4 tips on how to make a satisfying salad

90% of adults need to consume more vegetables, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In good news, you can get a solid amount of vegetables via a salad and still fill them with foods you like.

For me, that means loading my salads with purple cabbage, crunchy, bright red bell pepper and generous handfuls of parsley and cilantro. Plus some smoked fish, pickled onions and roasted vegetables.

In the summertime, salads can be a refreshing dinner –you don't even need to turn on the oven to make one. They're also an easy gateway into the world of cooking. Instead of worrying about undercooking or overcooking ingredients, you can focus on cleaning and preparing your ingredients.

Here are four tips to help you make complex, satisfying salads chock-full of vegetables.

Start with food you actually like

It may sound obvious, but chef Jay Guerrero says, "Always start with the thing you want to eat."

Guerrero teaches cooking classes from knife handling to Peking Duck roasting.

He says you're much more likely to eat a salad filled with things you like than a salad filled with ingredients you think you should eat.

That might look like starting your salad with snow peas, strawberries or asparagus and then building it out.

Or maybe your main ingredient is somewhat unexpected. Something like barbeque chicken, for example. Guerrero says to shred it up into bite-sized pieces. Then add some potatoes, red onion for a bit and radishes for their crunch. Finish it off with a creamy dressing.

Guerrero says you can also always sneak in more vegetables. "You can throw in a few leaves of something sturdy, maybe some sliced-up cabbage. And then suddenly you actually have an entire meal."

You could also take your beloved ingredient and experiment with different preparation methods. For example, let's say the only vegetable you like is broccoli. Try steaming, roasting, or pickling it, then building it into a salad.

Go for a variety of textures and flavors

As a kid, Guerrero's dad Vidal made the same salad every day: blanched green beans, sliced tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, salt and fish sauce. It's a salad you'll find in plenty of Filipino households.

Guerrero says this simple salad has a balance of flavors. The tomatoes give it acidity, the green beans add sweetness and the fish sauce brings the umami and salt.

If you want to play with flavor, try experimenting with things like pickled sauerkraut or fermented kimchi for something sour in your salad. For a bit of bitterness, try mustard or dandelion greens.

In addition to different flavors, there's a contrast of textures in Vidal's salad. If you want to add more texture to your salad, an easy hack is to throw in some nuts for crunchiness. Guerrero especially loves candied nuts.

"The variety makes things interesting for your mouth and sense of taste," says Guerrero.

Eat the rainbow and try something new

Strive for a variety of colors when choosing vegetables for your salad, says Annette Sacksteder. She likes to start with vegetables in shades of green and then branch out from there.

"I'm looking for some reds, some purples also," says Sacksteder.

She's a naturopathic physician who tells her patients she'd like them to fill half their plates with vegetables for every meal.

Annette says to expand your salad horizons, pick one vegetable you know nothing about and give it a try.

For me, that was daikon radishes. They're crunchy and come in bold colors.

"By trying a vegetable outside of your familiarity, you're going to start being introduced to different flavors," says Sacksteder.

Experiment with dressing

Store-bought dressings can be convenient. But Sacksteder says they can also be pricey and high in sugar. So experiment with making your own.

Usually, salad dressings combine a balance of acid and fat. Commonly used acids are lemon juice or vinegar, while commonly used fats are vegetable oils like olive or canola oil.

A general rule of thumb for vinaigrettes is to include three parts oil to one part acid – also known as the three-to-one rule. Use this ratio to start your dressing and taste as you go. You can also experiment with different oils and vinegars and add mustards, spices and fresh herbs to your dressing.

A dressing Sacksteder loves includes onion powder and apple cider vinegar. She says you can easily tweak it to your taste and not include as much vinegar if you don't want as much of a sour punch. Pure maple syrup is also a nice touch to sweeten things up.

Chef Jay Guerrero enjoys improvising when it comes to dressing. "I do like a glug glug glug glug glug of olive oil, and then I squeeze lemon juice, and then I taste what's in the bowl." He says the key to a great dressing is to taste and adjust as you make it.

Here are some salad recipes to get you started:

Vidal's salad aka Jay's dad (serves four people)

Ingredients: 1 pound of green beans, 3/4 pounds of tomatoes, 1 hard-boiled egg, pinch of salt, and splash of fish sauce.

Blanche the green beans: Cook them in boiling salted water for about three to five minutes (until they are cooked so they have a little give when you bite them). They should be sweet and bright green.

Put green beans in cold water to stop them from cooking.

Slice the tomatoes any way you want.

Add tomatoes to green beans.

Option to add a hard-boiled egg on top as well.

Season with salt and add a little drizzle of fish sauce.

Annette Sacksteder's bowl of life salad (makes about four days worth of salad)

Clean and assemble:

2 heads of lettuce such as romaine

1 bunch of spinach

1/2 bunch of rainbow chard (raw is ok)

1/3 bunch of cilantro

1/3 bunch of parsley

6 radishes including their greens

1 grated carrot

1 grated beet

1 cup of red or green cabbage

The audio portion of this episode was reported by Kyle Norris, produced by Sylvie Douglis and edited by Meghan Keane.

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