Salads GALORE!!!

Salads.

I love to make them and I love to eat them.

I have compiled a small collection of my most recent salads. You might have seen some of them before but I promise that there are also new ones that will make your mouth water.

Ready? Set? Salad!

In a dressing of light Hellman’s mayonaise thinned with a bit of water, garlic and salt, I added finely cut Oxheart cabbage, raw pecan nuts and goji berries.

Oxheart cabbage, which have a most wonderful mild and not at all farty-flavour – looks like this when it isn’t cut up:

Cucumbers and melons are related and taste quite good together. Here we have cantaloup melon with cucumber in a olive oil/balasmic dressing with dill and red onions. Fresh dill is best but I only had dried and that turned out delicious too.

Now, this is just a classic and a little bit boring potato salad. Creme fraiche or sour cream with lots of garlic and parsley and salt. Naturally, you can vary this endlessly adding other herbs (try chives!), spices (try curry!), onions (try spring onions! try shallots!), roasted vegetables (try red peppers!, try squash!)  etc…

Baby spinach with strawberries, roasted cashews, Picobello cheese, mixed herbs (fresh basil and coriander) and edible flowers. Drizzled with olie oil and balsamic glaze. Takes less than 10 minuts to make!

Pretty!

Yes, I am pretty crazy about adding edible flowers to my food. It just looks so pretty, I think. Here we have greens with pear, parmesan, walnuts, rose petals and pansy flowers, also known as “Heartsease” – and who wouldn’t feel an ease in the heart when eating this??

Tomatoes with Turkish feta cheese – the fat, salty, creamy kind that comes in a big block – it is simply the best! Forget about those little cubes!! With lots of basil, flowers and to add crunchiness: Wild rice, popped in olive oil and salted.

Greens, watermelon, feta and honey-roasted sunflower seeds drizzled with olive oil and balsamic glaze.

Arugula, tomatoes, olives, spring onions, fresh basil and feta cheese – dressed with garlic/vinegar/olive oil and salt. Never use too much salt when also using feta – it is very salty in it self.

Greens, fresh figs, peaches and goat cheese. Dressed with 2 teaspoons strawberry jam (just do it!), olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar and salt.

Puy lentils with heaps of parley, walnuts and those strong, sundried black olives. Mix with an olive oil/sherry vinegar dressing while warm.

Greens, raspberries, goat cheese, walnuts and the usual dressing. You are getting to know all my secrets by now!

The world’s easiest tzatziki: Greek drained yogurt (Total is best!) 2 or 10 %, garlic, salt and coarsly grated cucumber, pressed to get the water out. Stirr and serve. It literally takes me less than 6 minuts to make and it goes great with say roasted chicken, fish, as a sauce with potatoes or rice – the sky is the limit! My 6-year old loooves this. Sometimes I cheat and use one cucumber and one squash to make it more food-ish and to sneak vegetables into the kid.

Coleslaw with a twist: Hellmann’s light thinned with water. Add garlic, finely chopped carrots and cabbage with dried abricots and walnuts.

That was it. Now you know all my secrets and I’ve realized that I use pretty much the same model for every salad I make: Greens, fruit, cheese, nut, dressing. Henceforth, I shall try to use less cheese and nuts because they carry a lot of calories.

I’ll keep you posted.

Now, I could really use some lunch. (Great! It’s 9.46 am.)