We know the struggle, when your stomach’s rumbling, and you’re trying your best to be healthy, but you just can’t face another salad in your life. Nothing screams repetitive like lettuce for lunch again- even if you add tomatoes and cucumber. And there’s so many more exciting meals out there, like pizza, pasta or sushi that look way more appetizing. Still, salads don’t have to be boring, you just have to know how to make them right. So we’ve armed ourselves with some healthy, tasty and tangy salad tips that are a sure-fire way to spice up your salads and make them great again!
Spice Up Your Salad Base
We know munching on iceberg lettuce every day can get tiring, so the key to salads is to get creative and play around with the base of your salad. You can add some zing to the base by adding kale, rocket, purple cabbage, shredded carrots, seaweed, shaved broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, spring peas, or swiss chard. You can even add some snap by mixing lettuce styles with romaine, red, butter or argula or mix in fresh herbs like basil leaves. Or just skip veggies altogether and add some quinoa, bulgar or glass noodles as a base.
Color Your Salad Like A Rainbow
While your’re being playful with your salad, you can also color it with fillings, like a rainbow. Your salad is your canvas and your the colorist. So pick and choose fillings from across the color spectrum, from beets to orange or yellow pepper, cucumber, artichoke hearts, radish, celery and olives. You can also add ribbon vegetables, like carrots, zucchini. And of course, no salad would be complete without tomatoes. But you can play with colorful shades of red or orange tomatoes and there’s so many tangy varieties, like cherry, valencia, beef or roma.
Sprinkle Something Sweet
You can add some zing to you salad by adding something sweet. While fruit may be the last thing you’d expect to add to a salad, this dose of sweetness can blend perfectly with the savory elements. Try adding dried fruit like raisins or cranberries or fresh fruit, like goji or blueberries, thin apple slices, orange, tangerine, mango, apricots, dragon fruit, pomegranate seeds, watermelon or sliced strawberries. We know it’s a little controversial, but some even recommend grilling oranges or grapefruit.
Get Creative With Textures
Make sure you balance the flavors and textures and don’t be afraid to get creative. You can really add texture by blending crunchy and smooth. Our favorite go-to smooth texture filler for every occasion is avocado. You can also add a crunchy element to your salad with a host of nutty varieties like walnuts, almonds, pistachios, or pine nuts or even sesame seeds. You can also sprinkle seeds or super foods for instant texture, from chia or sesame to sunflower or poppy seeds. Another way to add a richness is to blend some hot grilled char-grilled vegetables like eggplant or peppers with the cold ingredients. There really are no rules, you can go wild!
Add Some Oomph
Inject some oomph to your salad and take it to the next level by adding some protein. If you’re into meat or fish then add grilled or cold salmon, chicken or tuna or even a can of tuna. For dairy-lovers then topping your salad with greek yogurt, ricotta, feta, creamy goat’s cheese or mozzarella will add some instant pizazz. If not, the veggie or vegan alternatives are still just just as yummy, from tofu, seitan, chickpeas, humus or edamame beans to peas or black, white, pinto, heirloom or green bean varieties.
Spice Up Your Dressings
Lastly, but by no means least, you can spice up any salad with creative dressings. While we prefer to make our own rather than buy it from a bottle, you can really get creative with lemon, balsamic vinegar, infused oils or a tahini-based dressing. Really there’s endless ways to dress up a salad, and you can also play around with how to slice the veggies and present it on the plate.
So go on, try these awesome tips to Make Salads Great Again!