Hope your summer is warm and wonderful! With half of the country under a heat advisory, this is the perfect time to skip the stove and assemble a salad so delicious you and your family will crave more!
I know many of you are stuck in a rut, using same old ingredients and sugar filled dressings, so I’ve created a guide to welcome you into the wonderful world of salads. From chopped salads to composed salads and superfood bowls, I’ve got you covered! I’ve even included my favorite dressings and sauces to bring them to life.
Salads are fast, flexible, full of flavor and fiber, and inexpensive. In fact, they’re the perfect way to save money and time, by incorporating elements of last night’s dinner into tomorrow’s lunch. As you’re cleaning up from dinner, just put a handful of greens in your glass lunch container and layer in the goodies from dinner with a shot of dressing on the side, and lunch is ready for tomorrow. Or maybe a picnic?
In this collection, I’m sharing many of my favorite salads that integrate fabulous flavors from around the world. Some are tossed, like the Chopped and Greek Salads. Others are “composed” or artfully arranged on a platter, like the Grilled Peach, or Golden Beet and Arugula Salad. Beautiful to serve at a dinner party!
The key to a delicious salad is finding the balance of colors, flavors, and textures that excite your palate:
Color: Make your salad visually appealing by incorporating the rainbow colors of Mother Nature. Imagine crimson red tomatoes, vibrant green spinach, bright blueberries, and golden citrus...those pigmented colors contain “phytonutrients”. Don’t let that big word throw you off: “Phyto” just means plant (in Greek). And nutrients obviously nurture our health.
Different from vitamins and minerals, phytonutrients are the chemical messengers concentrated in the pigments of plants that exert a positive influence on our health. Those vibrant colors act as a set of chemical keys that unlock your body’s healing potential by reducing inflammation, supporting detoxification, and optimizing gene expression. Just what the doctor ordered!
Flavors: Phytonutrients give each plant its personal flavor profile. Spices, herbs, veggies, fruits, even grains, beans, and nuts all taste the way they do because they’re packed with a unique blend of phytonutrients.
Balance the bitter flavor of greens with a sprinkle of flakey sea salt, which also enhances sweetness. Use fresh herbs to add complexity and brighten the flavor palette. Balance it all with a punch of sour from citrus or vinegar, and a drizzle of healing oils.
Textures: If everything is soft, chewy, or crunchy, eating can quickly become tedious. Compose your salad with this in mind and layer in different textures that will stimulate your senses and bring you maximum satisfaction. For example, balance cheese or creamy avocados with the crunch of toasted nuts or crisp baby cucumbers.
Pro Tips
1) Clean and prep greens: When using a bunch of fresh greens, wash them in fresh, cold water and spin them dry in a salad spinner, pouring off any water and dirt. If not used immediately, store greens loosely wrapped in a paper towel to absorb any dampness. Or buy pre-cleaned greens that are ready to go.
2) Keep an array of condiments on hand to build your salads:
Salad dressings
Toasted nuts and seeds (pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, cashews, walnuts, or hazelnuts)
Alliums: pickled red onions, shallots, garlic, scallions, and shaved leeks wake up salads and offer a little punch of sulfur to support detoxification
Marinated beets, olives, artichokes, hearts of palm, etc.
Keep cheeses, nuts, whole grains, beans, and pre-cooked proteins (like last night’s chicken) on hand to turn a simple salad into a quick, complete meal
3) Dress to impress: Don’t be afraid of using oil on your salad: oil adds flavor, helps hold the salad together, and improves the absorption of many fat- soluble nutrients.
Dress your salad last, but don’t overdress it, because soggy salads are no fun. An easy way to avoid this dilemma is to drizzle about half of the intended amount of dressing around the edge of the bowl, toss well and taste, then add a drizzle at a time until it is lightly coated but not wet. Toss the greens with the dressing, and top with the nuts, avocado, or small things at the end so they don’t sink to the bottom.
Extra-virgin olive oil and avocado oil are my two favorite oils for dressings and they both contain heart-healthy, monounsaturated fats. Avocado oil has a very light flavor that works better with the more aromatic Asian spices, while the more pungent olive oil is best with the Mediterranean palette.
4) Eat your salad first - before the rest of the meal. Eating your greens/veggies/fiber at the start of a meal has the benefit of creating a viscous mesh of fiber that slows the rate of absorption of any simple carbs to follow and flattens their rise (and fall) of blood sugar and insulin. That means less inflammation, oxidative stress, fat storage, and a flatter belly.
For more on this topic, read “Glucose Revolution” by Jessie Inchauspe, the French science writer who lays out seven hacks to improve your blood sugar metabolism.
5) Add a tang of sour from citrus or kinds of vinegar to dressings. Vinegar not only creates a tart and creamier dressing, but it also appears to slow the release of glucose into the bloodstream and encourages our muscles to take it up quickly, to the benefit of our metabolism.
So, eat in good health, as a salad a day helps keep the doctor away (or cheering you on)!
To your health,
Dr. Sally