Salad vs. Salad

How can we take a boring salad that we kind of throw on the side of our plates as an afterthought that we think 'should' be there, to something we PILE onto our plates and look forward to?

The answer is for it to be EASY, and to make it TASTY.

My favourite way to make fuss-free delicious salad for a quick side or show-stealing main is prepping and chopping.

Prep. Prepare the ingredients in a large container and store THAT in the fridge instead of having to reach for each ingredient every time you want one. If you make a big mix, you’re more likely to actually include a ton of variety instead of just leaves, tomatoes, and cucumber.

Chop. My new kitchen love is a salad chopper that my mom gave me. I have *this one* . Yes, it looks like a bowl with a pizza cutter. I was skeptical too. Was this contraption really necessary, because I hate single purpose gadgets in my cluttered kitchen. Chopped salad is so much better, everyone. First off, you’ll be extremely surprised how much your salad shrinks after it’s been chopped since all the fluffiness is the leaves is gone! You’ll end up being able to eat much more of the salad as a result. Secondly, the fact that everything becomes tiny means that every bite has that little bit of everything on it making each one flavourful. And lastly, this is the way that my toddler actually eats salad so it’s a big winner for that!

My current favourite salad:

Mixed baby greens (spinach, kale, radicchio, arugula, etc.)
Spiralized beets (i'm human too and buy the already spiralled ones)
Shredded or matchstick carrots
Red onion
Red cabbage
Hemp hearts
Sliced black olives
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Tomatoes
Cucumber

I throw all but the last two ingredients in a container together in the fridge. When I’m ready I toss however much I want into my chopping bowl and hack away until everything is teeny tiny. At the end I’ll throw in juicy things that I didn’t want sitting with my leaves for the week.

I am a big fan of seeds in my salad. I also love crunch which these add to with the cabbage and onion. The olives are due to my toddler, and I add in a Greek-inspired dressing:

lemon juice
White or red wine vinegar
Oregano
Garlic
White pepper
Pinch of salt
Splash of extra virgin olive oil

This salad got me in all the right places. I couldn’t stop thinking about this Greek dressing on it that I had to have it again for dinner tonight. All I did to make it a meal was add some black beans to it and had it with a side of fresh homemade toasted sourdough rubbed with garlic.