Hey gorgeous!
Do you know what a bowl of lettuce is? It’s a bowl of lettuce. It’s not a salad.
Do you know what a bowl of lettuce with dressing on it is? Still a bowl of lettuce, simply, with dressing on it.
BORING.
Now, both of those can *become* salads, they can even become delicious salads. But they’re nothing I would eat just yet.
Here are my favourite things to add to lettuce to make an awesome salad. Get ready. And commit: no more boring salads. Ok?
Just jumping into more adventurous salads? Pick 3, add them to your lettuce, and use a fun vinaigrette. You’ve got this! Generally I don’t combine beans and fruit. But beans go with everything else, and fruits go great with seeds (see below for a few done-for-you combinations I love).
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Beans:
White beans
Chickpeas
Black beans
Kidney beans
Lima beans
Fresh Green beans
Lentils:
Green lentils
French lentils
Black lentils
Red lentils
Veggies/Fruit Veggies:
Radish, grated or paper-thin sliced, with a peeler
Carrots, grated or paper-thin sliced, with a peeler
Tomatoes (vine or grape)
Cucumber
Olives
Avocado
Red onion
Jicama
Fruits:
Clementine sections
Orange sections
Cranberries or unsweetened craisins
Cherries
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blackberries
Blueberries
Fermented Goodies (adding some probiotics to your meal = amazing):
Sauerkraut
Kimchi
Apple cider vinegar (in dressings)
Nuts:
Almonds, whole or sliced
Walnuts
Cashews
Macadamia nuts
Seeds:
Hemp seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Sesame seeds
Chia seeds
(I don’t like flax seeds whole on a salad because they suck up the moisture and get weird for me, but if you love ’em, go for it!)
Greens:
Arugula
Spinach
Boston Leaf/Butter Leaf Lettuce
Romaine Lettuce
Sprouts
Unsure as to how to mix these together? Here’s a few done-for-you combinations I use all the time.
Fermented: spinach or arugula (or 1/2 1/2) – rinsed, spun and chopped with scissors into about half-leaf size. I always like salads WAY more like this, because then you don’t feel like you’re eating a whop-load of spinach all at once with sauerkraut, kimchi, chickpeas and avocado. Since you’ve already got the sourness of the sauerkraut and kimchi, you really don’t need a dressing besides drizzling extra virgin olive oil on there, which makes this salad VERY quick.
Greek: romaine or boston (butter leaf) lettuce, olives, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, avocado (not traditional but I love salads with avocado) and a dressing made out of extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp agave or other sweetener, salt, pepper and lots of oregano. (I always add almond feta to this, baked or not, from this recipe here: http://www.maplespice.com/2011/04/baked-almond-feta-with-dill-oil.html – if I’m not going to bake it, I add less garlic)
Fruity: clementine sections, raspberries, strawberries, lettuce of choice, kiwi, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, simple vinaigrette dressing or something punchy like a basil-spirulina dressing for a salad surprise.
Four Corners: I love this salad, especially on ‘let’s get back on the bandwagon’ nights as dinner. glownc.ca/four-corners-salad
What are your favourite combinations or additions? I’d love to hear in the comments below. Let’s eradicate boring salads together!!
