This one is definitely for the girls. Boys seem to think of salads as an appetizer. Their carnivore habits tend to not allow this to be a meal. This is why I usually do salads for lunch. I make them up in the morning and take them with me to work…or just go home during lunch when the kids idleness make me late.
Now that CSA season is in swing, I have a whole bunch of lettuce to eat. By myself apparently. I love a good salad. My salads are not just greens and dressing, though. It has to have at least one of the following ingredients:
- a dried fruit (craisons, dried cherries)
- a savory cheese (feta, goat cheese, gorgonzola)
- a nut (roasted, slivered almonds or walnuts)
- a 1/2 avocado if I have one (cut it up just before eating or else it will brown)
Other items that go well:
- croutons if I have them, but really I don’t need them with everything else in there
- carmelized onions (make ahead and store for a week’s worth of salads)
- roast chicken (for the carnivores 😉 )
- olives
- marinated artichokes
- roasted veggies
I generally try to make my own salad dressing. All in an attempt to limit the preservatives in my diet, but I know the ingredients do contain them, as well. I usually do vinaigrettes, and have an arsenal of vinegars to my disposal: balsamic, red wine, champagne, white, rasberry and cider. Then there is the oil. I have olive oil (of course!) and usually you want the good stuff for dressings (extra virgin). Occassionally I will pick up the flavored olive oils and what a punch they give to a salad!
My vinagrette’s are basically this:
Start with about 2-3 Tbsp of vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, salt, pepper and a good 2-3 tsp of herbs. Sometimes I use mixed dried herbs and sometimes I grab some from the garden. Mix together. Then wisk in about a 1/3 – 1/2 cup oil to emulsify. I have a small little wisk for this process. This will be a good 2-4 salads for me. That’s enough of one dressing, so that allows me to make a different kind. I just bring it to work in a covered bowl, shake and use up during the week.
I make good use of the dried seasonings I have in my pantry so that stuff doesn’t go to waste. I usually give it a little taste to make sure it is up to snuff and then onto the salad it goes. This isn’t rocket science and it is much cheaper to make it up yourself. You can also add citric juices and zest from the peels to make a nice fresh vinagrette.
The other day I had a salad with roasted golden beets, goat cheese, dried cherries and a citrus vinagrette of some sort from a local deli. Yum! I can’t wait to recreate it when I get some beets from my CSA. 🙂
The season’s first CSA haul
I’m still trying to convince the kids that veggies really are good for their little bodies and good to eat. It’s a battle.
I LOVE a good salad! When I am pregnant I don’t crave ice cream and pickles, it’s salads I long for! The men in my house won’t touch them, but my sweet Chloe loves them too. I always have to make my salad extra large because I know pretty soon a little two year old mouth will come begging like a baby bird, “Bite please!”
finally a post that I didn’t gain weight reading…LOL
and your right, they really are just appetizers, right???
About half of my kids like salads and the other ones don’t eat much of it. I like the way you are layering the proteins, the cheeses and the lettuces. I make my own dressings too!
I’m going to join a CSA next year. I was too pregnant sick earlier in the spring when it was time to look for one and now my body is rejecting too many fruits and veggies to make it worth it. But next summer….oh, yes, it will be on.