“Keep me going till dinnertime” supersized lunch salad recipe (and more attitude of gratitude)

Remember my “use up all the veges you bought and never used” winter soup? And the “everything but the kitchen sink” fruit and nut bar? Here’s the salad equivalent of those – a flexible recipe with lots of options, so you can make it your own, using whatever you happen to have. More of a template, if you will.

Those of you in the northern hemisphere won’t be looking for salad recipes right now. But this one can be suitable for summer or winter, with its wide variety of ingredients.

I’m still coming off my fast so not onto raw veges yet, but @sift666 has been getting one of these plonked in front of him for his lunch each day. I like simpler taste combinations, so I’d usually choose one from each group, but @sift666 likes lots of different flavours all together, so he gets loads. Let’s dive in.

The leafy greens

This is what makes it a salad, rather than just an unsightly mess of things mixed up in a bowl. So these are a critical part, and go into the bowl first. Today’s salad had:

 Cos (romaine) lettuce leaves (picked fresh from our garden)
 Nasturtium leaves (they grow wild nearby)
 Garlic chives (also from our garden)

Earlier in the week, we were using rocket, but now that’s gone, and we’re making use of the wild leaves.

I cut the spines out of the cos, then chop it into smallish pieces. The others I cut fairly small with kitchen scissors.

The dressing

The current batch of dressing has:

 3 parts extra virgin olive oil (or a nut or avocado oil would be lovely)
 1 part balsamic vinegar (his favourite, though I like lemon juice)
 1 part coconut aminos (another of his favourites, but a pinch of salt would do just fine)
 And a tiny bit of mustard (or use minced garlic, herbs, or whatever you like for a dash of extra flavour)

I just put it all in an old cream bottle, and give it a vigorous shake, but you could also use a whisk or mini food processor. Keeps in the fridge for a while.

Drizzle some over the leaves and mix well.

Other (mostly raw) veges, and sometimes fruit

This is only limited by your imagination – tomatoes, radishes, capsicum (bell pepper), finely chopped beetroot, peeled and diced zucchini (courgette), celeriac and more. This week we’re using

 Cucumber
 Carrots
 Kohl rabi (because we were given one)

I chop these very small. A salad with large chunks probably looks better, and lets you pick and choose what you want to eat together, so if that’s what you like, go for it. But for @sift666, I’m aiming for him to get lots of different foods in each mouthful, to get that taste explosion. Throw it all in and stir again.

Let’s amp up the carbs a wee bit

To get some more filling carbs in there, I also put in:

 Kumera (sweet potato), pre cooked, and gone cold, cut a bit more chunky
 Half an apple, also diced fine

You could also use peas straight out of the pod, sweet corn, potato or pumpkin. And here’s where you can adapt a bit for a winter salad. Have them warm and stir them through just before serving.

Other suitable fruits could include pear, grapes or mandarin segments. Though usually @sift666 doesn’t have fruit in the salad, but has a few home grown strawberries afterwards. We didn’t have any ready today.

Proteins and fats (plant)

Because this is a whole meal, not a side dish, we want a decent amount of protein and fats in here. Today, we have:

 Half a small avocado
 A handful of tamari roasted almonds (or any other nuts will do)

Sometimes we have some marinated and baked tempeh, which would be a good option if you’re going to be missing out the next section. Chick peas would also be nice, giving you some protein and carbs.

Proteins and fats (animal)

This can be any animal protein – eggs, dairy, fish, poultry, cold meats. Today it’s a trio of:

 A slice of cheese, diced small
 A couple of bits of smoked salmon, cut up
 A hard boiled egg, cut into quarters

Apart from the egg, toss everything together till well mixed, then top with the egg pieces. Nasturtium flowers are also edible, so I used one as a garnish.

Other options

Another option would be to present it as a deconstructed salad, all laid out on a platter, as in the top picture. Maybe have a tiny bowl of dressing to dip things in. Or maybe some hummus on a bowl would be nice, or some home made mayo.

You really can use this system to make a variety of delicious salads. Today my lunch was vegetable soup and cold chicken. But if I’d made myself a salad, it would have been:

 Cos lettuce
 Lemon dressing
 Carrot or maybe some of the kohl rabi
 Apple
 Walnuts
 Cold chicken

See, the same template but completely different.

Attitude of Gratitude

I’m reacting to another food now. I think it’s almonds. It’s the same reaction of fatigue and hardly being able to keep my eyes open.

This might sound like a bad thing, and it certainly is inconvenient. But that’s one of the reasons I did the fast. Although my diet is almost completely whole food, I sensed that there were some things in that weren’t quite working for me, but couldn’t figure out which. Now I’m finding out!

So these reactions are a good thing and something to be grateful for. Once I know what they are, I can work on healing them. I’ll post another day on how I’m going to do that.

Thanks for reading.

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