How many calories are in a side salad?
160calories with 2 tbsp of ranch dressing
3 g of protein, 3.1 g of fiber. The biggest line is the ranch dressing, 128 calories.
Starter A side salad is a starter, so it isn't graded.
About 164 calories with 2 tablespoons of ranch, and 128 of them are the ranch. Two cups of romaine, half a tomato and half a cup of cucumber come to about 36 calories on their own.
A side salad is a starter, so we don’t grade it. Its job is to take the edge off before the main, and the dressing decides whether it does. At Penn State, 42 women ate a salad they had to finish before a pasta lunch. A large, light one cut the whole lunch by 12%. The same size bowl made rich with more dressing and cheese raised it by 17%.
With one tablespoon of ranch, this side is about 100 calories and sits nearest the trial’s large, light salad. With two, it lands among the middle salads, whose results weren’t published.
We’d use one tablespoon of ranch, or a tablespoon of oil and vinegar at about 126 calories. If the side salad is your whole lunch, add a palm of chicken, since 3 g of protein won’t carry you to dinner.
Sodium 280 mg, 37% of a meal's share of the day's 2,300 mg. Salt isn't one of the six meters, so it never changes the grade.
Part by part
| Ingredient | Amount | Calories | Protein | Fiber |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romaine | 2 cups, 112 g | 16 | 2 g | 2 g |
| Tomato | half a tomato, 62 g | 13 | 0.5 g | 0.7 g |
| Cucumber | half a cup, 52 g | 7 | 0.5 g | 0.4 g |
| Ranch dressing | 2 tbsp, 30 g | 128 | 0.4 g | 0 g |
| Total | 256 g | 164 | 3 g | 3.1 g |
At three amounts of dressing
| Ranch dressing | Calories | Dressing's share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 tbsp | 100 | 64% |
| 2 tbsp | 160 | 78% |
| 4 tbsp, a ladle or a 2 oz cup | 290 | 88% |
As a starter it sits nearest the Penn State trial's large middle salad, at 0.64 calories per gram. That salad's result isn't in the published summary. Starter or meal
Graded on meals.guide's six meters for a 170 lb person eating 2,000 calories over three meals. Food values from the USDA's Nutritive Value of Foods and its Standard Reference.
3 sources
- Rolls BJ, Roe LS, Meengs JS. Salad and satiety: energy density and portion size of a first-course salad affect energy intake at lunch. J Am Diet Assoc 2004;104(10):1570-1576pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Gebhardt SE, Thomas RG. Nutritive Value of Foods. USDA ARS, Home and Garden Bulletin 72, 2002ars.usda.gov
- USDA Standard Reference, salad dressing, ranch, regular (nutritionvalue.org)nutritionvalue.org
