This Power-Packed Salad Keeps You Full Longer Without Pasta or Rice

During the summer, you aim to eat lighter and more balanced meals. You swap heavy saucy dishes with salads bulked up with starches to stay full longer. Typically, you opt for rice and pasta, which you find easier to cook than lentils or quinoa. However, the same scenario often unfolds: by 4 PM, you start to feel hungry, and your stomach begins to rumble. Suddenly, the cookies in the pantry seem very appealing, and it becomes a challenge to wait until dinner. The issue often isn’t the amount of starch in your dish but rather the choice of ingredients. Eva, known as @Foooodiiizz on social media, offers a salad recipe that wards off mid-afternoon cravings.

In her salad with Mexican flair, Eva uses red beans as a key ingredient to stay satisfied until dinner time. This choice is quite strategic: red beans are naturally high in fiber and plant proteins, both of which slow down digestion and help extend feelings of fullness. Unlike white pasta or rice, which primarily provide carbohydrates and may not keep you satiated for long when eaten alone. Compared to a salad made of white rice, tuna, and tomatoes, her version offers a balanced mix of legumes, vegetables, and cheese. This combination of fiber, proteins, fats, and volume helps you easily make it to dinner without feeling the need to snack in the afternoon.

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To whip up this hearty salad, Eva starts by mixing 250 grams of rinsed red beans with 285 grams of rinsed corn in a large bowl. She adds one diced red bell pepper, one diced green bell pepper, and a minced red onion. For extra flavor, she crumbles a block of feta cheese over the salad before dressing it. She finely chops some cilantro and parsley, then prepares a zesty vinaigrette by combining 5 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of lime juice, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 to 2 tablespoons of a Mexican spice blend, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, salt, and pepper. After drizzling the vinaigrette over the salad, it’s ready to serve!

Fresh, colorful, and particularly filling, this salad is perfect for summer lunches. It’s a delightful way to switch things up and, most importantly, avoid those hunger pangs in the late afternoon.