Garden Salad Bowl with Creamy Vinaigrette

Add color and crunch to your lunch or dinner with this vegetable-packed classic garden salad bowl.

Jan 03, 2023

If this first week following the holidays, has you craving something fresh, light, nutritious, and calorie friendly to eat, have I got a veggie-packed salad for you. Romaine lettuce, which forms the base of today’s salad bowl, is topped with a variety of vegetables — carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers, garbanzo beans, and red onion — and a scrumptious dressing.

While you may not think of garbanzo beans (also known as chickpeas) as a vegetable, they are. Because they have a nutrient profile similar to foods in both the vegetable group and protein group (meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, nuts, seeds, and soy foods), garbanzo beans can be counted as either a vegetable or protein choice.

Garbanzo beans are available dried or canned. For convenience, I opted for canned beans. When using canned beans, always drain and rinse them thoroughly. Doing so will reduce the sodium content by about 40 percent.

For the dressing, I created a creamy vinaigrette by simply adding reduced-fat sour cream and a little milk to a basic vinaigrette. If you like creamy garlic dressing, this is similar, but with a lot fewer calories. This dressing recipe calls for white balsamic (also called golden balsamic) vinegar. If white balsamic vinegar is not in your pantry, white wine vinegar is a great substitute.

To your health,

Darlene

GARDEN SALAD BOWL with CREAMY VINAIGRETTE

Yield: 4 servings

Serving Size: 1 salad with 3 tablespoons dressing

Prep: 15 minutes

Ready: 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Dressing

1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons 1% milk
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Salad

8 cups chopped Romaine lettuce
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 cup sliced cucumbers
1 cup canned garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

DIRECTIONS

Place sour cream, vinegar, milk, oil, sugar, mustard, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake until combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.
To prepare one garden salad bowl serving, add 2 cups Romaine lettuce to a serving bowl and top with 1/4 cup carrots, 1/4 cup mushrooms, 1/4 cup tomatoes, 1/4 cup cucumbers, 1/4 cup garbanzo beans, and 1 tablespoon sliced onion. Top with 3 tablespoons dressing and serve.

Nutrition Information per Serving

175 Calories, 7 g Total fat, 2 g Saturated fat, 0 g Trans fat, 10 mg Cholesterol, 199 mg Sodium, 26 g Total carbohydrate, 5 g Dietary fiber, 9 g Total sugars, 2 g Added sugars, 7 g Protein, 0 mcg (0%) Vitamin D, 139 mg (10%) Calcium, 3 mg (15%) Iron, 258 mg (6%) Potassium