Try this chicken salad with lemon ginger dressing when you want a low-carb and low-calorie lunch option. With only 371 calories and 25 grams of net carbs per serving, this high-volume entrée may help you with your weight loss goals. High volume salad recipes will increase your vegetable intake with easy, healthy meal prep. You’ll have your weekday lunches ready to go!
National Chicken Month is September, but we can celebrate anytime! Today’s post will honor this niacin-rich food that is packed with high-quality protein with an easy salad prep recipe. If you purchase grilled chicken or use chopped rotisserie chicken breast, you won’t even have to do any cooking.
It is not necessary to eat salads if you really dislike them; there are so many other ways that you can get your vegetables. However, salads are one of my favorite lunch options. They offer so many benefits:
- Much higher volume for (typically) lower calories than a sandwich
- No need to reheat, as you would for homemade soup
- Easy way to get a daily serving of leafy greens, along with an assortment of other vegetables
- Simple to make ahead so that lunches will be ready for the week
If you are preparing this recipe ahead of time, remember to keep the dressing separate. Having leak-proof dressing cups on hand helps to make your salads more easily portable. Keeping your salad fixings as dry as possible is key to preventing the dreaded soggy salad.
Jump to:
- 🥗 What are high volume low calorie foods?
- 🥘 Best High Volume Low Calorie Meals
- 🥣 High Volume Low Calorie Lunch Ideas
- 🥞 High Volume Low Calorie Breakfast Ideas
- 🍔 High Volume Low Calorie Dinner Ideas
- 🍨 High Volume Low Calorie Snack Ideas
- 🔪 How to Make Volume Eating Salads
- 🌡️ How to Store Volume Eating Salad
- 💭 Expert Tips from a Dietitian
- FAQs
- 👩🏻🍳 High Volume Low Calorie Recipes
- The Disclaimer…
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
🥗 What are high volume low calorie foods?
What are foods that are high in volume but low in calories? Fruits and non-starchy vegetables are some of the best choices to provide bulk volume from fiber and water. You can use these foods to make low calorie high volume meals.
Lean proteins and nonfat dairy foods are some other great options for low calorie high volume foods. Here are some of the volume eating foods we’re using to make the high volume salads recipe below:
| Food | Amount | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Lettuce | 2 cups | 19 |
| Cabbage | 1 cup (shredded) | 17 |
| Cucumber | 1 medium | 32 |
| Red bell pepper | 1 cup (chopped) | 39 |
| Skinless chicken breast | 3 ounces (cooked) | 128 |
| Scallions | 1 medium | 5 |
And here are some other low calorie volume eating foods you can add to weight loss meals:
| Food | Amount | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Spaghetti squash | 1 cup | 42 |
| Zucchini | 1 cup | 25 |
| Nonfat cottage cheese | 1 cup | 151 |
| Nonfat plain Greek yogurt | 1 cup | 145 |
| Canned tuna | ½ cup (drained light tuna packed in water) | 89 |
| Shrimp | 1 cup | 144 |
| Watermelon | 1 cup | 30 |
| Grapes | 1 cup | 104 |
| Air popped popcorn | 3 cups | 93 |
| Cauliflower rice | 1 cup | 33 |
So, what sorts of foods are not low cal high volume? These would be our high fat foods, such as cream, peanut butter, nuts and seeds, full fat ice cream, avocado, and olive oil. I recommend limiting the use of these foods when making high volume low calorie meals.
Looking for an accurate calorie calculator? My Fitness Pal and Cronometer are two free tools to calculate calories. Compare multiple sources of information to help increase accuracy, as no tool is perfect.
🥘 Best High Volume Low Calorie Meals
Need ideas for meals that fill you up with low calories? Luckily, I’ve got lots of volume eating meal ideas for you here. I’ve divided these meals into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to make things easy for you.
🥣 High Volume Low Calorie Lunch Ideas
I prefer portable meals like salad, lettuce wraps, and soup for volume eating lunches. Here are some low calorie high volume lunch ideas from the site:
🥞 High Volume Low Calorie Breakfast Ideas
Oatmeal, yogurt, eggs, and smoothies are some of your many options for volume eating breakfasts. Here are some filling low calorie breakfast ideas to get you started:
🍔 High Volume Low Calorie Dinner Ideas
The ideas for low calorie high volume dinners are endless. Try bunless burgers, salmon, or my popular zucchini lasagna. Here are lots of recipes for volume eating dinners:
🍨 High Volume Low Calorie Snack Ideas
The volume eating snack ideas below include high protein appetizers, ice pops with whole blended fruit, and other fruit and veggie-packed treats. Aside from being delicious, these easy snacks are (mostly) under 100 calories:
Keep in mind that the above lists of ideas are not exhaustive. There are lots of other foods that could make this list such as kale chips, rice cakes, fresh berries, and more.
🔪 How to Make Volume Eating Salads
Time to make the volume eating salads you see in the photos. Here are the basic steps (specific quantities of ingredients are in the recipe card at the bottom of the post):
- Place lemon zest, lemon juice, fresh ginger, oil, maple syrup, salt, and pepper in a one-cup canning jar. Put the lid on the jar and shake to combine the ingredients. Set dressing aside while you assemble the salads.
- Shred cabbage, chop cucumber and bell pepper, and slice the scallions. Chop the grilled chicken breast into bite-sized pieces.
