We love love love salad (we know, shocking). But the difference between a good salad and a sad salad is MEANINGFUL. Salad can be boring, and repetitive, and, well…sad. Soggy romaine mixed with mid-winter tomatoes and olive oil and vinegar isn’t getting anyone excited about healthy eating. And if you know us by now, you know that’s just not what we’re about.

We’re always on a mission to make healthy food exciting and delicious, and salads are by nature healthful because they’re a vehicle to load up on a variety of veggies and other nutrient-dense foods. But as we know, not all salads are created equal – both nutritionally and in terms of flavor and satisfaction.

Here are some of our favorite tips to build a 1) more nutritionally balanced and 2) not boring, super satisfying salad:  

How to build a nutritionally balanced salad:

• Load up on leafy greens and as many veggies as possible (cooked or raw). Greens and veggies are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, so lots of bang for your buck. The more variety and the more colorful, the better. 

• Add a source of high quality protein, either animal or plant-based. We love organic eggs, chicken, turkey, wild salmon, tofu, chickpeas, beans and lentils! 

• Include 1-2 complex carbohydrates, being mindful of portion size to avoid blood sugar spikes. We love leftover roasted sweet potatoes, quinoa, chickpeas, beans or lentils (also considered a plant-based protein source), or a side of your favorite seed crackers like Mary’s, Simple Mills, Hu Kitchen, Top Seedz or Ella’s. 

• Healthy fats are your friend for flavor and satiety! We love avocado, nuts, seeds, and olive-oil based dressings. If you’re focused on weight loss, we recommend opting for one type and aiming to keep within a reasonable portion size.

Tips for a not boring, super satisfying salad:

• Use a mix of different greens! Try some you don’t typically use and aim for 2+ varieties for a more unique salad - we love arugula, spring mix, chopped romaine, radicchio, endive, baby kale, little gems and butter lettuce. 

• Add fresh herbs. You’d be shocked at how much flavor and excitement fresh herbs can bring to a salad. We especially love fresh dill, basil and mint. Health bonus - herbs are loaded with antioxidants that fight harmful free radicals in the body.

• Include roasted or grilled vegetables for texture and depth. We typically associate salads with raw veggies, but we love adding in some roasted or grilled veg to give your salad a little more heft (leftovers work wonders here). We like to double down when we’re cooking for dinner to have extras for salads during the week. 

• Pick a theme. When in doubt, leverage inspiration from different regional cuisines, seasonal produce, or restaurants. Some of our favorites themes and recipes: southwestern or taco salad, mediterranean salad, spring salad, fall salad, summer farm stand salad (arugula, peaches, tomatoes, corn, basil, and our favorite balsamic and lime dressing), greek salad, Italian chopped salad, miso sweet potato and tofu salad with pickled red onions…someone please stop us because we could list salad themes forever.  

• Add some crunch. A surefire way to level up your salad. We love using crumbled Siete tortilla chips or Simple Mills pita chips, crunchy roasted chickpeas, pumpkin seeds and/or toasted pine nuts.

• Fresh fruit = salad game changer. We love apples, grapes, persimmon, pear and pomegranate seeds in a fall or winter salad; berries, watermelon, and stone fruit in spring and summer salads; and mango, orange, and grapefruit year round. 

• Briny/pickled things. Try adding pickled red onions, banana peppers, jarred roasted red peppers, hearts of palm, olives and /or jarred artichokes for a more dynamic and interesting salad! We love to make a batch of pickled red onions at the beginning of the week to add to salads, eggs, tacos, or whatever we’re making - see this recipe for our method.

• Mix up your protein. Sometimes we hit a protein rut and need to mix it up to reignite our salad flame. We love jammy eggs drizzled with hot sauce, pulled rotisserie chicken (easy), chicken, egg or tuna salad, crispy tofu, and crispy roasted chickpeas.  

• Add a killer dressing. We recommend making your own since most store-bought dressings have a lot of unnecessary additives. Short on time? Make our four-ingredient apple cider vinaigrette in 1 min or less. For more inspiration, look at our website for our favorites - we also love this basil vinaigrette from our friend Gaby. For store bought, we love Primal Kitchen. 

• Add healthy fat to boost satiety. We recommend picking 1-2 sources of healthy fat for a well balanced salad (typically dressing + optional additional fat). Some sources we love: avocado, toasted nuts or seeds (see “crunch” above), or, if you tolerate dairy, shaved parmesan cheese is *chef’s kiss*.

• Chop your salad. Try these scissors. Thank us later. 

• Need some inspo? We share several salad recipes on our website, IG highlights and in our resets. We also love Kathleen Ashmore’s hungry lady salads (@katcancook). For diehard salad fanatics, we love this new seasonal salad cookbook and Emily Nunn’s salad-dedicated newsletter, the Department of Salad (niche, but amazing).

Happy Salad-ing from your favorite crazy salad ladies!

A few more things

Where we share all the things we’re loving, reading, listening to, cooking, discussing and purchasing as of late.

1. Our moms always said a kitchen is not complete without a good old wooden salad bowl. An investment piece, but we use ours daily (at least) and they stand the test of time. The Andrew Pearce bowl is iconic and indestructible (Merrill was lucky enough to inherit hers and it’s lasted two generations). We also love this one from Hudson Grace.

2. Lauren: I love all of Rishi’s incredible teas (especially the herbal varieties), but this organic pure ginger tea is the one I can’t live without. It’s just pure, dried, organic ginger root - nothing else - and quite strong (for my fellow ginger lovers). I brew it and mix with a lot of lemon (1 whole lemon to 3 cups tea) in this simple brew teapot. Whenever we have guests or visitors and make it for them, they end up buying a bag on the spot. It’s also delicious the next day as iced tea!

3. Another pantry staple we can’t live without - Sizzle all purpose seasoning! (Lauren: I discovered it at my local farmers market in Brentwood and used to ship Merrill bottles before it was sold online). We truly use it on everything - roasted salmon, grilled and roasted veggies, scrambled eggs, potatoes, avocado toast. It’s foolproof and so good.

4. We love James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter, which features 3 ideas, 2 quotes and 1 question that are highly motivational, inspiring, and practical. They always resonate, and provide actionable tools and wisdom to help optimize your life.  He says “if you were forced to unsubscribe from every newsletter in your life, start again at zero, and add back only the ones you missed the most, I’d want this to be the very first one you’d return to.” He’s not wrong…but also, we hope we’d be second ;)