Vegan salad dinners

[LeighLeigh00]

Vegetarian here but slowly trying to cut down on dairy products. I've fallen into bad habits this Winter and have been eating mountains of carby stodge these past few months but now the warm weather has finally arrived I'm looking to come out of hibernation and would love to hear your recommendations for hearty vegan salads.

It doesn't have to be a "diet" type salad, something fairly indulgent is fine, but now that I can no longer rely on mozzarella/goats cheese to make up the more substantial element I'm stumped to know how to throw together a salad that's tasty and still has a mix of textures.

What do you use in place of meat/fish/cheese for your vegan salad?

I like adding pine nuts, roasted sweet potato and wedges of red onion, and chick peas to a dark leafy salad.

I'm not vegan but I'm thinking roasted butternut squash, sweet potato, courgettes, aubergine, mushrooms, kidney beans, chickpeas and avocado.

Not vegan but boiled eggs can help make it more filling.

I add this to my salads.

Sun dried tomatoes and artichokes too

Not vegan but boiled eggs can help make it more filling.

I’m a bit confused about why you would suggest that on a thread specifically asking for vegan salad recipes.

Falafel, spring onion and grated carrot are nice additions to leafy salads.

Roasted squash. Toasted sunflower seeds (dry in a frying pan for a couple of minutes) pumpkin seeds.

Good call on the pine nuts @QuantumPixies. What type of dressing would you recommend with those flavours?

I was given these two recipes the other day:

1. Dice and roast butternut squash. Add a tin of drained brown lentil, chopped cooked beetroot that has been pickled, raw red pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper

2. roast chopped red onion and aubergine with ground cumin, ground coriander and chilli flakes. Add in drained chickpeas for the last 5 mins. Lemon or lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper

The first one originally had feta in it too so maybe some cheese substitute or something salty of your choosing.

(I would serve both over lettuce etc, maybe with some flat bread)

Fennel, apple and walnuts with a lemon juice, maple syrup and olive oil dressing.

Yum!

A friend made me what she calls a Mexican burrito bowl recently. It was a Mexican style rice (or you could use quinoa I'm sure) with black beans, corn, peppers, onions, lettuce etc topped with guacamole. I think there was a lime and something dressing in there too, was very nice!

‘Purpledaisies’ because she’s a vegetarian trying to avoid cheese (hence the vegan bit, but not an actual vegan)

It was just a suggestion

What type of dressing would you recommend with those flavours?

A vegan honey mustard equivalent one is really good. I use maple syrup, Dijon or whole grain mustard and olive oil.

Those packs of ready cooked puy lentils are good.
Edamame - can buy them frozen and chuck in.
Toasted pitta bread in a fatoush style salad.

I like to add rocket leaves and sliced apple or orange to my salad.
In a normal salad, I do lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, onions etc all chopped up small and spun in the spinner. I cant stand a salad that is not chopped.
Also new potatoes are nice with some mint as an addition to the above.

Coleslaw with white and red cabbage, carrots, onion, gherkins, capers, toasted walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Mustard and lemon juice instead of mayo.

Also get some different oils, walnut, avocado, sesame etc. Can make a difference to a basic salad.