Where's the Love, Salad

Salad (according to Google): a cold dish of various mixtures of raw or cooked vegetables, usually seasoned with oil, vinegar, or other dressing and sometimes accompanied by meat, fish, or other ingredients.

Boring. That’s what I have always thought about salad as a health food. I have always liked salad as a side or as a starter when I’m out for dinner. I mean, who can pass up that huge bowl of iceberg lettuce, tomato, red onion and olives, tossed in that creamy, zesty dressing? But salad as a meal on a regular basis… boring.

Part of my problem was that I was stuck inside my salad box. For whatever reason, I used to only envision a healthy salad as being lettuce based. Even when I top lettuce 1,000 different ways, it’s still lettuce and I still tire of it. I also went a long time where I only topped salads with ingredients you would find on a salad bar like cold ham, hard-boiled egg, cheese, tomato, cucumber, onion, etc. I like all of those things and we actually set up our own salad bar like this at home every now and then but it’s still the same old ingredients over and over again.

So how did I go from being bored with salad to eating salad multiple times a week? I stopped thinking about it like salad. My recent salad formula has been to take a common meal that my family eats, remove the empty carb (bread, pasta or rice) and add more veggies that complement the main ingredients. I found that a lot of our meals already had sauces that were easily converted to salad dressing. Those of you who happen to follow me on Facebook or Instagram have seen some examples of this already. Let me explain a few of our favorites so far:

Asian Slaw with Pork and Ginger Soy Dressing

Original Meal: Pork Stir-Fry

Omitted Carb: Rice

Added Veggies: Cabbage, cucumber

Dressing: Ginger-Soy

I chose to marinade my pork chops overnight in soy sauce, lime, olive oil, garlic and ginger to boost its awesomeness in this salad, then I just pan fried them before slicing and serving on this bed of green and red cabbage, bell peppers, carrots, red onion and cucumber. The nice thing about cabbage-based salads is that you can put the dressing on and it only gets better the longer it sits! When I stir-fry, I mix up my own stir-fry sauce (because the stuff in the store is too expensive and salty for my taste). So I picked a lot of the same ingredients I use for that like soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger. I also added some olive oil and squeezed a half of a lime in here to keep my pork marinade flavors alive. Because I served this to my kids, I didn’t add any red pepper flake to it, but they would be a great addition. Topped with a few sprinkles of sesame seeds and some scallions and it looks good enough to eat!

Cheese Burger Salad

Original Meal: Cheese Burgers

Omitted Carb: Buns

Added Veggies: Mixed greens, cherry tomato, red onion.

Dressing: Burger “Sauce”

Cheese Burger Salad doesn’t actually sound that appealing to me as I am typing it but I was absolutely amazed at how satisfying this meal was for me, a bread-fiend. I already enjoy my burgers piled high with lettuce, tomato and onion so this one came together pretty quick for me. I seasoned and cooked hamburger patties just like normal, melted some cheese on them and plopped them in the middle of a bed of mixed greens. For the “dressing”, I just thought about what types of things I like spread on my burger bun. The result was a combination of mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce (I never spell that right the first time). Honestly, the only thing I missed was pickles! My husband even requested this one as a lunch iteam with left over cheese burger!

Chili-Lime Shrimp Salad

Original Meal: Shrimp Tacos

Omitted Carb: Flour Tortillas

Added Veggies: Avocado, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes

Dressing: Chili-Lime Juice

Actually, this isn’t a very typical meal for us… Beef tacos kind of are but shrimp tacos came about simply because shrimp was on sale and I love it! Coleslaw is already a great topper for shrimp tacos for me so I just turned that upside down and made a quick red cabbage slaw as my base. Shrimp and citrus are pretty much best friends so I chose lime juice as my dressing base. To keep with the taco theme, I seasoned my “dressing” with chili powder, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper. Also along the taco line, avocado and tomatoes came to mind. And I had just seen something in my news feed about sheet pan shrimp fajitas with bell peppers… so let’s throw some of those in! Pile it all up; the lime “dressing” mixes with the coleslaw and the whole salad is creamy, smoky, zesty and perfectly satisfying!

Pulled Pork Salad

Original Meal: Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Omitted Carb: Buns

Added Veggies: Bell peppers, sugar snap peas

Dressing: Barbeque Sauce

Here is another one that I already love topped with coleslaw. No need to re-invent the wheel! Coleslaw base it is! To add more veggies to this one, I was really just driven by what I had in the fridge. Bell peppers and snap peas both have a nice sweetness to contrast the salty pork and they take nicely to the flavors of a coleslaw dressing as well. I literally just used barbeque sauce as dressing but I didn’t need much! The coleslaw is already dressed and the pork comes with its own lovely juices so a touch of barbeque for that smoky richness is all I needed. Also, the contrast of cold, crunchy salad and hot, tender pork is bliss!

In conclusion, I believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship for salad and I. With warm weather right around the corner (hopefully!), salads will have a honored place in our meal plan for hot summer days!

I’d love to hear about any of your favorite salad creations! Where does your salad inspiration come from?