LCHF Salad Ideas
Todays post is just to give you some LCHF salad ideas for dinner, lunches and lunch boxes. Try to make your salad as filling as you can.
You no longer have to skimp on the dressings. It's the dressings on LCHF salads that turn them into a decent meal. Who really wants to sit and eat leaves?
I have tried for years to love salads and if I'm honest, I ate them because they were supposed to be good for me and help me lose weight. I absolutely adore salads now that I can have pretty much free range of what dressing and how much.
Pour on olive oil or avocado oil, add smoked salmon, last nights roast lamb, chopped mint etc. Add plenty of cheese - cream cheese, crumbled blue cheese.
Make them look as beautiful as you can, savour your lunch. Go and buy a new lunchbox to make you enthusiastic about salads again (and any excuse for shopping in my book is a great idea).
Remember when ordering a salad at a restaurant, make sure they remove the croutons, and don't chose salads that have pasta or rice in them. To eat more fat, you HAVE to ditch the carbs!!
If there is the choice of dressings and you don't want to seem annoying asking the waiter for their list of ingredients, or be a diet bore at the table, go for the oil dressing as their mayonnaise may be low fat and high in carbs.
Start with a base of leafy greens, spinach, or lettuce then add the following:
Proteins
- Smoked salmon
- Tuna
- Boiled eggs
- Roast chicken
- Roast lamb
- Roast pork
- Sardines
- Anchovies
Dairy (protein and fats)
- Crumbled blue vein cheese
- Grated cheese
- Parmesan for a caesar salad
Vegetables
- Grated carrots
- Cherry tomatoes
- Sliced mushrooms
- Asparagus
- Olives
- Cucumber chunks
- Spring onions
- Capsicium
- Alfalfa sprouts
- Shredded cabbage
- Fresh herbs
Fats
- Olive oil
- Avocado oil
- Full fat mayonaise
What is your favourite salad? Have you rediscovered salads again?
Dawn
I like to make a spanish salad salbicon, roasted peppers, black olives, prawns, boiled eggs, raw onion and tuna, with olive oil and malt vinegar, served on baby gem lettue, if I'm correct in thinking there's hardly any cabs in this salad??
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
There will be some coming from the onions and peppers, but all in all they are pretty low carb vegetables and protein you have chosen. For a complete nutritional breakdown, put them into cronometer.com
Jason
I love salads. But when adding them to my food diary, they seem really high in carbohydrates. Is this nothing to worry about? Spring mix, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and red peppers with hard boiled egg is my go to.
Trudy
This looks awesome, can't wait to try it
Irene
I make salads and cold roast meat for lunch every day but now that we've gone HFLC how much meat in grams is an allowable amount
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
I like to keep things really simple and not measure anything. I tend to add a good handful or 2 or meat, whether it is fish, meat, cheese etc. If you really want to calculate, the recommended amount of protein is 1.5g/kg body weight, although some go higher and still have success. Try using MyFitnessPal to see how much protein you are getting and how that is affecting your weight and appetite.
Irene
Thanks Libby. I really want to do this but am struggling to get the proportions right. After a week I have put on weight not lost it! Is there a guide for how much fat a day as there is for protein?
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
Eat fat until you are full. It will take a while to adjust your weight and appetite, especially if you may have been insulin resistant for a long period of time. My appetite slowly diminished as time went on. Increase your fats as long as you keep your cars low, this is imperative as the insulin released by your carbs will enhance fat storage. The goal is to get that insulin as low as possible which will reduce your appetite, weight and fat storage.
Mumbro
Make sure you take measurements also. I have seen small increases in weight yet decreases in weight measurements! It's like my body ridding itself of tummy fat and building lean muscle mass.
Lisa
I eat a salad 5 days a week in my lunch for work. I make my own salad dressing with olive oil, flax oil, Bragg's cider vinager, raw organic honey...that's the base I can add herbs and/or Dijon mustard. I look forward to lunch. Lots of veggies and sometimes I make my own croutons when I want them. Love cheese either on it or on the side.