I Tried the Lunch Jennifer Garner Eats Every Day (2024)

As soon as I heard actress Jennifer Garner describing the "big fat salad" that she has for lunch every day, I knew I wanted to try it. I'm a big salad-at-lunch fan, so I perked up when Garner told Women's Health in a recent video that salad is her go-to midday meal. She likened her habit to Elaine in "Seinfeld," who always wants a big salad too.

Garner gave a general description of what goes into it—green beans, broccoli, arugula, roasted sweet potato, chopped nuts, cheese, and more. "It's big, it's hearty, and it's got a lot of good stuff." She said it always has hearty vegetables and arugula since she is a big fan of the dark leafy green.

Garner explained that she always has sweet potatoes in the house. She buys small ones, cuts them in half, brushes them with olive oil, and roasts them till the bottom is nicely caramelized. Then they go into the fridge and are a highly versatile (and delicious) ingredient for meals throughout the week.

This isn't the first time Garner has talked publicly about her favorite lunch. In an Instagram video shared in 2018, she showed herself making the salad, complete with avocado, chopped raw green beans (which she described as a crunchy replacement for croutons), and more.

In her caption, she offered some good advice: "The key for me is to pick a variety of the above and CHOP it up so that you aren't battling a dinner plate-sized honk of lettuce every other bite." While there was no lettuce in the version I made, her recommendation to chop thoroughly applied to the raw broccoli. No one wants to be gnawing on a whole floret while working through a salad, whereas finely chopped broccoli is a welcome addition in terms of texture.

I jazzed up the dressing a bit to replicate a vinaigrette. Garner only mentioned olive oil in the Women's Health video, but I struggle to eat a salad without an acidic counterpoint of any kind. So I added a dash of red wine vinegar along with the oil, salt, and pepper.

I also used sugar snap peas in place of green beans and added some leftover edamame. I toasted a handful of walnuts before adding them because toasted nuts are always better than raw! I topped it with feta and some extra cilantro from my garden.

In my salad experiments over the years, I have concluded that a truly satisfying salad has a broad range of textures and flavors. Crunchy nuts are a welcome contrast to the soft roasted sweet potato, and the zingy arugula and almost grainy broccoli stand out next to the smooth beans and salty feta. It all comes together to make an interesting, delicious mouthful.

Garner’s salad filled me right up. I wasn't hungry again until dinnertime, which is unusual. Even my kids jabbed forks into the bowl and sampled it, pronouncing it "tasty!" I think Garner is on to something with her combination of ingredients. It is not a salad that would keep in the fridge, as a grain-based salad would, though the various components could be prepared in advance and assembled in the moment. Definitely a keeper.