My daily salad recipe

We've been trying to make salads everyday, using some subset of the following, based on what we have at home. If we have all of this, it all goes into the salad - seriously!

Greens
1. Fresh greens (mixed greens/baby spinach). We buy it triple washed and wash again.

Protein source
1. Lentils like black beans or lobia etc/steamed tofu sauteed in turmeric and red chilli powder/ shredded cheese.

2. Hummus, mixed in at the end. Hummus is easy to make at home (Cooked chickpeas, lemon juice, chillies, tahini, salt)

3. Seeds (pumpkin/sunflower)

4. Nuts (walnuts/pecans) - broken up

Veggies
1. Fresh veggies (grated carrot & cucumber, grape tomatoes, broccoli)

2. Cooked veggies (sauteed green beans or sauteed spinach)

Fruit
1. Fresh fruit (apple/grapes/pear/pomegranate/mango/mandarin orange)

2. Dried fruit (dried sweetened cranberry or golden raisin) - not a lot...for sweetness.

Fats
1. Avocado slices (or guacamole mixed in with the veggies and greens)

2. Healthy fats (like olive oil, or sesame oil if the acid is soy or tamari), and spices (grated garlic, black pepper) and an acid (lemon juice/OJ/soy sauce/vinegar/tamari), for the dressing.

Grain (Too much makes the salad too carb heavy)
1. Cooked whole wheat pasta. Not a lot. This goes well with hummus.
2. Cooked wild rice or bulgur

More
1. Random freshly made chutney. Cilantro, small piece of raw onion, ginger, garlic, tamarind, lemon juice, salt, green chillies, back pepper, mango - blend together with lots of fresh spearmint from our backyard).

2. 2 cloves grated fresh garlic

3. Grated ginger in the dressing if soy sauce/tamari

An old post about salads.

http://areluctantchef.blogspot.com/2008/05/salad-basics.html