Weekend Recipes: My Favorite Salads!
This is my first week of class for my Intro to Nutrition course that I teach at Tulane and one of the things I told my undergrads is that half of their plates should be fruits & vegetables at every meal. Insert a lot of big eyes and laughs.
Does my plate look like that all the time? No and no and no, but one way I looove to get veggies in is salads. Now let me tell you, I don’t love all salads. I am really interested in either salads with a lot of toppings or salads with a really good dressing or texture, because to me those are the best parts!
So without further ado, here are my favorite salads that I eat all the time and take to every potluck I’m invited to and that you should make for the cookouts you’re going to this weekend:
Kale Caesar Salad
Whole Foods here used to have a kale caesar salad that I was obsessed with, and I haven’t seen it in a long time so I set out to make one myself! I found a recipe from Kathleen Barnes who is the sister of a friend I did my Dietetic Internship with at Vanderbilt, and she is stylish, hilarious, and talented and you should go follow her! The kale caesar salad recipe is saved in her Instagram Story Highlights and the dressing is also egg and dairy free for those of you that need that! I added shaved raw cheddar on the top of mine since I didn’t have parmesan and you could even use Lemon Vitality essential oil in the dressing if you didn’t have lemons on hand!
Go watch her highlights to get the full recipe but you’ll need:
Garlic
Lemons
Worcestershire (I get a GF one at Whole Foods!)
Whole Grain Dijon Mustard
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Pro tip I just learned, how did I not know this?! Massage your Kale before you add the dressing, it makes all the difference!
Five-Minute Salad: Goat Cheese, Herb, & White Bean
The first time I saw Ellie Krieger on the Food Network I could tell she was a nutritionist I wanted to follow. I love her cookbooks and this five-minute salad is from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Food You Crave. If you invite me to your house I will be bringing this salad. I like to add red onions and you could use any dressing!
Salads that aren’t Salads
It’s true, I love salads that don’t have greens, because I’m really just here for the toppings unless it’s Kale or Arugula, anyone else? Here are some of my faves!
This tomato and cucumber salad also from Kathleen, I’m telling you, she has great recipes!
I love anything Danielle Walker creates, like this Heirloom Tomato, Watermelon, & Basil Salad and all of her books have great salads!
If there are beets on a salad with goat cheese on a menu I’m ordering it. I love roasted beets but haven’t mastered not making a huge mess when cooking them at home!
My friend Lesley did a great post on five minute salads for busy moms you should check out and I just found this Roasted Autumn Salad and will be making it ASAP, even though it’s not “technically” a salad.
What are your favorite salads?! I want to know!
