The Elements of a Perfect Salad
I truly enjoy a well constructed salad that I didn’t have to make, the reason being is it takes some work and is usually chalked up to “its just a salad.”
But, if you are just a little bit organized you can build a fantastic salad. It can be an entire meal thats satisfying and not boring!!
I see a salad as having two components: Taste and Texture
For Taste I try in every salad to have:
Something Sweet: that can be a sweeter vegetable like a bell pepper, tomatoes, carrots, or fruit works nicely in a salad like strawberries, blueberries, peaches, really any in season fruit will work. You can used dried fruit but I would shy away from them because of the concentrated sugar and the chemicals used in preserving these fruits.
A delicious homemade dressing. Having a homemade dressing is worth the effort. I make a weekly batch that is ready to go, please do yourself a favour and stop buying bottled salad dressing. If you are stuck here’s 2 very easy dressings that will pair with many salads!
If you are totally strapped for time take a bit of mayo, citrus (zest and juice) salt and pepper to make a quick dressing.
For Texture I try in every salad I try to include:
Something Crunchy: this can be nuts like a slivered almond, pistachios, pecans or seeds like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or poppy seeds. Crunchy can also include homemade croutons or tortilla chips.
Something Starchy or Protein (usually warm) :a baked yam, quinoa, brown rice, lentils, tofu, a piece of wild fish or organic chicken. Whatever you have on hand or can use for a different meal later that week.
Make sure you have a nice base of greens that have been washed. They can be anything, mixed greens, romaine, cabbage, kale whatever you have is good. Add in a few extra veggies like cucumbers, radishes, celery, cauliflower etc. Then start adding the components, here are a few easy ones:
Romaine lettuce with lemony dressing and sliced strawberries, slivered almonds topped with herb quinoa.
Shredded cabbage and carrot with tahini dressing, crushed tortilla chips, tomatoes, bell pepper with farro.
Mixed greens, roasted nugget potatoes, french lentils, celery, and radish with fresh herb and lemon dressing.
I hope this sparked your taste buds for a salad tonight for dinner! It is a fantastic way to a) get your veggies and b) when the days are warm have a satisfying meal that is on the lighter side.
Let me know what salads you have come up with!!
Feel free to reach out to me for further assistance with your nutrition, on-going issues or need help meal planning!
Happy eating!
Sarah
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