vegetables.

But when adding cooked protein sources (such as chicken breast or tofu), the process becomes longer. Still, you can cook in bulk and save yourself some time (grill 200g chicken breast and distributed over the course of two days).

Out of your three-meal-a-day plan, make sure at least one of those meals is a salad. If it is completely plant-based, all the better.

High-carb or low carb? It doesn’t matter. So long as you’re getting in enough protein, then you’re good (go for around 1g per kg bodyweight per day).

If you fancy low-carb dieting, you can still do so and keep it completely plant-based.