Do you love eating salads? If the answer is no, then you might be making them wrong! Yup, you CAN make a salad wrong. I know, strange to think a salad that is supposed to be easy actually needs some thought behind it.
Ha
Salads offer many benefits for your body, from the leafy green base to colorful veggies placed on top and, of course, the big finisher, which is dressing. Most people don’t think of salad as a complete meal, but it can be when put together right.
We all know that leafy greens in the salad give our body vitamin A, vitamin C, antioxidants, fiber, folate, vitamin K, magnesium, calcium, iron, and potassium. But I’m sure you don’t want to eat just lettuce because that’s boring.
After your lettuce choice, add all your colorful veggies like red pepper, purple cabbage, cucumbers, white onions, carrots, etc. The more color you add, the broader range of nutrition your body gets.
Now, let’s add some plant-based protein! You can keep it simple, like using tofu, legumes, or grains are a great source of plant-based protein. They all taste amazing when added to your salad.
Wait! We are not done yet!
Let’s spice it up a bit by adding a handful of walnuts to boost the flavor, texture, and nutrition. Walnuts are the only nut with an excellent source of plant-based omega-3 ALA ~2.5g/oz. Yummy!
Now that we build this fantastic salad, it’s time to dress it. The dressing is just as important as the veggies. You want the dressing to help the body absorb all the nutrients in the salad. To do that, you want to pick a dressing without a ton of ingredients—also, one with no artificial sugars or loaded with preservatives. I suggest staying simple by making your dressing using lemon juice, healthy oil, natural sweetener, and cayenne pepper.
Now that’s how you build a bomb salad! Make sure you change it up with different veggies each time but always remember salads are not only healthy, but they taste delicious and fulfilling when done right.
Check out some amazing salad recipe.
Vegan Cobb Salad by Simple Veganista
Vegan Summer Salad by Lazy Cat Kitchen
