I am not much of a baker which is a good thing because I rarely follow recipes strictly, and never for something like a salad. Instead I get inspiration from other people’s recipes and photos and then I tweak them to my taste, as well being influenced by what looks good at the fruit & vege shop,or to what I have in the fridge. Sometimes, like for this salad, I saw a picture or read a recipe and took away an idea and then lost the link back to the original
When making a salad there are no hard and fast rules, but it is good to think about texture (a mix of textures is good, but definitely want a bit of crunch), saltiness, sweetness, fat and a bit of acid. Sounds complicated but a simple example is some salad greens and cucumber, fetta cheese, some avo, a few ripe cherry tomatoes, a splash of olive oil and vinegar and you have the bases covered, ready to add anything else you want.
I made enough salad for two days and took this photo on my phone today, the second day of salad, so not even at it’s peak. I just added the beetroot and dressing when I dished it up so it didn’t get soggy. I did overcook the broccoli because I got distracted watching a movie!
Salad no. 1
leafy greens – I used rocket and baby spinach
steamed broccoli and green beans
pitted kalamata olives
roast beetroot
chickpeas (you could use canellinni, kidney, borlotti or black beans)
avocado
edamame (young green soy beans – great source of protein and really creamy)
pepitas (roasted would be nice but I didn’t have time, so they just got thrown in straight from the jar)
dressing
I used left over raita from a curry-fest on the weekend as the base; yes, I was pushing “use-by” dates. Reckon I’ll survive.
The raita was Greek yoghurt, cumin, grated cucumber (squish the excess fluid out), shallots, coriander and a bit of salt and lime juice.
For this salad dressing I added a bit more yoghurt, and a mix of a bit of white miso paste, a little rice wine vinegar and mirin.
If you didn’t happen to have left-over raita to use up, you could make a tahini and lemon dressing, a basic balsamic and olive oil dressing, a simple yogurt and lime juice dressing – the options are limitless.
If it wasn’t a work lunch I would have added a heap of red onion because I love them and I would have added garlic to the dressing.
It was really tasty, filling without making me need an afternoon nap, easy and nutritious.
You could have a small serve of this as a side or a big serve like mine as the main event.
And the chances of me making the exact same salad again are zero!
