Everyday Tossed Salad
This Everyday Tossed Salad is an easy garden salad to pull together to serve as a starter or have as a light main. I’ve tossed this salad with a delicious light dressing made with avocado oil, lemon juice, turmeric, garlic, Dijon mustard and honey.
You can serve this simple fresh garden salad as a light main or as a side dish with everything from Hearty Lentil Stew to Chicken Fajita Stuffed Sweet Potatoes.
Eating a mostly raw plant-based diet rich with fruits and vegetables as part of your daily wellness program is a good way to help strengthen your immune system and improve your overall health. And if you’re wondering how to start a plant based diet, eating a big beautiful salad every day is the easiest way to get started. Make yourself big bold salads that are pretty, satisfying (filling) and fun to eat. Having a variety of homemade salad dressing recipes in your arsenal helps a lot to accomplish this! A good dressing can really make a simple salad taste special.
WHAT’S IN A GARDEN SALAD
A good garden salad is a versatile and whimsical combination of your favorite garden salad ingredients (or whatever happens to be in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator). It can be filling enough to serve as a main, but it can also sub-in for a side to accompany a main dish (like pasta or grilled chicken or fish) any night of the week.
TOSSED SALAD RECIPE
The ingredients for this tossed salad recipe is my riff on a salad that I had at a restaurant last year. I loved everything about it. The cauliflower is grated or finely chopped and looks a little like feta cheese. The dressing for this salad is a new favorite. It’s made with avocado oil (which is more mild in flavor than olive oil), lemon juice, turmeric, garlic, Dijon mustard and honey. I love the turmeric in this dressing for the added nutritional (antioxidant & anti-inflammatory) benefits.
- Combination of Romaine lettuce and mixed greens (baby kale, spring greens arugula, spinach, etc)
- White or yellow corn, fresh, grilled or frozen
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Radishes
- Cauliflower
- Avocado
- Golden raisins
- Sunflower seeds
- Turmeric vinaigrette
MORE ADD-IN SALAD INGREDIENTS
Again this salad is versatile, so add in any combination of garden salad ingredients you like. Here’s some ideas…
- Shaved purple cabbage
- Grated carrot
- Beets, raw or steamed (grated or chopped)
- Onions (purple or green)
- Mushrooms
- Sliced almonds, chopped Marcona almonds, hemp seeds, pepitas, etc.
- Chopped dates instead of golden raisins
- Micro-greens
- Berries (especially blueberries)
- Croutons
- Chickpeas (if you want to make a vegan meal of it)
- This Healthy Citrus Vinaigrette, Cleansing Lemon Herb Vinaigrette and this Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette also make great dressings for your everyday tossed salads.