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The salad course of the meal, whether it is an entrée, an accompaniment, an appetizer or a dessert, fits the bill when planning healthy meals that won’t heat up the kitchen. Anything goes when it comes to creating sensational, healthy salad recipes. Here are a few great combinations to get you started.

Seasonal Produce
For the freshest, tastiest salads, you should always use seasonal fruits and vegetables as ingredients. To add a variety of color or textures, have some canned, dried or frozen fruits or vegetables on hand. If you are concerned about salt, select frozen vegetables rather than canned. Fruit frozen without sugar, unsweetened fruit-juice concentrates, dried fruit and fruit canned with juice or water add flavor and color without extra sugar.

Beans

• Soft, creamy salad. For a soft, creamy bean salad, combine green beans with a small amount of chopped ham, low-fat cheese and fresh mushrooms. Toss with canned evaporated milk or soy milk. Try the same salad with green beans, carrots and chopped parsley and canned milk for a different color and flavor. The milk adds creaminess, extra calcium and Vitamin D. To make this salad low fat, use a non-fat canned milk or fresh non-fat plain yogurt.
  
• Hummus. Toss yogurt or silken tofu with sliced fresh carrots, canned garbanzos or kidney beans, a little dill, some vinegar and some chopped onions to create a high-protein salad that's high in Vitamin A. You can completely puree this salad to make a cold dip for veggies and bread sticks. The texture will resemble Middle Eastern humus.
  
• Five-bean salad. Use yogurt or sour cream with a four- or five-bean salad instead of the traditional oil and vinegar. Choose from fresh or frozen green beans, wax beans, green peas, lima beans, kidney beans, white beans, red beans, garbanzo beans or black beans to create pantry-bean salads. You could totally puree this salad and use it as a low-fat dip for vegetables or bread sticks.