A salad that leaves you hungry is not a light meal, it is an unfinished one. The difference between a side of leaves and something you are happy to have eaten for dinner comes down to four components, only one of which is a vegetable.
The four parts
Something substantial: beans, chickpeas, lentils, a grain, potatoes, pasta, bread. This is the part most salads leave out, and it is why they do not last until evening. Something rich: cheese, egg, avocado, tinned fish, nuts, a proper amount of olive oil. Fat is what makes a salad satisfying rather than virtuous. Something sharp: raw onion, pickles, capers, chilli, a strong dressing. Without it the whole bowl reads as bland. And then the vegetables, raw or roasted, which everyone starts with and which are the least important part of the list.
Dress it properly, and at the right moment
The default dressing is one part acid to three parts oil, salt, and something with a bit of grip — mustard, honey, crushed garlic, yoghurt. Shake it in a jar; it will not come together if it is stirred half-heartedly with a fork. Dress leaves at the last possible second and use less than you think. Dress beans, grains and potatoes while they are still warm, hours ahead if you like — they absorb it and get better.
Not everything has to be raw
Roasted vegetables in a salad are warmer, sweeter and more filling than raw ones, and they use up the things in the drawer that are past salad condition anyway. A bowl of warm roasted vegetables, a tin of beans, a handful of leaves and a sharp dressing is one of the best dinners available in twenty-five minutes, most of it unattended.
Texture is the thing people actually remember
Every good salad has something crunchy that is not a vegetable: toasted nuts or seeds, croutons, crisp onions, toasted breadcrumbs, a crumbled cracker. Add it at the table rather than in the kitchen. Thirty seconds under a dressing is enough to ruin it, which is the same reason a packed salad should be layered with the dressing at the bottom and the crunch carried separately.
Season the salad, not just the dressing
Salt the tomatoes, the beans and the potatoes directly and let them sit for a minute. Dressing alone seasons the outside of things and leaves the inside plain. Then taste before serving, exactly as you would a hot dish. A salad is cooked food that happens not to have been heated.
Something substantial, something rich, something sharp, then the vegetables, and crunch added at the last moment. That is a salad that counts as dinner rather than as an intention.