Four Easy Steps to the Perfect Salad

Originally posted on Chatelaine

When I tell people that I am vegetarian, their response is often “Oh, you must eat a lot of salads.” The answer is yes, while it’s not all I eat, I do eat a lot of salads.

But I’m okay with this, because I love salads. This is because I make them fun, flavourful, and interesting – not just a bowl of pale lettuce with a wedge of tomato. I make each salad enticing and unique enough that no two are ever the same.

There are many different salad combinations you can put together to do just the same. Try your best to eat at least one salad a day because they are raw, fresh, cleansing and can be filling enough to enjoy as a meal by itself or complement another meal.

A formula for making a daily salad
1. Greens: Start with a base of greens, mixed greens, spinach, arugula, baby kale, leaf lettuce, or Boston lettuce – anything leafy and green will work!

2. Texture: Add something else for texture – almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, cashews, hemp seeds, sun-sprouts, apples, jicama, or raw crackers all work.

3. Colour: Add colour with carrots, cucumber, beets, mango, squash, goji berries, sea vegetables, or fresh herbs.

4. Protein: Bulk it up with sliced avocado, sprouted beans, chopped nuts, or sprouted grains like quinoa or millet, wild rice, or marinated tempeh.

Remember to add a delicious homemade dressing like the one in the recipe below.

Simple homemade salad dressing

Ingredients
½ cup organic hemp oil or olive oil
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp raw tahini or Dijon mustard
1 tbsp maple syrup or pure honey
1 tsp lemon juice
Pinch of Himalayan rock salt

Put all the ingredients in a jar, screw on the lid and shake to emulsify. Store any leftovers in the fridge.

Tip: Salad greens are especially delicious when you can pull them all right from your own garden! Even if you don’t have a garden, you can set up little pots around your home and have fresh salads all year round. Otherwise, you can buy fresh greens from a farmer’s market and your local health-food stores.

You can get more delicious knowledge by checking out Marni’s Veggin’ Comfortably e-book, available here: http://www.marniwasserman.com/ebooks/

Miso Magic

Miso is a fermented paste with a texture like almond butter. It is made from soybeans, koji (a bacterial starter), salt and a grain – usually rice or barley.

There is quite a variety of Miso’s on the market, as soybeans can be fermented into a range of different flavours, from rich and savoury to delicate and sweet. They come in varieties of either dark brown, red, white or yellow in colour.

Miso is so wonderful and holds amazing health properties. Miso acts as an anti carcinogen, and is also effective in reducing the effects of radiation, smoking, air pollution and other environmental toxins. The darker the colour the more potent its medicinal properties. Miso is also a wonderful digestive aid because of the fermentation process. So having a cup of warm miso soup before or after a meal is the perfect choice is your digestive system is a bit off!

Miso is also a concentrated protein source, it contains approximately 12-20% protein depending on the source. It is also low in fat, but in keep in check that it is fairly high in salt!

Miso can be used in a variety of dishes and recipes. Because of the variety of flavours and colours to choose from, each one will derive a different outcome. It can be used in place of worcestershire sauce, salt and soy sauce as a seasoning agent. Miso is most typically used as the base of soup, where it provides a rich and flavourful broth. But it can also be used in marinades, salad dressing and even some desserts.

So get yourself equipped with at least two different varieties of miso (a sweet miso and a dark brown miso), so that you can create different recipes with different flavours. You will not be disappointed, as miso is magical and makes you feel good all over!

Quick Tip: Before adding miso to your pot of soup, take some water out and stir in the miso until it has completely dissolved. Then pour the miso mixture back into the soup pot with the heat turned off.

Miso should never come in direct contact with boiling water as it will affect it’s naturally occuring enzymes and delicate properties!

Sweet Miso Dressing:
½ cup white miso
1/3 cup agave nectar
½ cup mirin
¼ cup sesame oil
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ chopped ginger

In a blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. Store in refrigerator for 3-4 days. Makes about 2 cups.

Add this dressing to any salad or slaw with a variety of vegetables like: napa cabbage, carrots, beets, cucumber and throw some sea vegetables in too (arame, wakame, nori….)