A good green salad is one of my favorite lunches. But over the years I have recognized that a salad is only healthy if you load it with robust ingredients. If you are a gardener than you can probably relate to what I'm saying. A healthy salad goes even further than the garden.
I like to add protein, so I'm fueled for longer periods. There is nothing worse than having a salad for lunch that I thoroughly enjoyed and then find myself hungry again 2 hours later. Can you relate? It is very possible to make a green salad that will satisfy your appetite for hours without adding negative carbs like bread.
I experimented with this idea for quite some time and several years ago, I also ditched the dressing all together. I added more protein and stuck with minimal ingredients to create one of the best salads I have ever enjoyed. I still drizzle my salad with "goodness" but it's not a traditional dressing.
No Heavy Dressing and Tips
So, what in the world do I use? Well, it's very simple with my Italian heritage I went straight back to olive oil but skipped the vinegar and exchanged it with my house spice mix and sometimes I use the homestead blend seasonings I shared with you last year.
I also prefer using a 50/50 variety of baby lettuce and darker greens. This could be anything like kale, spinach or even beet greens. These greens hold more nutritional value and stick with you longer. There is a long list of darker greens so choose what tastes good to you and enjoy.
It would have been fantastic if the greens in this salad were from my garden but that wasn't the case since, I'm still working on installing our new growing space. Everything seems to be a process when you move but I'm getting there.
We're going to dive into the rest of this very simple green salad recipe without the heavy dressing. Give it a try and perhaps just try this concept with a small salad incase it's not to your liking. Let me also encourage you to try additional spice blends that may be more suitable to your taste.
A Green Salad with Protein Ingredients
- 1 Grilled chicken thigh diced. (normally for me this is leftover chicken)
- A variety of baby leaf lettuce and dark greens
- 1/2 or whole avocado diced.
- 1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese (fresh is best)
- 1 mini sweet pepper diced.
- 1 tsp spice (homestead blend)
- Drizzles of your favorite Olive Oil
The final step is to grab a plate and lay out the greens first. Add your chicken, avocado, grated cheese and mini pepper. Sprinkle seasoning around the top of the salad and finish by drizzling olive oil over the top. If you want additional protein, you could add slivered almonds.
I prefer making a salad with fewer ingredients so that the flavors complement instead of devouring one another. Hope you enjoy and you can get my homestead blend spice recipe here.
See the Good,
Carole