A lot of people say they don’t like salad. I guess their expectation of a salad is some iceberg lettuce, poorly sliced tomatoes and a sad cucumber, and I don’t blame them! Eating salad out can be both heaven and hell. Sometimes you are treated to this delicious, hearty, healthy plate of plant goodies and sometimes you just get a plate with no love at all (the above-mentioned example is a real life experience).
So, how do we fix this?
Salad dressing
Though salad dressing is nice and can improve even the poorest (well maybe not the one I mentioned earlier) salad, it can also be a calorie bomb. Oftentimes salad dressing is made out of mayonnaise, which is pretty calorie dense, so be aware of the amount you scoop up. Other times it contains a lot of sugar to enhance the taste, and we don’t want to eat sugar if we don’t know we are eating sugar, right?.
A simple way of achieving a salad dressing is by combining 2 parts olive oil, 1 part balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Easy, but it does the trick.
Prepare the salad as if it was any other dish
This is the real key to a good salad. Why should you just chop up some vegetables and throw them on a plate because you decided to eat a salad? If you put your heart and mind into the salad you will achieve a rich meal and it will be so tasty that you don’t have to worry about any salad dressing.
No need to worry about not feeling full after you have been eating this hearty salad.
- 300 g silken tofu firm
- 1 broccoli head
- 1 carrot
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 handfuls baby spinach
- 10 cm (4 inch) cucumber
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- 1 handful walnuts
- 2 tbsp soy sauce dark
- 2 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- 1 red chilli
- Salt
- Pepper
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Open up the tofu and let some water run out four a couple of minutes and then dice it in to cubes.
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Mince 2 garlic cloves and the chilli and mix them together with soy sauce, olive oil, salt and pepper.
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Pour the marinade into a plastic bag and then add the tofu, gently soaking the tofu in the marinade. Put in the refrigerator for an hour (the longer the better).
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Pick the florets from the broccoli.
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Dice the carrot into coins and mince the remaining garlic. Heat up some olive oil in a frying pan and fry until the carrots have become a little bit soft.
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Put the carrots aside in a small bowl but don’t turn off the stove. Add the broccoli to the pan and fry until desired tenderness. *
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When the broccoli is done, put it aside in another bowl and pour the entire plastic bag (marinade and everything) into the pan and fry until the tofu has gotten crusts on all sides.
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Put the tofu aside and let cool a bit.
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In the meantime cut the cherry tomatoes in half, and cut the cucumber in quarters.
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Plate everything on a big plate and top of with the walnuts.
Enjoy!
* The broccoli will be a bit hard since it’s hard to fry them soft without burning them. If you like a more soft texture you can steam them instead.
