Alternative Salads

After a warm start, we have been having a relatively cool summer here in the UK, so my usual summer habit of living on salads hasn't really taken off yet. Only eating a salad a few times a week, I know I would never get through salad greens before they started getting yucky (it's a challenge for one person even during proper salad season) and not having greens on hand further inhibited the salad eating, until I realised: I don't actually need leafy greens for a salad. A salad can be anything. And it turns out, when you leave out the leafy greens, you're left with stuff that actually fills you up and you can make it more than 20 minutes without feeling hungry again.

So, if you would like to eat more salads, but are facing the same or different challenges in doing so, here is a non-leafy virtual salad bar which you can pick and mix to your satisfaction:

• grated carrots
• grated beets
• tinned chickpeas
• tinned black beans
• tinned butter beans
• roasted sweet potato cubes
• roasted squash cubes
• peas
• raw zucchini (or in my case marrow) cut into thin pieces
• fresh red pepper
• fresh green beans
• tomatoes
• green onions
• cauliflower (fresh or cooked)
• broccoli (same)
• shredded fresh brussels sprouts
• apple
• grapefruit
• peanuts
• sesame seeds

I can't remember the last salad I made to a recipe. Usually I improvise to a basic formula: a base of fresh veg, a fruit, and a cheese and/or protein. The fruit gives it a lift and a pleasing sweet/salt dynamic, the cheese brings umami, and the protein fills you up. Beans and their ilk are really good for this last one, and the types I've listed above have a particular hearty savouriness that give some heft to the salad both in flavour and staying power. If you have a very flavourful salad then pick a light cheese; if your salad needs interest then crumble something more intense into it. You figure out the balances with a little experimentation.