Easy & Healthy Summer Salads.
One piece of healthy eating advice I do my best to follow is eating a salad every day. At the moment, we are fortunate that our flourishing garden is providing us daily with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, and mustard greens. When our garden has not been so successful, or we didn’t have one, we could always obtain these salad delights at farmer’s markets.
I usually make one of the dressings I wrote about here, or just a simple oil and vinegar dressing for our homegrown salads, but when we had some guests recently for dinner, I wanted to step it up and serve more exciting salads.
I didn’t have much time and wanted to prepare these salads the day before our gathering, and once again, the Minimalist Baker came through with these two delicious salad recipes.
Crunchy Cabbage Slaw with Sesame Ginger Dressing
The recipe suggests adding chicken; since I don’t eat poultry, I made it without any extra protein. You could also try the chickpea recipe listed or add tofu. I doubled up on the sesame seeds and slivered almonds.
No need to use the stove or oven unless you are cooking some protein; even then, you can purchase pre-cooked protein.
French Style Potato Salad
I love potato salad except for the style I grew up with that was overloaded with mayonnaise and large chunks of onion. This recipe is mayo free and is not as healthy as a green salad, so I added some chopped kale (very tiny pieces) and chopped celery, cucumbers, pickles, and capers to add some crunch. .
Of course, you can always make a salad with any available vegetables. Is the preparation required a barrier for you? Chopping is time-consuming, tedious and a chore, and if this is what prevents you from eating salads regularly, use your food processor or purchase veggies pre-chopped.
I don’t mind chopping vegetables as long as I have time, as I find it very meditative and calming. When I do it, I prepare all of my vegetables, so they’re ready for salads and stir-fries.
Fresh, beautiful vegetables are abundant this time of year, so there’s no reason why you can’t whip up some fantastic salads every day.
Salads will give you the required daily vegetable servings, are loaded with essential nutrients, fibre, antioxidants, and will keep your gut microbiome diverse.
Be well.
Anita