Learn how to make this perfect summer salad that has a hint of sweet and savory! It’s hydrating and packed with essential nutrients.
Salad Ingredients:
3 cups of cubed watermelon
1 pint of sliced cherry tomatoes
1 sliced English cucumber
Sliced red onion
Chopped mint and parsley
Sliced kalamata olives
1/3 cup of feta cheese
Dressing Ingredients:
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
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and welcome. My name is Julia Stevens and I am a weight loss dietician and I’m so excited to welcome you here. Um, my goal today is to teach you how to make an awesome summer salad um with some kind of surprising ingredients that will work really well on your GLT1 or weight loss journey. Um, my whole practice is centered around wellness and weight loss. Um, specifically helping those on GLP1 medications. So, we will be talking a little bit about that. Um, in future episodes, I hope to answer all of your questions. So, feel free if you think of any questions or topics that you’d like me to cover, um, drop them below in the comments. But, let’s go ahead and get started. So today we’re going to be making u one of my favorite salads which is a Greek salad but instead of lettuce we are going to be replacing that with watermelon. Um which is kind of surprising and I was a little unsure of it at first but um I trusted some other colleagues that said to give it a try and it is now one of my favorite summer salads. It is so good. Um it really is refreshing and hydrating and um just different. So, if you’re looking for a recipe to bring to your next barbecue, Labor Day is coming up maybe for that or just to have easy on a week night. Um, it really pairs well with any type of grilled protein, um, chicken, fish, whatever you want to do. So, let’s move the camera down and get started. So, I have three cups of cubed watermelon here already. You could definitely do more. It’s totally up to you. Um, I love watermelon because it is naturally hydrating. Uh, we all know it’s very, very juicy and refreshing and we actually get a lot of hydration from this. So, when you are trying to lose weight um or on a GLP-1 medication, hydration is a big part of that puzzle. We want to make sure that we are staying well hydrated. And so, the vegetables and the watermelon that we are using today are all going to help in that process. So, we want to think about our total hydration plan, not just Oh, I’m going to add a little bit more watermelon. Um, not just in the form of water that we’re drinking. While that is definitely important, we also want to think about what we’re getting from food. So, watermelon is great. I added a whole, so three cups of cubed watermelon. I added a whole pint of sliced um like the little cherry tomatoes. I love the medley colors. I just like more color in a salad, so that’s what I chose. Um, you could do any kind, but it’s a whole pint. And then we’re going to do, we’re going to slice up here an entire English cucumber, and we’re going to add that. So, again, three main vegetables as the base of our salad that are going to add just a lot of hydration along with that nutrition. So, we’re also going to be getting some fiber here. When we’re talking weight loss, there are three main things that I always focus on with my clients when it comes to nutrients or or foods that are important. Um, so of course protein. And when you’re on a GLP1, I always say protein is going to be king, right? Protein is the most important, but number two in a close second is produce. And the main reason for that are for all of the vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients, but also the fiber. So, the fiber is going to help us ward off any of those um pesky kind of GI side effects, especially the constipation, right? So, we want to make sure that we’re getting in enough fiber. But fiber, if you’re not on a GLP1, is also going to be important um for a little bit of help with And I’m totally cubing this. I’m cutting it wrong. So, we’re going to start over. Sorry about that. Glad I have extras. So, we’re just going to do some mini slices of red onion here, or purple onion. Not really sure why they call it red, but I don’t like too much, but we do want a little bit in there. It gives it a nice balance. Um, I’ll freeze that for later and use it in a different recipe. And yes, you can freeze chopped onions. So, these onions are always so big, right? It’s too big. I can never use it all. So, I like to freeze I’ll chop up all of it and then freeze half of it. Um, or in this case, it was really big. So, all right. So, that’s good. So, that’s kind of our base here. And then I’m going to set that to the side and we are going to add in the rest here which are some herbs. So we’re going to do two herbs in this salad. We have some fresh mint and some fresh parsley. We’ll do the mint first. So make sure you wash and dry it. And then we just want the leaves. We don’t need all these big stems. Um, and when I’m doing them in a salad, I like them chopped up pretty fine. No one wants to get too big of a chunk. Set that to the side here. So, we’re going to