We at Food Charmers love to eat healthy. We also love the occasional indulgence—especially if it involves chocolate—but we like to at least try to eat a ton of veggies, fruits and protein in attempt to balance things out. So it’s no surprise we are big salad eaters.
Some people think of salad as lettuce. Boring! That won’t fill you up. The key to actually being full after eating a salad is to make it with a variety of fresh, crisp tasty ingredients. And the key to a healthy salad is to not drench it in creamy dressing or top it with fried food.
Lately we’ve been big into this salad bowl trend which is a fun way to test not only your chopping skills but your artistic abilities. They come out looking almost too pretty to eat!
Each time we make it we switch things up a bit but here are some basic guidelines to get you started if you’ve never made one before:
- Use a decent sized bowl. We like 6″ or 7″ in diameter.
- Cook your grain while you chop all the veggies. We usually use black rice, kamut or quinoa.
- You can cook your protein now too. Try egg whites with different seasonings, white meat chicken strips, vegan chicken, seitan or veggie crumbles.
- Select some veggies, chop them and section them on a large plate.
- Adding beans is an option if you want more protein and weight to the salad.
- Once everything is ready, it’s time to go bowling!
- Tightly pack each ingredient in the bowl—you might want to use a large wooden spoon or spatula to hold things in place as you go.
- Top with some kind of nut or dried cranberries or raisins if you’d like.
- Make and add dressing.
- Enjoy!
This particular bowl pictured is: Kale, Bell Pepper, Carrots, Chickpeas, Egg Whites, Zucchini, Red Cabbage, Green Leaf Lettuce, Kamut, Radish and Pistachios. The dressing is a bit of sesame oil, rice vinegar, Sriracha sauce, 1/2 juiced lime, sesame seeds and a splash of honey. Other veggies we often use include purple carrots, raw sweet potato, cucumber, celery and spinach.