Having a healthy diet is very important for a good lifestyle. You can have days where you eat things you enjoy but for the most part, a nutritious well-rounded meal is necessary for everyone. One of the best things you can eat as a healthy meal is a vegetable salad (ปลูก ผัก สลัด คอน โด, which is the term in Thai). People tend to not like salads because they don’t know how to properly make them. Chucking together a couple of vegetables doesn’t make a good salad- a combination of a lot of different vegetables with different textures and flavor profiles helps in making a good salad. So here are some tips which will help you turn your boring vegetable salad into a scrumptious meal that you are bound to enjoy.

The Greens

A few lettuce pieces aren’t enough in a good salad. Include a little of a lot of different vegetables- use broccoli, spinach, lettuce, and beans. These greens are the base of your vegetable salad.

Other Ingredients

Pick the vegetables you like having like tomatoes, beets, carrots, avocados, cucumbers, cabbage, etc. Try to incorporate seasonal vegetables in your salad as well as melons, pumpkins, and such during the summers and cauliflower and peas in the winters. You might be thinking that’s a lot of things which will make a lot of salad but you don’t have to use three of each. One or half of five to six vegetables will make your salads delicious.

Protein

Having a protein element in your salad is important. It is an essential nutrient group and will take your vegetable salad from a side dish to a fulfilling meal. Grilled chicken breast or salmon piece or a boiled egg mixed with the salad makes it taste so much better. And if you are vegetarian or vegan you can just as easily use tofu, soybeans, legumes, quinoa, and meat substitutes to add that extra flavor.

Nuts

Now that we have incorporated lots of different flavor profiles, it’s time for texture. A crunchy element in your salad just takes it to another level of deliciousness. Peanuts are the most popular in a salad but you can just as easily use roasted cashews, almonds, or walnut. A few crunchy elements make your salad a bit more fun and they provide the necessary fat in your diet.

Now you know the secret to enjoy a salad. Just add your favorite vinegarette and you’re ready to enjoy your vegetable salads.