Firstly, salads should NEVER be boring, ever. I have a few tips to tell that will ensure your salad never remain boring. The key words I think of when choosing TOPPINGS to my salad are COLOUR, TEXTURE, FLAVOUR. Pretty simple, right? You want to maximize your utility of each category.
COLOUR: Think rainbow using fruits + veggies, these are just for toppings.
Red: bell pepper, blood orange, grapefruit, cherry tomatoes, raspberries, beets, swiss chard (stem), cherries, pomegranates, strawberries
Orange: orange (OBVI), carrots, cantaloupe, pumpkin, sweet potato, papaya, mangoes, peach,
Yellow: pineapple, korean sweet potato, yellow beets (BEAUTIFUL!), pickled radish (korean).
Green: Brocolli, cabbage types, green onions, leeks, cilantro, parsley, sprouts, avocado!
Blue: blueberries, raisins, grapes, purple figs, purple potato.
Purple: purple cabbage, plums, blackberries
You get the idea with colour, go WILD. Continuing on to TEXTURE, my favourite category, my favourite thing to do is to use different ways of cutting up veggies/fruits.
TEXTURE: Grate, Straight-slice, Mandolin-slice, food process, peel, spiralize and use scissors!
You may wonder how you could eat the veggies I've listed raw in a salad, as chunks of sweet potato seem slightly off-putting but, when you grate veggies you get an epic assortment of texture in your salad. Grate the carrots, the potato, then food process on the thinnest blade all cabbage types, you'll be surprised at how much more edible your bowl will become.
dried unsweetened coconut
sprouted chickpea hummus
babah ganouj (eggplant dip)
guacamole
artichoke hearts
pickles
red onions finely chopped
garlic grated/minced
grated lemon rind, orange rind
FLAVOUR: 2-step process for flavour.
I used to never enjoy the taste of onions or garlic, and honestly I still don't so much now, but whenever I use them in my salads I feel as if they excite and bring out everything else. [LFRV's, if you're reading this ignore the flavouring part.]
STEP 1-Take a big bowl and put your salad base in (kale, romaine, arugula, watercress, spinach, etc.) Dress appropriately with a citrus juice + oil + salt. I usually use himalayan or pink salt + grapefruit/lemon juice and EVOO. Mix that up, and let it sit while you prepare your toppings.
STEP 2-Take your sprouts, your grated veggies, your fruit assortment, and your crunchy/smooth topping and put on the side. Add all of them together and decorate over top of the preset salad base.
EQN SHEET:
colour + texture + flavour = epic toppings
citrus + oil + vinegar/salt = dressing
salad base + toppings = EPICNESS.
