spring garden salad
There are many ways to make a salad. My formula is this: a bed of greens plus 1 or 2 other vegetables, a protein, an optional fat and a fruit. Many times I add nuts as the protein, which can also be counted as the fat. However, avocado is my go-to fat.
The spring garden salad subscribes to the basic formula. What makes this a ‘spring’ garden salad is the use of fresh green leaf and Romaine lettuces that I grew myself in a container garden. Most people like cucumber and tomato in their salads. While I oftentimes use cucumber, I rarely put tomato in salad because I think it fights the fruit…which is odd because technically, tomato is a fruit.
Having a formula for salad making means that you don’t have to buy a lot of ingredients. You know what else is cool? You can actually use pantry staples for some of these items, such as beans for your protein. Hearts of Palm are some of my favorite things on the planet, so I add them to salad often. Another favorite protein of mine is egg and while strictly speaking, eggs are not a ‘pantry staple’, they do keep quite a bit of time in the refrigerator.
I hope you find this ‘recipe’ for salad to be helpful. As always, use it as a loose guide to make your own yumminess with your particular flair.
So here you go…..this recipe is for one serving; just multiply the portions for multiple people.
Recipe Instructions:
Bed of greens consisting of 1 cup organic baby spinach leaves, 6 romaine and 4 red leaf lettuce leaves torn into bite-sized pieces. Top with 1 rib celery; sliced, 2 radishes, sliced; 1/3 of a large apple, cubed; 1/2 of a 10-inch mild or spicy sausage link, grilled. Add a pinch of Kosher or Himalayan pink salt (or any specialty salt for that matter) and a few grinds of pepper.
Dressing: 1 Tbs infused olive oil (I used Persian Lime) and flavored balsamic (I used blackberry ginger). Note: Many towns now have specialty olive oil stores these days. I called ours and asked for their featured pairing of infused olive oil and flavored balsamic. They feature a different pair each month. I don’t happen to like white balsamic, so I asked them to recommend a dark one. If you don’t have a specialty store in your town, simply use a high quality extra virgin olive oil and high quality aged balsamic.
