Destination belly
  • Home
  • About
  • Home
  • About

Kick up your salad a notch

3/24/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Growing up, my parents served a garden salad with every dinner. It usually had lettuce, carrots, and miscellaneous other veggies. It was fine. Even good. But I got bored. I rebelled against the salad for many years after leaving home, focusing on other types of vegetable preparations. Recently, I’ve fallen in love with salad all over again. It started with a beautiful head of green leaf lettuce I bought at my local farm club. It tasted so fresh, crispy, and bright. Combined with fermented carrots and my homemade mix-and-match dressing, it was truly delicious. We planted a lot of greens in our garden this year, as well as in the Aerogarden. Now we have enough to harvest fresh garden salads a few times a week.
 
I came up with a list of ideas for making a scrumptious salad on the fly. Start with a head of fresh lettuce, spinach, or one of those super convenient salad mix bags. Then add in one or more from the list, and walla! Better than most salads you get in a restaurant.
Picture
Picture
  1. Fermented carrots, fermented peppers, and/or soy ginger radishes - a few minutes spent making these, and you have gourmet salads for up to a year with minimal effort.
  2. Fresh herbs- basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, shungiku, mitsuba. Whatever you have, it’s good in a salad.
  3. Chopped onion- red onion, green onion, chives, or shallots
  4. Seeds- poppy, sesame, sunflower, pepitas (all best toasted)
  5. Dried fruit- raisins, cranberries, mulberries (preferably no sugar added)
  6. Nuts- my favorites for salad are almonds or walnuts (toasted and a little chopped)
  7. Hardboiled egg- for perfect boiled eggs, with no green ring and the center just set, follow these instructions: put eggs in pot and cover with one inch of cold water. Stir in one teaspoon of baking soda to make them easier to peel. Set on stove over high heat. Bring to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and let sit 10 minutes. Immediately transfer eggs to a bowl of ice water and cool 5 minutes. Peel.
  8. Olives- green, black, Kalamata, whatever you like.
  9. Homemade dressing- I always have on hand either mix & match herb dressing or this garlicky vinaigrette with lots of seeds. Top it off with a homemade dressing and everyone will be impressed.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    My name is Hillary. This blog is about the everyday food I prepare in my kitchen, with tips and recipes for easy,  wholesome, and diet friendly meals. I have been chanting "cheese please!" since I was a toddler, although lately I've cut back on dairy.

    Archives

    June 2018
    May 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2011
    May 2011

    Categories

    All
    Baking
    Beans
    Beef
    Beverages
    Bread
    Cheesy
    Chicken & Turkey
    Chocolate
    Dessert
    Eggs
    Fermentation
    Freezer
    Fruit
    Gardening
    Herbs
    Holiday
    Kitchen Tips
    Mushrooms
    Pork
    Preserves
    Salad
    Sauce
    Seafood
    Slow Cooker
    Vegetarian(ish)
    Whole30

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.