Five Ways to Make Your Salad Delicious

When done right, salad can be one of the most revitalising meals in the world. Sourcing fresh produce, adding a tasty salad dressing and sprinkling some crunch on top are just some of the ways you can elevate your salad. Here are five ways for you to create your perfect bowl!

Variety & Colour

What’s your favourite colour?  Well, when you’re making a salad, it’s best to have quite a few. The colours of fruit and veg are caused by their phytonutrients, natural compounds with powerful effects. Research shows that reds contain antioxidants, greens protect your eyes, yellows help your skin, and purples enhance your memory.

Adding lots of different kinds of food not only makes it healthier, but also more attractive. Don’t just limit yourself to fruit and vegetables, though. You can also add grains, nuts, beans, seeds, flowers, herbs and seasoning.

Dressing

Just like us, no salad should leave the kitchen undressed. There are lots of different products out there so it can be difficult to find a healthy salad dressing to buy. The majority of dressings appear as one of three types.

You can use:

• Oil: purified plant fat. Using plain oil a simple way to instantly add rich flavor
• Vinaigrette: oil-vinegar mix, often supplemented with seasoning or herbs. Vinaigrettes will create a complex profile and add tang.
• Creamy Dressing: fat-oil mix. Similar to mayonnaise, these creamy dressings are incredibly flavoursome, but can be unhealthy.

Thanks to evolution, our bodies crave fat, which is why creaming dressings add some much-needed flavour to your salad. However, you can find tasty salad dressings with no added oils or preservatives, so you get the best of both worlds.

Herbs

Before you start looking for a healthy salad dressing to buy, think about some herbs too! They have been used for millennia in cooking, medicine and rituals. They can be added to practically any meal, so why not salad? We can use common examples, like parsley, basil, or coriander, but also try to branch out and include mint, thyme, lemongrass and dill.

As well as adding unique taste to your meal, you’ll gain a lot of potential health benefits! Each herb has its own distinct properties, but they all have “potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects,” as reported by the Washington Post.

Crunch

As far as a tasty salad dressing and herbs go, there really is no substitute for some much-needed texture. Yes, croutons are great, but there are so many more options! You can add all kinds of beans, nuts, seeds and lentils. There are wonderful pre-mixed products out there, to make preparing a salad even easier.

Adding a crunch to your leaves is just a more interesting experience. Fortunately, it’s also quite healthy, too. Nuts, beans and legumes are famous for their high protein. In fact, they are easily the best plant-based sources of this crucial nutrient!

Season

If you plan to tell a chef that seasoning isn’t important, make sure you’re a fast runner. Seasoning is a crucial step when preparing food, so don’t forget to treat your salad to a little salt and pepper. Spices and Seasonings are powerful stuff, too; a study from the University of Michigan found that turmeric and black pepper have anti-cancer properties!

As with anything, be careful you don’t add too much. You can dress and season your salad separately. Alternatively, you could look for a seasoned salad dressing. Some healthy salad dressings contain more complicated flavour profiles, such as tea leaves, lime, sesame, garlic and chilli.

What is the perfect Salad?

Because there is no one true salad, anyone can create their personal plate of paradise. Experiment with your levels of oil, herbs and seasonings and you’ll soon have mastered it! There really is no limit to the possibilities and customisation, so the trick is to try and try again.

If you’re searching for a healthy salad dressing to buy, consider Mimi’s Laphet Tea Dressing, which contains half the calories and almost 90% less sugar than a comparable balsamic vinegar. They also offer a Sunkissed Crunch, packed with nuts and beans and seeds.