Great salads

[itsjustthewayitwas]

Please inspire me with your favourite salads. I want to make them for lunch to avoid eating carbs apart from Greek salad I’m hopeless at making them!

I love a lentil salad. You can make a big bowl with whatever you have in the house and have some for a couple of days. Todays lentil salad was-

tin of lentils - rinse well
finely chopped red/yellow peppers, cucumber. Spring onion
finely sliced mint
roasted broccoli florets
toasted pine nuts

Mix all together

For the dressing I mixed lemon juice, olive oil and maple syrup and seasoned with salt and pepper

Lovely with some feta or some grilled halloumi

Op is trying to avoid carbs...

You need the salad grid! See here:

https://food52.com/blog/24378-salt-fat-acid-heat-samin-nosrat-salad-tips

That sounds lovely and low on carbs.

Thai Sweet Chilli chicken and mango. I use a pre bought sauce for speed and stick the chicken in the oven, I don't use much. Then the usual lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, drizzle with French dressing.

I really like this one

https://georgieeats.co.uk/raw-broccoli-salad/

My favourite is also a raw broccoli salad....
Finely chopped broccoli, grated carrot, spring or red onions, chopped apple, chickpeas and a homemade dressing (I use olive oil, Dijon, honey and wine vinegar but you could make a lower fat one I guess)

Following, I love salads but I never know what dressings to use, and I'm not very adventurous with eg raw brocolli or cabbage etc.

Feta, black olive, tomato, watermelon, mint, cucumber - better for very hot weather to be fair. You could chuck in some strawberries too

Carrot shredded, peanuts, sesame oil, chilli, raisins, coriander, honey, add whatever protein you like

Green beans, broccoli, tahini dressing, bit of lemon zest and juice, could add some pine nuts - add whatever protein you like

This week Ive been eating cooked chicken, with cooked peas, sweetcorn with a bean dip that I make with olive oil, white beans of any sort, lemon juice, garlic, tahnini (so sort of houmous but with beans).

Beetroot salad with some very very very strong cheddar, I would just by the ready made beetroot salads (cant stand the mess in the household)

Also this week Ive been eating gildas - cocktail sticks of pickled onion, gerkin, olive, anchovy, red pepper, kept in olive oil (or brine) and eating them with marinated prawns. The prawns were from lidl, I think my gildas were from lidl but you can make your own

Also a nice simple one is just raw cauliflower and houmous. There is something so fresh and sweet about raw cauliflower that goes really nice with nutty houmous. Thats more of a snack to be fair

Dont forget little jars of capers to scatter over and add flavour, also bags of mixed seeds for protein, nutrients and crunch.

The problem is that most of the things that make a great salad from a culinary point of view (cheese, meat, nuts, oils…) also add a lot of calories, with perhaps the honourable exceptions of lentils and roasted vegetables.

I love the sound of this - thank you!

Placemarking to come back to as all of your suggestions sound lovely!