There really is nothing quite like getting stuck into a plate of food bursting with nutritious ingredients, delicious flavours and interesting textures. What better place to get all of this than in the form of a healthy crunchy salad, which gives your body the high level of nutrients it needs to sustain healthy functions.
The joy of making a salad is that you can hardly go wrong! No matter your taste preferences, there is a salad for you. Some people enjoy fruit in their salads, others don’t. Some people enjoy dressing with their salad, others don’t. The point is that it doesn’t matter because there is something for everyone when it comes to salad. Let’s look at some quick and easy healthy salad options to tantalise your taste buds this summer.
Basics are Good, but there is no need to be Boring!
Most of us have all of the basics we need for a salad - lettuce / leafy greens, tomatoes, onions and cucumber. Come on, we can be more adventurous than that! A salad can be a side dish or a main meal, but if it is the latter, make sure you have all of your food groups represented and eat the rainbow – very easy to do when eating fresh vegetables.
Include things like grated carrot, spiralized butternut or zucchini, roasted cauliflower, broccoli or beetroot, fruit, fresh herbs and toasted nuts and seeds. Play with flavours and textures. Create texture by cutting ingredients in different ways - there is no need to dice everything – let your jaw do some work.
Quick and Easy!
Broccolini Salad with Crispy Bacon: This can be made a few hours in advance, but only add the dressing when serving.
400g fresh broccolini florets, cut into chunky bite-size pieces
2 Tblsp sunflower seeds
1 Tblsp oil
6 rashers streaky bacon, diced
1 shallot or small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
¼ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Dressing: ½ cup good mayonnaise, 1 Tblsp white wine vinegar, 1 tsp honey
Cook the broccolini in lightly salted boiling water over medium to high heat for 2 minutes. Drain and pour cold water over the florets immediately. Leave in a sieve to drain well.
Toast the sunflower seeds in a frying pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes and leave to cool.
Fry the bacon in the same pan until crisp and transfer to a plate lined with a kitchen towel to get rid of excess oil.
Whisk dressing ingredients together.
Assemble the salad by mixing broccolini, onion and sun-dried tomatoes in a large bowl. Toss in the dressing when ready and mix in some of the bacon and sunflower seeds, leaving a few to sprinkle on top of the salad for garnish.
There are so many recipes that we as South Africans particularly love, like a Curry Noodle Salad,
a delicious and wholesome Rice Salad Recipe and one of our personal favourites, a roasted Sweet Potato Salad. Ideas for salad are limited purely by your imagination and they can be dressed in so many ways, with colourful sprouts, herbs, seeds and flowers. So stock up on your wholesome fresh ingredients at Wildsprout and get prepping for your summer salad sensations!