Looking to make your salads more interesting? You're in the right place!
I love a good Simple Salad, but sometimes a more complex, more interesting salad is a better fit when you need a change or when you have several different kinds of produce ready for harvest at once.
Choose 1-3 ingredients from each of the steps of the Interesting Salad Protocol below. Experiment and find out which combinations you like best!
Table of Contents:
Step 1: The Base, Leafy Greens
Step 2: The Frame, Additional Veggies
Step 3: The Insulation, Protein
Step 4: The Floor, Nuts and Seeds
Step 7: The Decor, Dressings and Toppings
Step 1: The Base
Like building a house, your Interesting Salad building starts with a foundation, a base. This typically consists of leafy greens.
But unlike a house, some complex salads, such as Mediterranean-style salads, do not include a leafy green base. I make a lot of these salads myself during the winter or other times I do not have access to as many quality leafy greens.
If that is your situation or preference, feel free to skip this step of the Interesting Salad protocol and proceed to the next step. I include it because leafy greens are some of the most nutrient-dense, rewarding, and easy-to-grow (even in the shade) members of any garden, and many Westerners are used to seeing them in salad.
Using a single type of leafy green can be a great way to use up a large quantity of that green. On the other hand, you can make your salad even more interesting by using 2-3 types of greens for your base.
Any edible leafy green can work as a Base or a Partial Base, meaning that it is mixed together with another green.
A few ideas for an Interesting Salad Base are as follows:
- Lettuce
- Spinach
- Endive
- Arugula
- Lambsquarter
- Chard
- Kale
- Tatsoi
- Bok choy / pak choi
- Komatsuna
- Mizuna
- Dandelion leaves
- Beet greens
- Dock / sorrel
- Radish greens
- Chickweed
- Sunflower leaves
- Amaranth leaves
- Purslane
- Cabbage
- Nasturtium leaves
- Orach
- Chicory
- Radicchio
Be sure to research any new-to-you plant before consuming and check it against your personal sensitivities. For example, greens that are high in oxalic acid such as dock, chard, and spinach should be cooked first or avoided altogether if you are sensitive to oxalates. Kale, tatsoi, and other Brassica greens should be cooked first if you are sensitive to glucosinolates.
As with any plant, be sure to try a new-to-you green in small amounts before adding it to a large salad. This is a good way to check for allergies and sensitivities.
Step 2: The Frame
The next step in the Interesting Salad Protocol includes other veggies that frame your salad with flavors and nutrients and provide structure.
Regardless of how many different veggies you pick for this category, I highly recommend generous portions of each.
If you choose to do a Mediterranean-style salad or another salad that omits leafy greens, your Frame will also be your Base. As such, you may want to at least double the quantity of each ingredient you use from this category.
A few ideas for Frame ingredients are as follows:
- Cucumbers
- Bell peppers
- Jalapeños
- Tomatoes
- Tomatillos
- Radishes
- Peas
- Corn
- Carrots
- Celery
- Parsnips
- Red or green onions, cooked or raw
- Leeks, cooked or raw
- Fennel stalks and bulbs, cooked or raw
- Sweet potatoes, steamed or roasted
- Mini potatoes, halved and steamed or roasted
- Eggplant, diced and steamed or sautéed
- Artichoke hearts
- Asparagus
- Green beans
- Avocados
- Summer squash, cooked or raw
- Winter squash, cooked
Grilled, sautéed, stirfried, or roasted veggies like beets and zucchini can also be included in the Frame if desired.
Step 3: The Insulation
Next up, add some protein, such as meat, dairy, and/or tofu, to insulate your salad and make it more filling.
A few ideas for protein Insulation are as follows:
- Chicken pieces
- Ground beef
- Steak pieces or other beef pieces
- Ground lamb
- Lamb pieces
- Turkey pieces
- Ground turkey
- Ham pieces
- Torn-up pieces of lunchmeat such as turkey, ham, or roast beef
- Tofu
- Tempeh
- Bacon
- Shredded, cubed, or diced hard cheeses such as cheddar or manchego
- Soft cheeses such as feta or brie
- Cottage cheese
- Eggs, typically hardboiled, but any form of cooked eggs will work.
- Salmon pieces
- Shrimp
- Tuna
- Chickpeas
- Beans
- Lentils
- Soybeans / edamame
Step 4: The Floor
The floor of your Interesting Salad consists of nuts and seeds. These provide both a solid crunch and extra nourishment.
