4 Low Carb Southern Salads For Meal Prep Batch Cooking

Are you wondering what's for lunch this week? I have got four great Southern salads that you are absolutely going to love!

Once upon a time, back in the day, Southern ladies would have a scoop of something on a bed of lettuce for lunch. Inspired by this, I've created four simple, low carb versions of Southern salads that are easy to prepare.

We have curried chicken salad, egg salad, tuna fish with sliced apples, and homemade pimento cheese!

If you need to pack your salad with protein at lunchtime, these are some low carb and really flavorful options. The prep time is quick, you'll have a week of lunches for the whole family, and you'll have energy the whooole afternoon!

Watch this week's recipe-packed episode and leave me a comment below with which salad you plan on making first!

Curried chicken salad

A great chicken salad sandwich is one of the things I really look forward to with afternoon tea. Fort Worth doesn't have a lot of afternoon tea, so I end up making my own quite a bit. This great recipe comes from my friend Christina, I just added the chutney.

Ingredients:

  • Chicken (meat from one rotisserie chicken or a couple of roasted chicken breasts)

  • 2-3 Tb mayonnaise

  • 2-3 Tb Major Grey's chutney

  • 2-3 Tb golden raisins

  • Juice of half a lime

  • Seasoned salt

  • 1-2 Tb curry powder

Preparation:

  1. After removing the meat from a rotisserie chicken, chop it up a little finer.

  2. Place meat in a medium bowl.

  3. Add mayo, chutney, raisins, curry powder, lime juice, and salt.

  4. Gently stir to combine.

It's a little chunky. It's not too mayonnaise-ey. You can put a big scoop of this on a salad. You can make a little sandwich on whole-grain bread. You can eat it on top of crackers or alongside another vegetable.

Tuna fish

Ingredients:

  • 2 7-ounce cans albacore tuna

  • 1-2 Tb sweet or dill pickle relish

  • 2-3 Tb mayonnaise

  • 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped

  • Salt

Preparation:

  1. Place tuna in large bowl and break up into small pieces.

  2. Add pickle relish, mayo, and chopped apple

  3. Stir to combine, add salt to taste.

Tuna, a little pickle relish, a few apples, and some mayonnaise and you've got great tuna salad. Again, you can put this in a sandwich, you can scoop it up on a lettuce leaf and make nice little tuna wraps. You can eat them on crackers. I mean, I just eat it straight out of the bowl because I love tuna salad. It's just like the food of my childhood.

Egg salad

As I may have mentioned in one or twenty previous episodes, I love eggs. Just about any way: fried, scrambled, egg salad, and eggs Benedict. So egg salad is kind of a natural, and it's so easy to put together. First, you boil some eggs. The way I do it is to just to put whole eggs in cold water, bring them to a boil, and simmer them for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, empty the pan, add ice, and let them cool off. Then the shells just peel right off, and you don't end up taking half the egg away when you try to peel them.

Ingredients:

  • 6-8 large eggs

  • 1-2 ribs celery, finely chopped

  • 1-2 Tb pickle relish

  • 2-3 Tb mayonnaise

  • Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

  1. Slice eggs by hand or with an egg slicer.

  2. Add pickle relish, mayo, and celery. You can use Miracle Whip or mayonnaise, whatever you have on hand.

  3. Add a little salt, a little pepper, and you've got great egg salad.

Pimento cheese

When I was a little girl as a special treat, my grandmother would give me Price's Pimento Spread on Ritz crackers. And it was the best thing in the entire world. Now I have learned to make my own pimento cheese, and it's even better! Sorry, Nana. This is a completely elevated pimento cheese that you will not be able to stop eating.

Ingredients:

  • 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated

  • 8 oz softened cream cheese

  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise

  • 4 oz chopped pimentos

  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder

  • 1/4 tsp onion powder

  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

  • 1 diced jalapeno pepper, seeded

Preparation:

  1. Place softened cream cheese, grated cheddar, and mayo in bowl of mixer.

  2. Mix on slow until combined. You can also do this by hand.

  3. Add pimentos, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper for some heat, and the diced jalapeno.

  4. Mix until everything is combined and there are no more visible chunks of cream cheese.

I really love my grandmother's pimento cheese, but I've got to say, I love this even more. You can dip chips in it (let it come to room temperature first). You can make a sandwich. I have even melted this over scrambled eggs. Enjoy!

So here you have it: four great, super easy, super tasty salads that you are going to love to have for lunch or a snack at any time of day. All with lots of protein and healthy fats and low carb, even with the added fruit!

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