Fall is here, with cooler temps (at least up North), so our steady supply of berries, melons, tomatoes and fragile greens is coming to a close…but that doesn’t mean the end of awesome salads!
This time of year produce like cabbage, kale, carrots, squash, apples, beets, broccoli, collard greens, grapes, pears and peppers are going strong! These ingredients tend to make more filling combinations and they’re amazing when you pair them with some whole grains and a fat.
Here’s on example we chowed on last night: Chinese Chicken Salad.
–Make a bed of greens. It’s best if you mix and match…it adds lots of texture! We went with Napa cabbage (a Chinese variety from our CSA) and spinach, but green or purple cabbage, any type of lettuce, arugula or microgreens would work here…it’s all good! Want to make it even faster? Pick up a bag of pre-shredded cole slaw mix and toss in some lettuce…done!
–Add whatever veggies you have laying around. Green onions, shredded carrot, sliced turnip, celery, radishes, bell peppers….the more the merrier!
–Add some fall fruit. We love grapes and green apples in this mix. Mandarin oranges (Cuties) are also coming into season and are fantastic on this salad!
–Add a grain. This is what makes a salad a real meal…it adds some ‘omph!’ Brown rice, quinoa, millet, barley…whatever you like.
–Pop some protein on there! We grilled a couple chicken breasts, but you could add pork loin or shrimp and it would taste great.
–Sauce it! There are a million versions out there, but I like to keep it simple. This one works well. I add about 1T of honey to sweeten it for the kids. Don’t have hoisin sauce? No problem…just leave it out. Word of caution: Americans are well known for our over-use of salad dressing. 1-2T is all it takes of this mix.
–Top it with something salty/crunchy. A small handful of chow mein noodles, salted nuts, some salty peptitas (pumpkin seeds) or, in a pinch like we were last night, even a few crumbled tortilla chips.
That’s it! This is an incredibly cost-effective salad…you can feed a tribe and stretch your grocery budget with a meal that looks and tastes amazing.
