how do you make a good salad?

[vegma]

Everyone always talks about vegans "only eating salads". Well, I am salad-challenged. My idea of a salad is romaine, carrot, pepper, onion, sunflower seeds and raisins. Dh's is romaine, fake cheese, and salad dressing. Can you help us make an interesting, tasty, hearty salad?!

[duckie1978]

Hmm my salads are fairly similar to yours:
usually red or green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, carrots, peppers, black olives, and whatever dressing we have on hand. Also we toss on some dried or fresh herbs (parsley, oregano, stuff like that). Sometimes we throw in garbanzo beans or kidney beans, sometimes nuts like walnuts or sunflower seeds. I have found that what can make or break a salad is the dressing.

Play around with the different types of lettuces. I prefer a mesclin mix or spring greens but I can afford that right now. Try some different veggies (radishes, different coloured bell peppers-yellow, orange, red have different flavours than the green, grape tomatoes, shaved carrots, red onions) or fruit. I am always hearing about salads made with mandarine oranges and with mango on them. What about adding some of the Lightlife or TVP "steak" or "chicken" strips? Cook them up and toss them on top of the salad, makes a whole meal in less than 10 minutes.

[alexis]

Can you get hold of lotus roots at an oriental market? Because I've had the most AMAZING salad at a resturant in China which had mesclin mix, paper thin slice of raw lotus roots and carrot shavings in it all tossed up in balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was AMAZING. And I think the sprigs of rosemary in the salad also added some flavor.

Also, you could toss cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms and other veggies in a mixture of olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, mixed herbs and lemon juice and then grill them for a grilled salad. Or you could just eat them that way. And you could do stuff like mixing greens with pears, grapes, walnuts, almonds, mandrin orange segments and stuff like that for really interesting gourmet stuff. And how about oriental salads like Thai papaya salads or something. There are TONS of things to do with salads so even if veg*ns are limited to 'only salads', we're not THAT limited.

[Christa]

With regular green salads, I like adding chopped apples & homemade croutons. We tend to have stale loaves of bread around a lot. I just chunk up the stale bread into bite sized pieces then saute it in olive oil with salt, garlic, herbs, tomatoes or anything else that strikes my fancy. Once the croutons start to brown, turn the heat off & add to the salad when cooled.

I also like spinach salad with tomatoes, avocado, marinated portabella mushrooms & polenta croutons. For the mushrooms, I marinate the portabellas in a balsamic vinagrette & then grill them or cook them in the oven until soft. Let the mushrooms cool until slightly warm or room temp. & add with the remaining vinagrette to the salad. For the croutons, buy a roll of premade polenta, cut into small squares, toss with garlic salt, oil & herbs. Put the poltenta chunks in a baking dish & cook under the broiler, turning until they are dried on the outside & maybe slightly browned. Once cooled, add these to the salad, too & toss. This salad is good slightly warm.

[annie7]

I like to start with a good spring mix of greens (NO ICEBERG).
I chop carrots and broccoli until they're almost microscopic.
I like raw fresh sliced mushrooms, black olive, various seeds, toasted pinenuts, and the big thing for me is grilled onions! I slice them thin and stick them under the broiler for a few minutes and toss them on the salad! I top it off with tomato and sprouts (bean or alfalfa) and I finally I like to sprinkle seasonings sometimes instead of dressing. (or salsa instead)

[beth]

I just made the yummiest salad today. It had napa cabbage, kale, romaine lettuce, shredded carrots, broccoli, broccoli sprouts, tomatoes, red bell peppers, slivered almonds, crushed walnuts, sunflower seeds, and raisins. And I put flax oil and lemon tahini goddess dressing on top. Usually I put avocado in it too, but I really just didn't feel up to chopping anything else today.
My mom makes a really good Asian pear salad.

[vegma]

Mmmmmmmmm! Thanks guys, er, I mean gals!