What is the healthiest salad to order?
On this page
One with a protein you can see, beans or corn, lots of vegetables and an oil-based dressing on the side. Built from USDA values, a bowl like that is about 550 calories with 41 g of protein and 14 g of fiber. Swap in fried chicken, croutons, cheddar and a cup of ranch and the same bowl is about 745, with a third of the fiber.
The word “salad” on a menu is like the word “natural” on a label. It tells you very little about what’s in it. Two salads on the same menu can differ by hundreds of calories, and the difference comes from how the protein is cooked, the crunchy toppings and how much dressing goes on.
What we’d do
Order grilled chicken, fish, shrimp, steak, eggs or tofu, add beans or corn, and get the dressing on the side, oil and vinegar if they have it. Skip the croutons, tortilla strips and candied nuts, and keep it to one cheese. Then use a spoon or two of the dressing and leave the rest in the cup.
Two orders from the same counter
| Order | Calories | Protein | Fiber | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 cups romaine, a palm of grilled chicken, half a cup each of black beans and corn, a tomato, 2 tablespoons of oil and vinegar | 549 | 41 g | 13.9 g | A+ |
| 3 cups romaine, a palm of fried chicken, an ounce of croutons, an ounce of cheddar, a 2 oz cup of ranch | 745 | 35 g | 4.7 g | B |
Graded on the six meters Gyroscope grades a meal on, for a 170 lb person eating 2,000 calories over three meals. The second order is a B. Its protein is fine, but about half its calories are croutons and ranch, which are ultra-processed, and it’s short on fiber, so it misses Processing and Hunger. The one change our bowl builder suggests is chickpeas for the croutons.
What to look for on the menu
- A protein you can see. Grilled chicken, salmon, shrimp, steak, tofu or eggs. “Crispy” usually means fried. A palm of grilled chicken is 140 calories with 27 g of protein.
- A bean, corn or grain. Half a cup of black beans adds 114 calories, 7.5 g of protein and 7.5 g of fiber.
- Vegetables past the lettuce. Tomato, cucumber, peppers, onion and carrots are almost free.
- Oil-based dressing on the side. A 2 oz cup holds about four tablespoons. Of ranch that’s about 256 calories, and you choose how much goes on.
- Fewer crunchy extras. An ounce of croutons is about 130 calories and 350 mg of sodium. Tortilla strips are about 142.
The protein is the part we’d never skip. A 2015 review of the research found people felt fuller after higher-protein meals, with about 25 to 30 g a meal or more as the helpful amount.
The phrase to say at the counter
“Grilled chicken, add black beans, dressing on the side, no croutons.”
For more on ordering out, see dressing on the side, and the salads people order for seven common salads counted part by part.
4 sources
- Gebhardt and Thomas, Nutritive Value of Foods, Home and Garden Bulletin 72, USDA Agricultural Research Service, 2002ars.usda.gov
- USDA Standard Reference, salad dressing, regular, ranchnutritionvalue.org
- USDA Standard Reference, croutons, seasonednutritionvalue.org
- Leidy et al., The role of protein in weight loss and maintenance, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2015pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
