How Many Calories are in a Salad?

A classic green salad, which fits into the healthy eating program, contains green salad, a handful of chopped onions, tomatoes, a diced hard-boiled egg and 1/2 cup low-fat grated white cheese.

This combination provides protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals and fats. The calorie amounts of each ingredient: A serving of lettuce and onions contains 16 calories; tomato - 22 calories; egg - about 78 calories; white cheese - about 100 calories.

In other words, a main salad, which contains healthy ingredients, includes about 235 calories. A few tablespoons of Italian salad dressing add about 30 to 120 more calories, given that only 1 tbsp. of olive oil contains about 100-120 kcal.

Calorie content in green salads

Mixing two or more green salads - Iceberg, kale, Chinese cabbage, etc. is recommended, in order to increase the total nutritional content and make the salad tasty and interesting. Even the Iceberg lettuce, which has fallen out of favor with people, who care about their health due to its low nutrient content, provides a pleasant crunchiness and color contrast with the darker and softer greens.

Romaine salad is the salad with the highest content of many nutrients, including fiber and vitamins, while Iceberg contains the least. Fresh spinach adds extra vitamin C, calcium and magnesium to your daily dose of these nutrients. Of course, the calories in the tender lettuce are minimal.

Most leafy salads contain about 10 calories in a volume of about one cup.

Adding other vegetables

Adding other vegetables to your salad provides a contrasting texture and color while keeping the calories low. The classic vegetable green salad supplements include tomatoes, radishes and cucumbers and none of these vegetables exceed 20 calories per 1/2 cup.

You can also consider fresh broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus and celery, which have a quite low content of calories.

In general, the sweeter the raw vegetable, the higher the calorie and/or carbohydrate content. 1/2 cup of grated sweet potato has about 50 calories and corn contains about 75 calories.

For a slightly better protein to calorie ratio, add canned beans. Half a cup of chickpeas, beans or lentils add no more than 125 calories to your salad, but at the same time you will increase the protein content by at least 7 grams.

If calories don't bother you, you can take a look at these popular salads:

- winter salads;

- fish salads;

- egg salad;

- tuna salad.