Salads as a plant-based person can be a bit sad. I like vegetables, but eating vegetables with more vegetables? It’s boring, and doesn’t fill you up. You need those carbs, fats and protein – the big three. I’ve been trying to work on my nutrition recently, and as part of that I’ve been eating salads for most lunches. Because salads can be harder when you don’t eat meat, fish or dairy, I thought I’d share some of my favourite recipes that I use everyday and some top tips for making salads,
Tip #1 – Variety. If you only use iceberg lettuce, then your salad will be sad. Try using mixed leaves, leafy greens (like kale and spinach) and some leafy herbs (like coriander). Try having variety with your other veg too – having different colours of pepper for example, as they all have varying levels of sweetness.
Tip #2 – Texture. Try mixing soft and crunchy foods, for example adding nuts and seeds to a salad will make it so much more interesting.
Tip #3 – Fats, protein and carbs. This combination of things is what makes you full and satisfied – it’s also what makes the salad taste nice. Try adding protein (vegan meats, chickpeas, lentils etc), fats (avocado, nuts etc) and carbs (rice, vegetables, quinoa etc) to all your salads.
Avocado and ‘bacon’ salad with lemon and mustard dressing
So, for this salad, I combined kale, spinach, cucumber, celery, tomato, avocado, some mixed salad leaves, a little bit of couscous and some viv era bacon pieces. This is by far the most accurate tasting bacon product I’ve ever had, so I was really excited to use it in a salad. I paired this salad with a lemon and mustard dressing, which is made up of a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice and a few tablespoons of plant-based yoghurt. If you want more zing, add some more lemon juice!
Chickpea ‘tuna’ salad
Tuna mayo is one of the only things I miss, so it’s really nice to be able to make something that gives me that feel. If you’re looking for a true substitute, you won’t find it here, but it’s still really tasty. So, similar base as the last recipe – spinach, kale, mixed leaves, tomato, avocado, green pepper and orange pepper. Then, the ‘tuna’. There are loads of recipes which I’ll link down below, but I tend to do this mixture: One tin of chickpeas, drained, mashed up with about 3 table spoons of vegan mayo, a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, a few teaspoons of dill, a pinch of garlic powder, the juice of half a lemon and some salt and pepper. You can also add red onion or sweetcorn if you fancy it. A lot of recipes add capers, but I hate them, so I don’t tend to, but the option is there if you want some more saltiness. Just plop the ‘tuna’ on top of your salad.
Black bean salad
You’ve got the jist now, but here’s the base for this salad. Spinach, mixed leaves, kale, red and green pepper, cucumber, avocado, and celery. For the black beans mixture I mixed a drained tin of black beans with half a red onion, the juice of half a lime, a couple of tomatoes, sweetcorn, chilli flakes and some salt and pepper. My tip here is to chop up the tomatoes to the same size as the beans so that everything fits on your fork! Of course, you could also add some grated cheese of your choice to this, or some nutritional yeast.
So that’s it for this week! I hope that this was helpful, and please let me know if you try any of these salads out, or if you want any more recipes. I also share new recipes over on my Instagram, so if you want some more, that’s the place to go!
Extra recipes:
Waste Makes Waste 