go through this. I kind of This is what I do. I kind of squish it all together. I don’t know if this is right. I’m just a dietitian, guys. I’m not a chef. But, I like squishing it all together and then going through it. I just find like it’s easier to do it that way. Watch your fingers. All right. So, we want about a/4 cup of it chopped, right? We’re just going to go back and forth a couple times. Make sure there aren’t any super big chunks. Then we’ll just scoop it up and add that. So, we’ve got some mint. And then we’re going to do the parsley. So, kind of the same thing. I don’t like the big stems, so I just kind of break them off. And then I do mostly leaves. So, kind of the same thing. We’re just going to kind of bunch it up. It just adds a lot of that nice green color that we would expect in a salad, right? And the parsley just has that really nice flavor. The water melon and the mint go so well together. Trust me on that. We’re just going to kind of go over it a couple times. All right. So, there we go. We got some parsley. I mean, look at all the color, right? It’s so pretty. It’s such a pretty salad to bring to a barbecue dinner. Get my in a garbage pile going here. All right. So, we are going to give this a good toss. I just realized I forgot my olives. So, let me grab my olives from the fridge. We always want to add a little bit of a healthy fat, right? So, the olives are a great option for that as well as in the dressing that we’ll get to in a second. So, these are just sliced colomata olives. And I’m just going to take a good chunk out of here. So, you want to kind of drain the fluid there. And we’re just going to dump them on. Maybe about a/4 cup is what we’re going to go for. I love salads because you don’t have to have exact meas measurements, right? It’s not like baking where you have to be super careful. We just throw it in. Awesome. Okay, so there we go. So, we added our olive and then we’re just going to give this a nice big toss. Big piece of parsley there. So, we’ll just take that out. I don’t know how I missed that. But just mix it all in. Get some good color in. Beautiful. I mean, come on. That’s so pretty. And then we add on some feta on top. I love feta because it’s going to give it some saltiness. So, the original recipe did call for salt and pepper. You can add salt and pepper if you want. However, when we are trying to lose weight, guys, we don’t need any extra salt. The feta is going to be salty enough. So, you’re going to sprinkle on about a third of a cup. You don’t need a ton, but it’s going to give it a little bit of that salty creaminess that really makes a Greek salad, right? That’s all you need. And then we’re going to add our dressing. Now, this dressing is super simple. It’s a/3 cup of olive oil. Um, and I I’m sorry, 1/4 cup of olive oil. And it’s just a straight up extra virgin coldressed olive oil. And then about three tablespoons of red wine vinegar. That’s it. Nothing else to it. It’s the simplest vinegrett. This lives on my counter um because we use it all the time for different salads and whatnot. Just everyday stuff. And we’re just going to pour that on top. You don’t need all of it. I would say you’re going to add about half. Um and if you’re making this ahead of time, I would wait to add the dressing to right before you serve it. And then let’s give that one final toss. All right. So let’s talk really quickly about those GLP1 medications. So if you are taking ozenthic or goi zepbound um any of those segletide tzepide any version right this is going to be a great option for you. Again, I mentioned protein, produce, hydration. Those are your three big ones. Um, that’s really what you want to focus on. This salad is hitting two, right? It’s hitting the hydration. We’ve got all those hydrating vegetables and the watermelon, the fruit in there, but those also along with the herbs, um, and the onion and the olives, right? They’re helping us balance it out so that you’re also getting a lot of good nutrients and some good fiber. Um, the medications help manage portions, right? They help you eat less, but we still need to focus on getting in enough of those nutrients, enough of the protein, enough of the fiber. I’ve seen clients that have vitamin and mineral deficiencies because they’re not eating enough of the right things, right? So, you still have to focus on eating a well- balanced diet. Um, and I’ve seen many clients that have also become somewhat dehydrated because that decrease in appetite can also drive a decrease in thirst. So, you got to be careful. Um, so this salad is just a great option to have on hand. It makes a huge batch, so you could even do half of it. Um, I’m going to drop the recipe below in the comments. There will also be a link to it if you want to print it on my blog um on my website. So, feel free to check that out as well. Hit subscribe so you get updates on my future recipes and videos. And drop a comment. What else do you have questions about? It can be anything nutrition, um, weight loss, wellness related. Um, thanks for joining and I hope to see you guys around again. Take care.
Dining and Cooking