Never Eat A Boring Salad Again! Here's How To Make Yours Epic

Never Eat A Boring Salad Again! Here’s How To Make Yours Epic

Want to jump on that wagon? It doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, the best salads are created from a few ingredients, drizzled with the right dressing.

by Women’s Health

September 5, 2018

Never Eat A Boring Salad Again! Here's How To Make Yours Epic

We’ve come a long way from SA’s limp take on ‘Greek’ salads. Harvest tables are all the rage and with them come abundance bowls, gargantuan platters and an array of ingredients that will get your tongue tickled and teeth crunching.

Want to jump on that wagon? It doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, the best salads are created from a few really great ingredients, drizzled with the right dressing. Use our guide to help you make a variety of combinations of hearty, nutrient-packed salads that won’t leave you hungry.

Every Good Salad Needs:

Fibre — to keep you and your tum happy.

Protein — to keep you feeling fuller for longer (choose protein-packed grains over meat occasionally).

Crunch — to get that jaw chewing.

Creaminess — to balance out all the crunch and get your good fats.

Tart/Zest — To add brightness and liven up the dish.

The Heart

Choose one of these protein- and fibre-packed ‘fillers’ as the base of each salad.

Chickpeas
Lentils
Kidney beans
Butter beans
Quinoa
Millet
Edamame
Buckwheat

Then build your salad up with elements from each of the following categories:

Veg Vitamins

Roasted veg (beetroot, butternut, sweet potato)
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Peppers

Creamy additions

Avocado
Goat’s cheese
Feta

Standard salad supplies

Tomatoes
Carrots
Cucumber
Sugar-snap peas
Celery

Leafy love

Baby spinach
Rocket
Kale
Herbs (coriander, basil, parsley, mint)
Butter lettuce
Lamb’s lettuce

Power Crunches

Seeds (chia, hemp, sunflower, pumpkin, flax and sesame)
Nuts (almonds, cashews, pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, macadamias)

Garnishings

Pomegranate arils
Goji berries
Dried cranberries
Pickled veg
Citrus zest
Saltanas

How To Make The Most Versatile Dressing:

The key to making a good dressing is to use good-quality oil and create a balance between acidity and sweetness. The basic recipe for any good dressing starts whisking together: 1 tsp mustard, 1 tsp honey, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp virgin olive oil

You can then add ingredients to create different flavor sensations or to enhance different flavours in your salad.

Try adding: herbs, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, chilli, salt and pepper.

You can also opt to swap out ingredients in the base, as long as you remember to keep the flavours balanced. For example: olive oil can be replaced with avocado oil or good canola oil. Lemon juice can be swapped with lime juice or vinegar. Honey can be swapped with agave or coconut nectar.

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