Recipe Post
Okay, so I feel kind of weird calling Building Salad a recipe post but that’s the closest category I could think of. I often share photos of my salad bowls on my Instagram account, and have been asked a few times, what is in them, so I decided to show you how I build my salads.
Building Salad
The first thing to remember with salad is that to make sure you are getting all your nutrients you need to make a rainbow on your plate. No, I don’t mean literally, I just mean you need to include a good variety of coloured vegetables. I like to chop them all in different ways to help give the salad some extra texture.
The first thing in my bowl is the base layer, this is the leafy portion. I like a mix of iceberg lettuce and spinach but sometimes I will use little gem or Chinese leaf. I tend to shred this in sort of ribbons, not quite thin enough to be a ‘chiffonade’ but definitely ribbons (if I’m feeling lazy I will just chunky chop it. Lol).
My next layer is greens and shreds. This is when I add things like fresh peas, sweetcorn, cucumber, sugar snap peas, gherkins, sauerkraut, grated carrot, grated beetroot, chopped peppers, hard fruits (apple, pear, etc.)etc. This is also when I would add any dressing I want to use, I am trying to avoid using oil so these days for me that usually means a splash of vinegar and some of the sauerkraut juice.
Then it’s time for tomatoes, olives, etc. This is also when I would add any soft fruits I wanted to have (strawberries, peaches, persimmon, etc are all great in salad). I would generally use fruits in place of tomato not as well as.
And last but not least is the toppings. My two favourite toppings are avocado and smoked tofu. I chop them quite chunky because I love to taste them. I do a grind of pepper on the avocado and I also have a tendency to splash some Red Wings chilli’n’lime hot sauce on the tofu because it is just really delicious.
For me it’s all about using what I have in, and building salad that contains foods I love to eat. I sometimes like to add a few spoons of roast veggies when I have a bowlful in the fridge. Or some red cabbage and apple (the kind that comes in a jar). You can also sprinkle some seeds on top, or some nutritional yeast to increase the nutrient content.
