It’s January. Everyone is talking about New Year’s resolutions, which of course include words like “diet”, “cleansing”, “getting into size6”. As a salad person, it is a shame to see people associate it with “skinny” food. Well I think it deserves more culinary attention than that. Vegetables are satisfying super healthy food that offers us a variety of nutrition, texture and flavour. Of course, just eating veggies without sufficient protein and fat will cause an imbalance in nutrition and make you feel hungry later. You don’t have to starve yourself and chew on celery to lose weight. It’s all about making little changes without killing the enjoyment. The key to health is home cooking, moderation and regular physical activities/ exercise. Enjoy your life and don’t be too harsh on yourselves:)
You need to make your food interesting for our every day enjoyment of eating. Nourish your senses! Think about flavour when savouring a mouthful (sweet, sour, salty), texture (crunchy, creamy, crisp, juicy), and nutrition (a balance of carbs, protein and fat). Add nuts and seeds to your salad for crunchiness. Need protein? Add any kind of meat, fish or tofu to your bowl. Sweet tooth? No problem. Add candied nuts, chopped dried fruits or roasted root vegetables, which has natural sweetness in them. See they can satisfy you as well as give you the requisite health benefits. Still not sure? Do your research or even ask me:) I get so excited just talking about it.
My lunch is usually in a bowl. It is easy to prepare for a single person and means no dishes 🙂
To make this quinoa and veggie salad, I just take out whatever leftover I have in the fridge – butternut pumpkin, eggplant, sage, basil and quinoa. Simply cook them up and put in a bowl. A trick is to cook quinoa in a pot and add veggies towards the end. Then they get beautifully steamed and again no additional dishes. I add a miso dressing for extra flavour and healthy fat.
Another example of salad bowl is Salad Niçoise with tuna. I think it is a great emergency meal when you don’t have time to go down to the shops or have no time to cook. There is not much cooking process involved in this dish except boiling egg and potato. Put together semi boiled egg, fresh or canned tuna, boiled potato, olives, anchovies and green beans on a bed of green salad. Dress with mustard vinaigrette.
