It’s officially salad season, but that doesn’t have to mean the limp leaves of lettuce with forlorn slices of tomato and cucumber of the past.
Before getting on to how to spice up your bowl of greens, let’s look at the benefits of salad chomping.
Buff Up
Salads are full of nutrients and low calorie, so a great way of eating high volumes of food to fill you up on a diet. And salads are colourful and inspiring, providing a satisfying and pleasurable eating experience, unlike many ‘diet’ foods. Throw in some lean proteins like prawns or chicken and grains like bulgur or millet and you’ve got a nutritionally balanced and really filling meal.
Get a Nutrition Hit
Salads are a powerful way of eating well and getting a variety of nutrients in a fast and tasty way. Vegetables provide us with natural energy, with fibre, antioxidants and other nutrients that we need and they help to keep our stomachs happy and healthy.
Eat Water
You're supposed to drink eight glasses of water per day which is pretty daunting. But you don't have to drink all that water. Roughly 20% of our daily H2O intake comes from solid foods, especially fruits and vegetables.
Beat The Bloat
Most of us don’t respond very well to processed bread, many people suffer bulging uncomfortable belly afterwards, so a lip-smacking salad can be a great excuse to ditch stomach bloating sarnies for lunch.
Be Inspired
The worship of roast cauliflower, avocado and char-grilled broccoli is no longer a trend, nor just the preferred choice of the health fanatics. We’ve learnt in the last ten years from the likes of Ottolenghi and Deliciously Ella, that vegetables have unlimited potential. Wake up your tastebuds, vegetables and fruit, nuts and grains, can be brought to life with some love, imagination and a fantastic salad dressing.
And here’s 5 easy ways to sass up your salad
Veg Love
A few roasted veg can create a sophisticated and divine salad worthy of lunch guests. All you have to do is cube some veg like sweet potatoes, peppers, carrots, beets or whatever you’ve got lying around, drizzle with oil, season with some dried herbs, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and roast in the oven at Gas mark 6 for about 30-40mins. Serve cold.
Herbilicious
You’d be amazed how chopping up fresh herbs can transform a salad. Just be experimental. Got some spare basil, mint and parsley? Chop it up and throw it in. Don’t be afraid of overkill or blending the ‘wrong’ herbs. All fresh herbs just work well with green leaves.
Get Fruity
There’s no reason that fruits have to remain relegated to dessert. Fruit adds freshness and texture, not to mention vitamins, minerals and flavour. Here are a few combinations to try: Blue cheese and pear, watermelon and feta, strawberries and spinach, avocado, pineapple and watercress, blackberry and goats cheese. Open up your salad world!
Dress it up
Making salad dressing from scratch is nearly as fast and easy as shaking up a supermarket bottle of the stuff and the taste is so much better than even the most "gourmet" versions you’d buy. There’s so many to choose from, but if you want to go super simple just cover your leaves with a little olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and season with some salt and pepper.
Go Nuts
The benefits of adding nuts to your salad go beyond just adding flavour and texture. Think nutrition. You can sneak some of the most nutritious nuts and seeds into a salad to make the salad taste better, and reap all the nutritional rewards. Try almonds, walnuts or toasted pecans/ pine nuts for starters, although go wild, anything goes.
Written by Mike Pye
Photos courtesy of Katya Willems
