Low Cholesterol Thanksgiving Salad (Farro and Lentil)

Nobody has ever fought over the healthy dish at Thanksgiving. You bring it, everyone takes one polite spoonful, and it comes home with you. But the stuffing? That’s long gone.

The good news? The healthy dish doesn’t have to be the one nobody touches (like this low cholesterol Thanksgiving salad!).

A reader named Alex who emailed me this fall and said exactly what a lot of you are thinking:

“As I think about the fall, comfort foods come to mind! I don’t know what to make for my Thanksgiving spread and I would love to hear how to make these traditional foods more heart healthy.”

Alex, this one is for you. This low cholesterol thanksgiving salad lets you enjoy everything else on the table without thinking about it.

This recipe was developed in sponsorship with Canadian Sugar Institute but this blog post was written independently.

Why Whole Grains and Legumes Matter for Cholesterol

The current cholesterol guideline from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommends following the Portfolio diet to lower your LDL cholesterol.

In this guideline, they also gives one dietary recommendation at its highest level of evidence. They recommend a diet “emphasizing intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole grains, and fiber, while replacing saturated and trans fats with dietary monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.”

That’s for lowering LDL cholesterol, which is the one people call the bad cholesterol.

Now look at this bowl. Farro is the whole grain. Lentils are the legume. Apple, cranberries and pomegranate are the fruit. Pepitas are the seeds. The dressing is built on olive oil.

That recommendation is more or less the ingredient list.

One salad at one dinner won’t change your cholesterol. What you eat most of the time is what does that. But this is a good picture of what most of the time can look like, and you can put it on a holiday table without announcing anything about it.

For more information on how to lower your LDL cholesterol with food, check out my Portfolio diet recipes.

How Sugar Helps Build Flavour in the Dressing

Most people think sugar is in a dressing to make it sweet. In this one it’s doing something else.

Apple cider vinegar is sharp on its own, and cinnamon in a sharp dressing tastes strange rather than warm. A small amount of sugar balances that acidity and lets the cinnamon come through the way you want it to. What you taste is fall.

It’s the same trick behind my no salt added chicken marinades, and it matters more than it sounds like it should. When people cut back on salt, food often tastes flat, and flat food doesn’t get eaten twice. Sweetness gives you somewhere else to go for flavour, so you end up with a dressing worth eating without reaching for the salt shaker.

There’s one tablespoon in a bowl that serves six to eight, so less than half a teaspoon per serving.

I’ve said this in my comments more times than I can count, usually to someone who has been told one ingredient has ruined everything. All foods can fit into a heart healthy diet. That half teaspoon is what gets the whole grain and the legume onto the plate at all.

Watch How To Make This Farro and Lentil Thanksgiving Salad

Veronica to add video here

What You’ll Need For This Low Cholesterol Thanksgiving Salad

Farro. A chewy whole grain that holds its shape in a salad, which is why it works better here than rice. Cook it in low sodium vegetable broth rather than water. It costs you nothing and the grain tastes seasoned all the way through. If you can’t find farro, cooked barley or wheat berries behave the same way. For a gluten free version use quinoa or brown rice, but check it a few minutes early because it won’t stay as firm.

Lentils. Green or brown, canned or cooked from dry. Canned is completely fine, just drain and rinse them well, which washes off a good amount of the sodium (this is what I used this this recipe!). Red lentils will turn to mush, so skip those here. Be sure to look for “no salt added” on the front of label for low sodium options.

Apple. Something crisp that won’t go soft. Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Ambrosia. Dice it close to serving time so it stays bright.

Pepitas. These are pumpkin seeds. Toast them in a dry pan for a few minutes until they start popping, and add them at the very last second. The crunch is half of why this salad works.

Feta. This is the salty part of the recipe, and the part that brings the saturated fat (but not too much!). See the sodium note below.

Pomegranate arils. Optional, and I put them in every time. They look like the holidays and they make the bowl worth photographing.

How To Make This Low Cholesterol Thanksgiving Salad

This low cholesterol Thanksgiving salad is easy to make, and can be made ahead of time!

Making it ahead

This is the part that matters on Thanksgiving, when your oven is full and your counter is fuller.

Cook the farro and the lentils the day before and keep them in the fridge. Whisk the dressing the day before too, and let it sit out for ten minutes before you use it so the olive oil loosens up again.

Assemble the salad a few hours before you leave. Hold back the pumpkin seeds and add them just before you put the bowl on the table, so they stay crunchy.

Leftovers

Leftovers keep about three days in the fridge. The spinach softens after the first day, so if you know you’ll have leftovers, stir the greens into individual bowls rather than into the whole batch.

If You’re Watching Your Sodium

If you are following the DASH diet, know that most of the salt in this low cholesterol thanksgiving salad is in the feta, with a little from the broth.

Use the low sodium broth, which is already in the recipe. Rinse your canned lentils. And if you want to bring the feta down, use half and crumble it finer, because scattered small pieces taste saltier than a few big ones.

Other Heart Healthy Recipes You’ll Like

Final Thoughts

Bringing something heart healthy to Thanksgiving doesn’t mean bringing something nobody wants. That’s why this low cholesterol thanksgiving salad is the perfection option. It has whole grains, lentils, fruit and a little olive oil can taste like the holiday, and a small amount of sugar in the dressing is often the thing that gets you there.

If you’re the person in your family who has been told to watch their cholesterol, holidays can feel like a test you didn’t study for. This is one dish you don’t have to think about.

And honestly, I’ve made this three times this month and there has never been any left.