The Business of Salads

Salads get a whole different meaning when you're seriously going vegan. In my direct neighborhood, one of the best places for salad ingredients is the Pioneer supermarket at 1345 Castle Hill Avenue. This store carries good quality (in many cases organic) salad ingredients, typically, here is what I can find:

• Organic salad mixes from Earthbound Farm
• Organic salad mixes from Organic Girl
• Vidalia onions (Pioneer seems to be the only store in my area that has Vidalia onions all of the time)
• Organic carrots

I like using some red leaf or green leaf lettuce, and mix it with some of these salad mixes, sometimes arugula or baby spinach, or a spring mix.

Some peppers and tomatoes, and onions are basic, beyond that you can add olives, roasted peppers, artichoke hearts or whatever else tickles your fancy in that area. You can add broccoly cooked, or raw, cooked green beans, a handfull of cooked beans, mushrooms raw or cooked, etc. Good things to enrich it are chia seeds, wheat germ, sliced almonds, and many a time grated organic carrots are a great addition.

 

To make it creamy, you can make a dressing with silken tofu, here's a basic recipe from myrecipes.com:

Sesame Tofu Dressing

1 package (12 to 16 oz.) water-packed soft or aseptic-packed silken tofu

1 cup seasoned rice vinegar

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions (including tops)

3 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons Asian (toasted) sesame oil

2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon hot chili flakes

In place of the low-sodium soy sauce, you can also use Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Optionally, depending on the salad mixes, you may add some mustard to this type of a dressing.  

Good salads become a way of life. Don't leave home without having eaten one. Light, refreshing, and with lots of energy.