This post is a part of Sprig & Vine’s month of wellness 2019: expect Good Food Good Vibes all January long! We will be posting content throughout January that will help you kickstart the year feeling well and good, with healthy eating hacks, feel-good recipes, and tons of wellness inspiration.
Personally, I love salad; but I understand why you might not share my love for it. Salad gets a bad rep because for most people, it conjures up an image of a sad bowl of watery leaves, dotted with a few raw veggies, soaked in an equally lame dressing that has absolutely no flavour. Try saying that you like eating salad to anyone (specially meat-eaters), and they automatically assume that you enjoy nibbling on a pile of leaves — and that couldn’t be far from the truth! Those limp salads might have been a thing in the past, but I have no room in my kitchen for those anymore.
A great modern salad is hearty, nutrient-packed, substantial, and crave-worthy. Yes, you can crave salad! It’s a meal in itself, and won’t leave you scrounging around for snacks a mere hour after eating it. Building a great salad is not really difficult once you have all the building blocks, and I have just the formula for it. Once you learn to navigate through these steps, you’ll be on your way to making healthful, vibrant, delicious and flavourful salads in no time.
This formula is for those who want to incorporate more nutrient and fibre rich foods into their diet, and for those who love salads like me and want to experiment with creating their own recipes! It’s also for the salad sceptics, who are sure to get on the wagon once they try their hand at building salads this way.
Here’s my 5 step formula that form the essential building blocks for making a great salad:
Step 1: Pick a hearty base
The most important building block is always the base — start with a good foundation and you’re well on your way to salad success. This is no place for watery and flavourless Iceberg lettuce or limp greens packaged together as “spring mix.” Pick a base with some substance — hearty greens like collards, kale, cabbage, arugula, spinach, mustard greens are able to withstand all the mix-ins without wilting. Massage your greens with a bit of lemon juice and olive oil, or tahini to make them tender.
A salad doesn’t always have to mean a bowl of leaves — look beyond greens when picking a base! Try whole grains like millets or quinoa; red rice, wild rice, or brown rice work well too. A hearty grain is great for absorbing some of the dressing flavour and making sure you don’t get hungry immediately after a salad meal. Incase you’re going with a grain base, add in greens through herbs like coriander, mint, or parsley; or nutrient-dense micro greens.
Step 2: Load up on vegetables
Now that you’ve got a hearty base, it’s time to add in the veggies. Go with a mix of raw and cooked veggies (and pickled veggies) to have a variety. This is where you can get creative based on what you have at hand, and repurpose leftovers. Try and achieve a contrast if possible — crunchy veggies like raw cucumbers, tender roasted sweet potato chunks and pumpkin, creamy avocado, charred broccoli or cauliflower florets.
If you’re new to salad building, start by grouping veggies that go together:
- For an Asian take, try broccoli with snap peas and cucumbers with a soy-ginger dressing
- To highlight Mediterranean flavours, experiment with roasted zucchini, bell peppers and eggplant with mint
- In a Middle Eastern inspired version, use roasted beets and carrots with parsley and pomegranate arils
- And, for Indian flavours, go with roasted cauliflower and pumpkin with tons of coriander
You can experiment with different cooking methods here to give you more texture and flavour — try grilling, sautéing or roasting veggies like carrots, pumpkin, mushrooms; steam or blanch veggies like green beans and broccoli; keep cucumbers and radishes raw; pickle beets and red onions. And don’t forget fruit! Thinly sliced apples or pears, chopped up strawberries, segments of clementine add some sweetness as well as acidity to the salad.
Step 3: Power up on protein
Adding some protein bulks up the salad and really makes it feel like a proper meal. You can use leftovers, or make something really quickly. If you’re non-vegetarian, use roasted salmon, grilled chicken, or cut up some boiled eggs and toss it in the mix. Grilled prawns tossed with some lime juice laid on top is wonderful. For vegetarians, toss in a few cubes of grilled tofu, a handful of steamed edamame, or roast some chickpeas with spices until crispy. Lentils are wonderful in salads, as is a scoop of hummus, and chunks of paneer marinated for a few hours and grilled to perfection.
Check out this list of proteins fit for vegetarians and vegans for ideas.
Step 4: Ditch the bottled dressing
I firmly believe that a homemade salad dressing is the only dressing worth using. When making a dressing is SO simple, I wonder why people are still buying the bottled stuff full of preservatives, hidden ingredients, sodium, and sugar. Honestly, all a good dressing requires is some acid, fat, and seasoning. Herbs and spices are a welcome addition, but not entirely necessary.
For example, to make an easy light vinaigrette, all you need is acid, oil, an emulsifier, seasoning, and herbs if you’re feeling fancy. You need a ratio of 1:3 acid to oil. For the acid, pick either vinegar (any kind you like) or lemon juice; choose a good quality cold-pressed oil (extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, sunflower oil etc); the emulsifier can be a touch of Dijon mustard, a clove of garlic, finely diced shallot, or some grated ginger. Don’t forget to season with salt and add herbs if you feel like it.
But there’s so much beyond a vinaigrette when it comes to salad dressings. Try mixing in some Greek yogurt; use nut butter or tahini for a creamy dressing that will coat your salad beautifully. Add in some citrus like orange juice or grapefruit for a tangy take. Once you learn to navigate your way around dressings, you’ll be coming up with your own combinations to match the salad.
A few dressings you can try:
- An Asian inspired dressing with soy sauce, ginger, and some citrus
- A fresh, vibrant dressing with creamy avocado and Greek yogurt
- A nutty, rich, and creamy dressing with tahini
Step 5: Toppings
So you’ve got your base, vegetables, protein, and a kicker dressing together, and your salad is looking good. But, don’t skip the toppings! In my opinion, this is what takes a salad from meh to a crunchy-salty-creamy-sweet-salty meal you can eat everyday without getting bored!
- Go crunchy with toasted nuts, seeds, pita chips, baked tortilla strips, fried onions etc
- Make it cheesy with crumbled feta, shaved Parmesan, fresh chunks of buffalo mozzarella, or grilled haloumi
- Think creamy with a scoop of hummus, or smear a generous dollop of Greek yogurt on the bottom before piling on the rest on top
- Get an element of sweet with pomegranate arils, raisins, cranberries, or maple/honey-toasted nuts
- Add a salty topping like olives or capers
Toppings are what take your salad to the next level, and keep you coming back after every bite. Though you might be tempted to go all out with toppings (I know I am!), try and limit yourself to a few to keep the balance intact.
Now that you have this winning 5-step formula to create a modern salad, you’ll never have to eat a boring salad again.
To make it easier for you to follow this formula, here’s a handy poster with all the info. Screenshot it for your phone wallpaper, or print it and put it on your fridge for endless inspiration when you’re stuck for ideas!
Want to see this formula in action? Try this recipe.
Or, if you’re feeling inspired: use these guidelines to start experimenting on your own and create hearty, nutrient-dense, crave-worthy salads. Don’t forget to share your favourite recipes with us!
Are you making salads using this 5-step formula?
Let us know: leave a comment, or tag @sprigandvine.in on your photos on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #goodfoodpractices
