Fancy Fast Salad

Recently, what with the cold weather and all those pesky germs floating around, we have gotten in the habit of doing our best to eat our leafy greens at lunch or dinner.  But, salad is boring, right?  Well, it can be fun and easy to do if you apply a basic formula.

The formula that works for us is:

1. Salad greens:  The darker, the better.  Spring mix, mesclun, spinach.  Kale?  Hold that thought.  If you want to add kale, you should "massage" it first to break down the fibers, and then massage a bit more with the dressing added, let it sit, then add the rest of the ingredients.

2. Dressing:  Oil and vinegar is so versatile--olive oil alone has hundreds of varieties, and vinegar comes in all flavors (we have a coffee one right now!).  Homemade dressing takes seconds, and is so much better for you than the bottled variety.  A simple Google search will yield recipes for homemade ranch dressing, honey mustard vinaigrette, and on and on. 

3. Protein:  Are you meat-free?  Add cheese or vegan cheese.  No such restrictions?  Add a hardboiled or poached egg, cold cuts, roast chicken...  The salad above has rosemary ham we got from Trader Joe's--so good.

3a. Nuts:  Nuts and seeds are a great source of protein for all diet requirements (unless you're allergic to nuts, in which case, sorry!).  The salad above has pepitas and slivered almonds.  They add CRUNCH too!  Which is important in a salad.

4. Crunchy veggies:  You need a salad to be nice and crunchy.  I personally like mine vinegary and crunchy and well-seasoned.  To add crunch, bell peppers are my favorite because they are so easy to find year-round, super easy to grow in the Bay Area in the summer, and packed full of nutrients.  My favorite are the red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, which add nice color to a green salad.

5. Avocado:  We're Californians.  We love our avocados.  In fact, I have three trees going, two from seeds!  But in the middle of winter, even in California (at least here in NorCal), the avocados in the store are sad indeed.  Guacamole is an option.  The above guac is very simple and can be found in packages at Trader Joe's.  Make sure the first ingredient is in fact avocados, and that there are no more than some lime juice, salt, and seasonings added to it.

6. Seasoning:  Seasoning is the spice of life.  Or something like that.  I usually add fresh-cracked pepper* and salt of some sort.  Maybe add some dried garlic, special salt (smoked sea salt or truffle salt, perhaps?), cumin, turmeric, chili, thyme, basil, or whatever strikes your fancy.

*I also want to take this opportunity to say that while we don't like kitchen gadgets, especially unitaskers, having a good pepper grinder (you can get them at any price point) is definitely a necessity.  Fresh cracked is a different animal than the pre-ground pepper in the can at the store.