Yesterday I had another ‘super salad’ as a main meal: it had a mix of leafy greens, tomatoes, red & spring onions, quinoa, cucumber, chickpeas, dried barberries (See photo below.). I added some boiled baby potatoes at the end. Very substantive/filling and tasty, and a nutritional powerhouse.
Just a quick note: Salads are often positioned simply as a ‘starter’ or ‘side dish’ (and that can work too), but I think they are heavily underrated- particularly if you consider you can add hearty ingredients such as whole grains or legumes to them; as well as nuts, seeds and rich dressings. They can be a very practical and easy-to-prepare ‘ main dish’, period- very tasty and good for health. One can be very creative in the mix - there are countless combinations one can make- so your taste buds will never get ‘bored’.
To turn a salad into a main dish you just need to make it in larger-than-usual volume (I use a large bowl - the kind of bowl people would normally use to serve salads for 2 or 3 more people). If you are careful with the dressing (e.g. I do not use oil) and with the starchy vegetables (like baby potatoes), they will tend to have low caloric density -so it will be difficult to overeat them (this is because of the high water content and low fat content in many plant-based foods, with only a few exceptions -e.g. nuts, seeds, avocados have relatively high fat content- they are important to add in one’s diet, but one has to be mindful of how much one eats).
For dessert: I had my 'mashed banana mix' - with nuts, dried berries, dates, cinammon, almond butter, dried coconut flakes and tahini. Plus: one persimmon. All very good!
