Delicious Salads Featuring Extra Virgin Olive Oil | Dr. Sinatra's HeartMD Institute

By Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.A.C.N., C.N.S., C.B.T.

A vibrant, nutrient-packed salad is one of the best ways to get fruits and veggies (and much more!) into your diet. There are endless unique ways to create delicious salads that can be a side dish or stand on their own as a satisfying meal. Here are some of our favorite, colorful, and vitamin-rich salad recipes!

Salads can be an easy and fun way to get more of these in your diet:

fiber
vitamins
minerals
antioxidants
healthy fats
quality proteins

But don’t get caught in a lettuce, cucumber, and tomato rut! Expand your palate to include:

radishes
green, red, orange and yellow peppers
red onions
broccoli
green beans
carrots
beets
celery
strawberries, blueberries, raspberries
grapes, raisins, dried cranberries
avocado
apple, pear, Asian pear

The more colors, the better! Remember, too, to choose organic vegetables and fruits as much as you can to avoid toxic herbicide residues.

You can also pack a nutritional punch by adding these types of goodies to your salads:

nuts
seeds
seafood (sardines, anchovies, and salmon)
eggs
whole grains (quinoa, barley, bulgar)

Choice of salad dressing is important, and can make or break your salad: an otherwise healthy salad can become polluted with the wrong dressing. If you depend on cheap, store bought dressings, you are likely consuming low quality oils (soybean, canola), artificial flavors, colorings, and preservatives. Making homemade dressing may seem like a lot of work, but it’s actually a really simple process. All you need is a great bottle of extra-virgin olive oil, some typical household seasonings, perhaps a a nice vinegar, and minute or two of your time. Give some of the dressings in the recipes below a try, and I bet you’ll be happy with your creations – your heart and waist will also thank you!

5 Things to Know Before Buying Olive Oil

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – The Best Salad Topper

Using extra-virgin olive oil in dressings and to drizzle on top of raw (or cooked) veggies are two of my favorite ways to use it. I prefer using it as a topper on dishes as opposed to cooking with it, because doing so preserves the protective antioxidant polyphenols in the oil.

As I’m a bit of a purist, my favorite salad dressing is a simple drizzle of high quality extra virgin olive oil, and a few grinds of all-natural salt and some pepper. Sometimes I add a sprinkle of Italian seasoning, fresh lemon juice or make a balsamic vinaigrette to change things up.

If you like a vinaigrette on your salads, here’s a simple recipe:

1/2 cup olive oil
1/8 to 1/4 cup vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine them in a jar and shake well, or whisk together in a bowl to emulsify. Then dress your salad for success!

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