Where to start?
You know the great thing about Salads? Apart from being nutrient dense, full of Vitamins, Minerals and easy to pack up in a box and take with you. Anything goes!!! Let’s face it, you can’t really go wrong, as long as you keep it fresh and go easy with the dressing then you’re pretty much guaranteed to create a deliciously healthy Salad. Now, it’s getting easier & easier to get hold of fresh fruit & vegetables without having to wait for a special farmers market to come to town or travel miles to your nearest Vegetable market. But with so many vegetables and salad items available, it can get a bit overwhelming to know what to buy to create your very own Super Salads, this is where we’re going to give you a little help.
Rules….what rules!
For me the only rule when it comes to Salads is ” don’t drown it in dressing”! There really is nothing worse than soggy leaves and wilted vegetables that should be crunchy. Apart from that, go crazy, experiment, take a risk and see what happens. I’m going to give you a few ideas, but not just with recipes but how you can put them together. Now you may think that’s the easy part, but, like I mentioned a second ago about experimenting, what happens if you throw it all together with some new and exciting vegetables you’ve never tried before and you hate the taste of them. This is where, how you put them together can help, we’ve got your back with this part!
Salads
Putting them together!
If you look at the presentation of the below Salad, you can see how everything is separated. Whilst still making a delicious salad that goes together really well. Serving a Salad like this means, if there are any new ingredients that you have tried and don’t like, all is not lost. You can still eat everything else, as it is not all combined. Or if there are more than one of you….well not of “you” as that’s impossible….unless you’re an identical twin…..but that’s still not two of the same person…..whooooaaaa, totally off track there, my apologies. If you are eating with another person (is what I meant to originally say) and one of you don’t like something, then the entire Salad is not wasted. So in my opinion, this is a great way to serve salads if you are hosting dinner with friends and family.
Below is another example of how you could serve a salad for guests. Giving everyone a chance to get exactly what they like and nothing else.
There are obviously times where you don’t want to keep the ingredients separate. If you’ve chosen to make a specific Salad for yourself or somebody else and want to serve it as a completed dish i.e. a Greek Salad, Tuna Nicoise (although these salads can also be fun serving separate and putting together on your plate, which is a nice little way to serve up classic salads). As long as you keep the ingredients fresh and colourful, then serving them all combined can really look great. Below we have a Watermelon and Feta Salad alongside a Wholewheat Noodle salad, which both look pretty good thrown together.
Keeping it raw!!
One of the other amazing things about salads, they can be so darn quick to prepare! Keeping your ingredients raw can really speed things up. Not to mention lock in all those vital nutrients that the cooking process can sometimes steal away. Using acidity from citrus fruits or a little Vinegar can soften vegetables if you find them a bit too “raw”. I always like to mix my Red Cabbage with a little Lime juice or Balsamic Vinegar to take the harshness away. This Avocado and Pomegranate salad pictured below literally takes minutes to knock up, but really is a Super Salad. With all the health benefits from the Avocado, Pomegranate, Carrots and Green Leaf in this bad boy!
The possibilities really are endless when creating a Salad and so are the health benefits. Which is why I can’t say enough that these should be a regular thing in your household. Trying to incorporate whole foods into your diet is such an invaluable thing to do for your health and is much easier than you may think. Take a look at our Instagram page (link on the homepage) for more Salad inspiration. May be one of them will be gently whispering to you “try me”!
Thank you for taking a look at The Urban Canteen blog. I really do hope something here has caught your eye and you’ve taken something away from this.
Until next time you gorgeous bunch.
PS can I ask if you use beetroot powder for colour? and if yes, where do you buy this?, also should say its not from your salad pics, its from a breakfast porridge or smoothie you shared, thanks x
I use Beetroot powder for both colour and flavour. It still contains lots of nutrients so it’s another great way of getting in all the dietary fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals etc that Beetroot contains. If I’ve just sprinkled on top of something then it’s usually for presentation but if I’ve incorporated into the dish then it would be to contribute towards the flavour also.
I use Of the earth super foods which you can order online, I will send you a link to them.
Thank you again for the comments.