Summer = Salads

Summer time is a great time to fill up on healthy, delicious salads. I don't believe salads should be the accompaniment to a meal. I believe they should be the meal.

 

When creating nutritionally balanced salads, remember to include these 4 key components:

1. Vegetables/ salad
2. Protein source
3. Low GI carbohydrate
4. Healthy fat



• Left: Mixed lettuce, beetroot, zucchini, turkey & fetta salad
• Right: Green beans, bok choy, lean pork, lentil, fetta & pinenut salad

• Left: Spinach, tomato, capsicum, zucchini, chickpea, fetta & walnut salad
• Right: Spinach, cucumber, tomato, chickpea, fetta & pepita seed salad
 

1. Vegetables/ salad

• Green - spinach , rocket, lettuce, broccoli, beans, celery, cucumber
• Orange - pumpkin, carrots
• Red - capsicum, tomato
• Yellow - yellow capsicum
• Purple - beetroot

2. Protein sources

• Lean chicken
• Tinned tuna
• Smoked salmon
• Boiled eggs
• Chickpeas (also provide low GI carbohydrate)
• 4-bean mix (also provide low GI carbohydrate)
• Fetta

3. Low GI carbohydrates

• Fruits -  mango, pomegranate, pear, cranberries
• Quinoa
• Pearl cous cous
• Corn
• Sweet potato
• Chickpeas (also provide protein)
• 4-bean mix (also provide protein)

4. Healthy fats

• Nuts - roasted walnuts, pinenuts, pistachios
• Avocado
• Oils - olive oil, rice bran oil
• Olives

Build your Salad

Now that you've chosen each of the components, it's time to build your salad.

To serve 4, I recommend:

• 8 cups of salad/ vegetables
• 2 large chicken breasts/ 3 x 95g tin tuna/ 200g smoked salmon/ 3 boiled eggs/ 1 x 400g tin chickpeas or 4-bean mix/ 180g reduced fat fetta (or mix and match more than one protein source)
• 2 cups of low GI carbohydrates
• 1/4 cup nuts/ 1 whole avocado, 1/4 cup oils/ 15 olives

For extra flavour add herbs such as fresh basil or parsley, wholegrain mustard, lemon/ lime juice or balsamic vinegar.

One of my favourite summer salad dressings is balsamic vinegar, olive oil (3 parts balsamic vinegar: 1 part olive oil) and wholegrain mustard.