The Cooking Pain: Mediterranean Mix-Up Salad Recipe

Who has ruined her taste buds and forever is bloated because she can’t stop adding heavy flavors into everything she eats? Moi! Lately, I’ve been aspiring to eat healthily while still incorporating a little something I love into each meal. Other than carbs and cheese, I also love charcuterie, avocados, mixed nuts, and fruit. So somewhere between gorging down half a baguette (where its “pores” were sufficiently stuffed with buffalo wing sauce cheddar cheese) and adding salt to my plain lettuce with my tears, I whipped up my very own original creation. It’s a combination of flavors that somehow mix well and draw from an array of flare from a few countries in the Mediterranean like Greece and Italy. Without further ado, I present you my second Bougie Cuisine creation: The Mediterranean Mix-Up Salad!

Stay tuned towards the end for an important nutritional note from me, please.

Ingredients

• 1/3 a romaine heart, cut or shredded (or arugula or mixed greens)
• 1/4 of a medium sized apple, diced
• 1/3 inch slice of goat cheese, crumbled
• 2 slices of prosciutto
• 1/2 avocado, sliced or smashed, seasoned or unseasoned (salt, garlic, cayenne, lime)
• 1 tbsp of balsamic vinaigrette with 1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil
• (optional) 1/4 cup of honey roasted (or unsalted) mixed nuts
• (optional) 1 ounce baguette about 2in. x 2.5in.
• (optional) 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil with pepper flakes and basil leaves

Calorie Breakdown (Rough Estimate)

For my fellow calorie counters out there, if you are tossing the salad with the exact ingredients above here is the exact breakdown:

• romaine: 8 calories
• apple: 33 calories
• goat cheese: 35 calories
• prosciutto: 60 calories
• avocado: 161 calories
• balsamic vinaigrette: 10 calories
• oil: 40 calories
• honey roasted nuts: 180 calories (plain: 190 calories, ironically)
• baguette: 70 calories
• bread dipping: 40-120 calories IF YOU CONSUME ALL OF IT

Salad Calorie Count (without nuts/with nuts): 346, 526

Side Bread & Spread Calorie Count: 110-190

Total: 456-716

Nutritional Notes

You will notice that this salad (even without the nuts) is a bit higher in calorie count than many others you will order or create. How much prosciutto and avocado you place into the salad will have a high impact on your fat percentage and calorie count. It has about 5.65g of protein (10% DV), 11.4g of carbohydrates (15% DV), and 7.4g of fat (30% DV) at the bare minimum of my recipe. Now before you panic at the fat ratios and numbers, notice that this salad is very high in the “good fat” department. While 35g is quite a lot for a day, you can easily combat this with citrus fruit later in the day and a protein/vegetable heavy dinner.

About good fat. Who knew there could be such a thing? You often hear about “good fat” and “bad fat” and wonder what on earth nutritionists are talking about. Bad fats are trans fat and select saturated fats. Trans fats come in beautiful and alluring forms our favorite cookies, chips, candy, cake from a box mix, fried drunk food, and so forth. Saturated fat often comes in our favorite take out dishes, red meats, and my beloved cured meats. So if you wish to skimp on the prosciutto, I understand. Good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. They come in the form of avocados, olive oil, nuts (walnuts, almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews), natural peanut butter, fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, trout, sardines), soy, tofu, and seeds (sunflower, flax, pumpkin). Therefore, it is not only completely acceptable but quite healthy to consume a salad with a high percentage of “fatty” ingredients!

If you are really careful of eating slightly empty carbs and calories, you can completely ditch the oil dip for your bread, consume just a small portion of the bread, or even replace it with whole wheat or multigrain bread to get more nutrients out of your calories. It is still beneficial to have a small dose of carbohydrates in this meal, seeing that you need a large amount of servings of grain each day. If there is anything I would not recommend, it is switching the dressing. If you do not wish to consume that much “fat” in your light dressing, simply decrease the amount used. Olive oil is incredible for your skin, and I promise you that almost all other salad dressings are far higher in fat content and calories.

So pick and choose what amount of each ingredient you may wish to place in your Mediterranean Mix-Up or make it with my proportions and enjoy nature’s fruits! I promise I haven’t gained any extra weight from it, so don’t you worry, mes chéries.

 

-E.