- Distribute the salad greens and cabbage evenly between four salad containers or bowls.
- Top the greens with the cucumber, pepper, mandarin oranges, and chicken. Try to distribute these ingredients evenly between the four containers.
- Garnish the salads with sliced scallions and cashews. Add the dressing right before serving.
🌡️ How to Store Volume Eating Salad
You can store your salads in the fridge for up to 3-4 days as a meal prep. Keep the salad dressing in separate dressing cups to help keep the lettuce from getting soggy. These salads do not freeze well.
💭 Expert Tips from a Dietitian
This is a level 1 recipe (may help support fat loss). You need to maintain a calorie deficit relative to your needs to lose weight. High volume low calorie high protein meals give you more food for fewer calories. This may help you feel full while maintaining a caloric deficit if you are a volume eater.
Volume eating recipes are generally low fat but high in fiber and fluid volume. Fluid volume from water is zero calories, while fat provides 9 calories per gram. Carbs and protein are far less calorie dense than fat, providing only 4 calories per gram.
It’s easy to make volume eating salad that’s good for weight loss. Just keep it low fat and make it a high volume salad with lots of fruits and veggies. I also recommend adding an adequate amount of the most filling macronutrient, protein.
If you have higher energy needs, add more cashews to your salads, and consider including a side of whole grain crackers. Including a carton of milk with your lunch is another way to increase calories and you’ll have an additional food group covered.
As with all of the salad recipes, don’t be afraid to substitute ingredients to fit your taste preferences. Fresh snow peas are another veggie option that would work well here.
FAQs
Volume eating vegans should focus heavily on a plant based diet rich in fruits and veggies. They’ll also need to ensure they’re getting adequate protein. Some low calorie high volume vegan foods include spinach, lettuces, tofu, berries, cucumbers, celery, and air popped popcorn.
The idea with volume eating is to signal the stretch receptors in your stomach that you’ve eaten enough food to be satisfied, but to do it at a relatively low calorie level. It’s not that the high volume, low calorie foods have special properties that burn more calories, but that you’re eating fewer calories overall throughout the day.
Volume eating can be beneficial for weight loss if the meals you’re eating help you maintain a calorie deficit. In general, big meals that help you lose weight are low fat, high fiber, high water, with adequate protein.
I don’t think it’s a good strategy to always try to eat the lowest calorie meals possible. The general guideline is that women should eat 1200-1500 calories per day, and men 1500-1800 calories per day for weight loss. If you eat three meals per day plus a snack or two, low calorie meals shouldn’t be under 300-500 calories.
If you like the concept of “free foods,” non-starchy veggies are great options. Though these foods do not have 0 calories, they’re extremely low calorie and great for volume eaters. Leafy green veggies and cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli) are excellent options. Berries are another food I don’t generally limit (though they can be cost-prohibitive).
👩🏻🍳 High Volume Low Calorie Recipes
What are some other recipes that are high volume and low calorie? Try these:
- Vegan Chipotle Lime Mayo
- Air Fryer Spaghetti Squash
- Air Fryer Yellow Squash
- Cabbage Steaks in the Air Fryer
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The Disclaimer…
All recipes on this website may or may not be appropriate for you, depending on your medical needs and personal preferences. Consult with a registered dietitian or your physician if you need help determining the dietary pattern that may be best for you.
The nutrition information is an estimate provided as a courtesy. It will differ depending on the specific brands and ingredients that you use. Calorie information on food labels may be wildly inaccurate, so please don't sweat the numbers too much.
For more information on how the three recipe levels may help with a weight management goal, refer to my overnight oats no sugar post. Let's get cooking!
📖 Recipe
High Volume Low Calorie Meals (High Volume Eating Salad Recipes)
Equipment
Ingredients
For the lemon-ginger dressing:
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ cup lemon juice, fresh squeezed
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger, fresh
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup (optional; can use regular or sugar-free syrup)
- salt and pepper, to taste
For the chicken salads:
- 8 cups mixed salad greens
- 6 ounces cabbage, shredded (170 grams)
- 1 medium cucumber, chopped (½-inch dice, 1.27 cm)
- 1 medium red pepper, chopped (½-inch dice, 1.27 cm)
- 1 cup mandarin orange segments, drained
- 12 ounces grilled chicken, chopped (340 grams; can substitute chopped rotisserie chicken breast)
- 4 scallions, sliced
- 2 ounces chopped cashews (57 grams; approximately ½ cup)
Instructions
To make the lemon-ginger dressing:
- Place the zest, juice, ginger, oil, syrup, salt, and pepper in a one-cup canning jar. Put the lid on the jar and shake to combine the ingredients.
- Set the dressing aside while you assemble the salads.
To make the chicken salads:
- Shred cabbage, chop cucumber and bell pepper, and slice the scallions. Chop the grilled chicken breast into bite-sized pieces.
- Distribute the mixed greens and cabbage evenly between four salad containers.
- Top the greens with the cucumber, pepper, mandarin oranges, and chicken. Try to distribute these ingredients evenly between the four containers.
- Garnish the salads with sliced scallions and cashews. Add the dressing right before serving.
- You're all ready for lunch for the next four days!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
What are some of your go-to lunch options? Do you prep your weekday lunches ahead of time? If you try making these low calorie high volume meals, I’d love to hear how you liked them in the comments!
This recipe is an update from 2019 with new photos, information, and I added a recipe video.
Hermine says