Salads are usually regarded as a side dish, despised by almost all children and a significant number of adults. Something in the corner of your table, that has to be there by protocol, but it is not really necessary. A sad bowl of soggy greens drenched in oil and vinegar, sitting by your plate to be tossed around with a fork and eventually thrown away. But it does not have to be that way. There are thousands of fabulous salads, which deserve to be the main dish on its own. They are perfect as a light dinner or a snack between your meals. If you are feeling bold enough, they can be a substitute for any meal that you choose. Certainly they offer the right mix of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and all other micronutrients that your body requires. Not to mention a wonderful taste and freshness that is hard to match by regular, cooked dishes.
There are literally thousands of great recipes and variations of salads. I will go that far as to claim that salads are the dish that offer the best options for variations and experimentations. You can put literally anything in a salad and the taste options vary throughout the whole spectrum. Below is a list of some of my favorites salads.
SUPER EASY APPLE SALAD
Ingredients
- Apples (a crunchy variety for maximal freshness)
- Feta cheese (of any soft, salty, crumbly cheese)
- Pumpkin seed oil (if unavailable, hazelnut oil is a next option)
- Fried pumpkin seeds
This salad is really super easy to make. Cut the apple in half, remove the seeds and cut the remainder in around 3 mm thick slices. One apple per person should be more than enough. Arrange the apple slices on the plate, crumble some feta cheese on them and give them a splash of pumpkin seed oil. Finally, sprinkle with fried pumpkin seeds for that final crunchiness.
The taste is really amazing. First the seeds crunch and then your sensors are overwhelmed by a hefty punch of pumpkin seed oil aroma. As the aroma gradually subsides, apples add their taste and freshness, making the salad really a salad. Finallysalty notes appear from the feta cheese to round up the experience and make you reach out for the next bite.
RAW NUTTY SALAD
Ingredients
- Apples (½ per person)
- Broccoli (a fistfull per person)
- Celery (one stick per person)
- Dried Cranberries (½ fistfull per person)
- Chopper almonds or cashew nuts (½ fistfull per person)
- Oil and vinegar (olive or pumpkin seed oil is best)
This salad, as the majority of salads, is raw – no surprise there. But when I saw raw broccoli I had some doubts, until I tasted the first bite. And then I became a believer, despite that I am also not a huge fan of celery. The taste of the salad is simply mind blowing. The mixture of tastes, aromas and flavors is unbelievable. The sweet, acidic, fresh salad undertones are only the basis on which all the other ingredients play their magic. You simply must try it.
Just dice the apples, broccoli and celery to the size you desire and mix them with cranberries and chopped almonds. Season with oil and vinegar and you are ready to go!
BUDDHA BOWL
Well, first a disclaimer. Buddha bowl in not one salad, there are infinite varieties of it. This specific one fits into the general expectations and it was presented to me as “the buddha bowl”. So I will call it the buddha bowl, even though I know it is only one small piece in the universe of buddha bowls.
Ingredients
- Green leaf salad (different varieties is even better)
- Sweet potatoes
- Chickpeas
- Pomegranate
- Smoked tofu
- Coconut feta cheese
- Oil and vinegar (olive oil is recommended)
Cook chickpeas if they are dry, or use them directly if they are canned. Peel sweet potatoes, cut into cubes of around 1×1 cm and bake in an oven at 200 °C for 15 minutes until soft and buttery. Extract pomegranate seeds from the fruit (messy business!). Cut tofu and coconut feta in cubes. Mix all the ingredients (green leaf salad, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, pomegranate seeds, tofu and coconut feta), add oil and vinegar to taste and enjoy!