A few ideas for Floor ingredients are as follows:
- Almonds
- Hazelnuts
- Cashews
- Brazil nuts
- Pine nuts
- Pecans
- Walnuts
- Pistachios
- Peanuts
- Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
- Chia seeds
- Flaxseeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Hemp seeds
Step 5: The Walls
As you add the walls, you really start to see your Interesting Salad take on a clearer, sweeter, more personal identity. These typically consist of culinary fruits.
This is another category where 1 addition already dresses up a salad, but adding 2 or 3 can make it even more interesting.
Adding more than 1 fruit also works well when you have an abundance of multiple fruits such as when strawberry and blueberry seasons overlap or when your forested property or foraging spot produces more blackberries, salmonberries, and rosehips at once than you can keep up with!
A few ideas for Wall ingredients are as follows:
- Apples
- Pears
- Cherries
- Peaches
- Pears
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Salmonberries
- Loganberries
- Cranberries
- Rosehips, de-seeded and de-haired
- Grapes
- Watermelon and other melons
- Oranges
- Grapefruits
- Kiwis
- Pomegranate
- Figs
Step 6: The Furniture
The furniture of your Interesting Salad includes grains and grainlike foods that provide extra warmth, comfort, and fluffy texture.
A few ideas for Furniture ingredients are as follows:
- Rice
- Quinoa
- Millet
- Buckwheat
- Barley
- Amaranth
- Polenta (made from corn)
- Orzo
- Farro
- Couscous
- Macaroni
- Riced cauliflower
Step 7: The Decor
To add some flair and pull everything together, we'll end with the decor. This includes two categories, dressings and toppings.
Some dressing possibilities are as follows:
- Typical salad dressings like ranch, Caesar, and Italian dressings, homemade or store-bought
- Creative homemade dressings
- Infused vinegars, my personal favorite
- Infused oils. Be sure to use herbal oils and other infused oils that are safe for internal use and consumption.
- Vinaigrette
- Oil and vinegar, which can be as simple as plain olive or sesame oil with balsamic or apple cider vinegar or as creative as multi-herb-infused vinegar and multi-herb-infused oil
- Olive oil and lemon juice
- Lemon, lime, orange, or grapefruit juice with salt
And here are a few topping ideas, though the possibilities are truly endless. Add as few or as many as your heart desires:
- Fresh herbs such as peppermint, basil, cilantro, fennel leaf, parsley, dill, and more
- Edible flowers like calendula and clover
- Pickles, meaning pickled vegetables, fruits, and/or herbs, including both traditional pickles and quick pickles
- Minced garlic
- Hummus
- Guacamole
- Other dips and spreads
- Salsa
- Dried fruit
- Dehydrated onions
- Powdered herbs and greens
- Protein powder
- Olives
- Water chestnuts
- Sprouts
- Tahini
- Croutons
- Tortilla chips or strips
And there you have it! You just built an Interesting Salad. Enjoy!
A Note About Simple Salads
In this article, I've covered the Interesting Salad Protocol. But as I said at the onset, I absolutely adore Simple Salads.
Simple Salads usually consist of 2-4 ingredients. This doesn't include any personal flairs you may add such as the Step 7 dressings and toppings, though most Simple Salads don't need many additions.
I share a lot of Simple Salad ideas on my simple uses pages. I typically mention 1-3 ingredients to pair with the featured plant.
For example, my tomato page lists several Simple Salad ideas. A couple of these are (1) cucumbers and feta and (2) peas and arugula. This means that one Simple Salad could include tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta, and a different Simple Salad could contain tomatoes, peas, and arugula. You might enjoy the first combination as-is, as many people do, or you might want to take it to the next level with a fresh herb like basil, oregano, peppermint, or dill and a light dressing like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.
So there is still a lot of room for personalization and creativity with Simple Salads. You might even start with a Simple Salad, add an ingredient here and another there, and end up with an Interesting Salad that you didn't even set out to make!
But the idea of Simple Salads is, as the name implies, to keep it simple. This keeps with the focus of Plant to Plate and the simple uses section in particular.
Simple Salads offer an easy way to do exactly that. Fresh tomatoes are so delicious by themselves, but you may be a little tired of plain tomatoes by week 2 or 3 of tomato season. You might have cucumbers coming ripe by then though, and a simple pairing of tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta is a great way to eat something different and delicious while also efficiently using up both crops. And when you've eaten enough of that pairing, maybe you'll move onto other simple uses like the tomato-pea-arugula Simple Salad or even onto tomato basil soup for the tomatoes and simplified tzatziki for the cucumbers.
That's all for today. Happy growing, harvesting, building, and enjoying!