Simple, Flexible Salad Recipe

Photo by LollyKnit

The photo above is for a gorgeous fruit salad of watermelon + mint + raspberry with honey + lime juice as the dressing. I can't wait for summer to indulge!

Almost every weekday, I eat a vegetable-based salad for lunch. I don't like leaf lettuces unless they are ultra-fresh, so I mainly use vegetables and fruits.

Here is my basic salad recipe:

Dressing (olive/flax/sesame oil + lemon juice/cider vinegar + mustard)
Aromatic (like ginger, scallion, shallots, garlic, onions)
Green (like spinach, kale, kohlrabi tops, cucumber, zucchini)
Colorful Vegetable (bell pepper, tomato, carrot)
Protein (like nuts/seeds, tofu, boiled egg, cheese, beans)
Herbs
Fruit, fresh or dried
salt + pepper


I usually start with the dressing at the bottom of the bowl, then I add the aromatic so it has time to infuse the salad dressing.

Next I try to add the green so that it has enough time to soak up the oil and become tender, especially zucchini. If zucchini doesn't soak up enough oil, it can be bitter.

I try to make my salads colorful and have a variety of flavors, like sweet and bitter with apples + daikon radishes together or fennel + orange.

If I want extra texture, I add mushrooms or avocados to contrast all the crunchy raw vegetables.