Hello!

I was wondering if anyone has any tips for training yourself to eat salad. I really dislike the taste of lettuce, or at least the texture of it. Without drowning it in dressing or something, anyone have any tips to help me get past that and "learn to like it"?

Thanks!

vanessa

My first recommendation would be to try different kinds of greens. I'm not a fan of iceberg, but like romaine, and esp. baby spinach. I also try to do "interesting" things with my salads: eggs, nuts, a few pieces of fruit, meat, cooked mushrooms, etc. You can also try out different kinds of vinaigrettes, which are generally healthier options in terms of salad dressing.

I do a lot of cooking to compose my salads or veggies. Tonight I grilled eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms, and shallots. Then I tossed in pesto and added a few caper and olive to top with chicken. This was served room temp., a pasta meets salad.

Why do you want to eat salad if you do not like it? I have a limited calorie budget for the day, so I eat only foods that I really enjoy.

Ferumbras and Celrae - Thanks! Those are good ideas, and I will try a few!

aimeebell - I always think they look good, and generally I like the other things in a salad, just not lettuce. I'd like to get around that so I can actually eat it!

I second shopping around for lettuce. I found that I really, really liked Romaine, especially hearts of Romaine. Paired with a low-cal dressing I liked, I learned to eat salad and then moved slowly into iceberg.

There's a lot of great online blogs and books that focus on salads! I think maybe look into recipes that don't use lettuce at all (iceberg has zero nutritional value anyway).

I love baby spinach, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, red onion, green papaya, in my salads.

If you don't like salad, find other ways to eat vegetables that IS enjoyable. Roasted vegetables are delicious! I like sauteeing greens with a little garlic, onion and different spices.

One of my favorites (not necessarily diet food though but possible):
Arugula, sliced pears, blue cheese and chopped walnuts with a olive oil/balsamic vinegar/salt/pepper/yellow mustard/honey dressing.

I usually limit the oil to 1tsp per serving and the cheese only crumbled a bit over the salad and it works for my WW plan.

I had that salad probably daily at California Pizza Kitchen when we were on vacation. LOVE it!

You don't have to have lettuce to have a salad! My favourite salad is fresh red, yellow, orange and green bell peppers, cucumber, tomato, green beans, maybe a bit of fresh fruit, maybe some tuna fish, tossed with fresh salsa.

Thanks! You've all given me some tasty looking recipes and things to think about. I will have to look online and see what kind of salad recipes I can come up with, and then go to the store and buy a bunch of different lettuces and see what I like (or not).

I really appreciate all the help and recipes!

I'm not a big lettuce fan either, but I also find Romaine and baby spinach better--they also seem to last the longest in the fridge. Marinated vegetables are another way to get cold vegetables. And in summer, there is gazpacho!

My favorite salad: LOTs of baby spinach leaves, walnuts, almonds, pomegranate seeds, and sun-dried tomatoes.

If you're not into the tart sweetness of the pomegranate seeds, than substitute them for Greek Yogurt. You can even mix in a little ranch seasoning to get that creamy, ranchy flavor (while slashing off a LOT of calories).

I also love fresh bell peppers (especially red ... could literally eat them on everything or raw ... by themself) and arugula, but sadly I can't really afford them. My grocery store tries to sell bell peppers over two dollars for one! Outrageous. I just buy them frozen, so I can stir fry them with steak and onions (adore onions).

What! What is this store that charges $2 for bell peppers. Two american dollars? Please tell me they're at least organic.

My favorite big salad:
*Baby Spinach
*1/2 Cucumber
*1/2 Green pepper (or red/yellow)
*1 Tomato
*Turkey meat either roasted or easy from the deli

I love love love salads. We have them for dinner once a week. I don't particularly care for lettuce, you don't have to use it either! But, I add in so much other stuff the lettuce pretty much gets lost lol.

I like mushrooms, onion, boiled eggs, sometimes ham or turkey, cucumber, tomato, sunflower seeds/almonds w/e nuts I have around, broccoli, bell peppers, cheese, bacon bits, olives, celery, pepper, cauliflower, pepperoni, water chestnuts, cilantro, croutons. So many things you can use!

And then there are fruit salads, and pasta salads, so many things you can do!